In Looking to “the Poor,” We Look to Christ – Letter from Our Executive Director

Dear Members, Partners, and Friends, 

On October 8th, one day before the publication of Dilexi te, Pope Leo’s first major written document, our USCMA Jubilee of Mission pilgrimage led us through the Holy Door of St. Mary Major Basilica, the final resting place of Pope Francis. A few days prior, we had returned to Rome from Assisi, where we’d visited and prayed at sites associated with the lives of Sts. Francis and Clare. In Dilexi te, Pope Leo addresses each of these figures by name—figures who found themselves transformed through encounter with Christ at the economic and social peripheries. Each, in turn, collaborated with the Spirit to transform the Church through love. 

Many words have already been written about Dilexi te, this brief but challenging document which Pope Leo addresses “to all Christians on love for the poor.” Some have lauded its prioritization of Catholic Social Teaching in the Church’s mission; others have noted the clear continuity with the vision of Pope Francis (who began drafting Dilexi te prior to his death). While this is important analysis, I pray that we all might, first and foremost, grapple with the profound invitation this document lays before us as the People of God: not only to regard and serve “the poor”—which, in Leo’s estimation, includes both “those who lack material means of subsistence” as well as the “socially marginalized” and “those who have no rights, no space, [and] no freedom,” among others (DT 9)—but to center them as “the very heart of God” (DT 8) through whom every disciple and the entire Church is called to deep encounter and radical, ongoing conversion. 

In directing our gaze to the peripheries, Leo, a longtime missioner from the United States to an impoverished city in Peru, directs our gaze to Jesus. In Dilexi te, the Matthew 25 imperative to respond to Christ’s presence in “the least of these” is “not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history.” (DT 5) Similarly, in an echo of the revelation St. Francis himself received before the Cross of San Damiano, Leo reminds us that “the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society.” (DT 7) 

I am hopeful that Pope Leo’s (and Pope Francis’) words in this exhortation will inspire within us new understanding and renewed missionary commitment. As a community of faith leaders, I pray also that it might encourage us to remain steadfast in our commitment to living and proclaiming the global, compassionate and inclusive mission of God, boldly inviting the entire Church to outward-looking, socially conscious renewal. 

In mission and solidarity, 

Kevin Foy
Executive Director 

Other Encounter Updates from November 2025:

Authentic Church: Leading in an Age of Crisis
Annual Members Meeting
Jubilee Pilgrimage Recap
Women Religious as Global Migrants
World Mission News