Overview

• The exhortation, published October 9 and signed on October 4, marks León XIV’s first major magisterial text and sets a preferential option for the poor as a nonnegotiable priority.
• It delivers a sharp critique of neoliberal market doctrines, urges a stronger public role in protecting the common good, cites Gaudium et Spes and John Maynard Keynes, and affirms the social function of private property including rights in cases of extreme need.
• The pope details practical steps for migrants and refugees through reception centers and border missions, urges efforts to welcome, promote, protect and integrate newcomers, and recalls tragedies such as the Mediterranean deaths symbolized by Alan Kurdi.
• León XIV warns that courting elites or sidelining the marginalized risks the Church’s 'dissolution' and 'spiritual worldliness,' rejects meritocratic narratives that blame the poor, and criticizes pseudoscientific defenses of unfettered markets.
• Positioning his message in continuity with Francis, the pope paired the release with outreach to U.S. labor leaders, Catholic Charities networks, and Bishop Mark Seitz, describing migrants as 'missionaries of hope.'