Overview
- Dated Oct. 4 and released Oct. 9, the five‑chapter text is the new pope’s first magisterial act and places the poor at the heart of Church life.
- Leone XIV insists that love of God cannot be separated from compassion for the needy, framing care for the poor as essential to Christian faith.
- The exhortation completes work begun by Pope Francis and was sent to all bishops with a letter asking that it help the Church serve and bring the poor to Christ.
- It condemns an “economy that kills,” decries widening inequality and speculative finance, and highlights migrants, women facing violence, the malnourished, and educational exclusion as priorities.
- The text reaffirms the universal destination of goods and the social function of property, urging a clear denunciation of structural injustice as reporters describe it as a pastoral platform before a fuller social encyclical expected in 2026.