Pope Francis was working on an exhortation about the Church’s love for the poor when his earthly journey ended. The text remained unfinished —a seed awaiting new life. Dilexi te (“I have loved you”, Rev 3:9) is the title he had chosen, and it is now completed by Pope Leo XIV, who has taken it up as the continuation of a living dialogue between two hearts united in the same Gospel vision.
This document is not merely an addition; it is a spiritual handover. In it, we hear Francis’s last heartbeat for the poor and Leo’s first response as Pastor: to love as Christ loves—tenderly, concretely, from below.
Reading Dilexi te is to witness a divine continuity of mercy, a call to discover that love for the poor is the very place where God reveals His face.
📖 Read it here: Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te (English)