In his message for the World Day of the Poor (Sunday November 15), Pope Leo XIV invites the Church to an examination of conscience: “Are we a sign of a God who is a refuge for the poor?”
How much more are we called to do – in our communities, in our nations – “on behalf of the poor and for their liberation.”
Echoing the words of his predecessor, Pope Francis, he reminds us that “we are the Lord’s Church, a Church of the poor?”
When we look at the Church in England and Wales, is this the Church we see, a Church of the poor?
He quotes from his first exhortation, Dilexi te, with an even more direct challenge: "God shows a preference for the poor: the Lord’s words of hope and liberation are addressed first of all to them. Therefore, even in their poverty or weakness, no one should feel abandoned.
“And the Church, if she wants to be Christ’s Church, must be a Church of the Beatitudes, one that makes room for the little ones and walks poor with the poor, a place where the poor have a privileged place” (#21).
Pope: The Lord is refuge of the poor
