VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christian hope must move beyond comforting words to real responsibility and structural change to uplift the poor, Pope Leo XIV said in his message for the 2025 World Day of the Poor.
"We must never forget that we were saved in this hope, and need to remain firmly rooted therein," the pope wrote in the message, released June 13 and titled after Psalm 71: "You are my hope."
Marking the ninth annual observance of the world day, which will be celebrated Nov. 16, Pope Leo said that true hope is forged in hardship and strengthened by God's fidelity. "Amid life's trials, our hope is inspired by the firm and reassuring certainty of God's love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."
The pope warned against relying on wealth or power and said that "the poor can be witnesses to a strong and steadfast hope, precisely because they embody it in the midst of uncertainty, poverty, instability and marginalization."
Calling spiritual neglect the gravest poverty, Pope Leo cited Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"): "The worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care," stressing the need to share with the poor God's "friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith."
The pope urged all the faithful to embody the Gospel through service and solidarity. The city of God, he said, "impels us to improve the cities of men and women," and Christian hope is not passive optimism but a mandate to create "new signs of hope" through charity and justice.
He urged the church and society to recognize and support structures that support and uplift the poor. Hospitals and schools, he said, were established "to reach out to the most vulnerable and marginalized" and should be included in "every country's public policy, yet wars and inequalities often prevent this from happening."
Still, "signs of hope" persist in "care homes, communities for minors, centers for listening and acceptance, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and low-income schools" -- quiet efforts that often "go unnoticed and yet are so important for setting aside our indifference."
While acknowledging the good done through hospitals, shelters and soup kitchens, Pope Leo called for systemic reform. "Helping the poor is a matter of justice before a question of charity," he said, quoting St. Augustine: "It would be better if none were hungry."
Looking to the conclusion of the Holy Year 2025, Pope Leo said the closing of the Holy Door must not mean an end to action. Rather, in the life of the church the poor remain "creative subjects who challenge us to find novel ways of living out the Gospel today."
"It is my hope, then, that this Jubilee Year will encourage the development of policies aimed at combatting forms of poverty both old and new, as well as implementing new initiatives to support and assist the poorest of the poor," he wrote. " Labor, education, housing and health are the foundations of a security that will never be attained by the use of arms."
