Introductory Commentary From Vicki Yamasaki
In this penetrating critique of Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, Professor Timothy J.A. O’Donnell warns that the document signals a troubling theological shift. From a traditional Catholic vantage, Dilexi Te moves the Church’s center of gravity—from Divine Revelation to social engagement, from the supernatural to the sociological, and from Sacred Doctrine to sentiment. O’Donnell contends that this shift risks promoting a moralism divorced from conversion and Christ-centered theology, echoing Benedict XVI’s warning against efforts to “save the world by its own effort.”
The exhortation’s heavy emphasis on structural injustice and economic exclusion, O’Donnell argues, veers dangerously close to Marxist analysis. By adopting language such as “structures of exclusion” and “systems that kill,” Dilexi Te risks reframing the Church’s mission in terms of class struggle and material liberation, rather than salvation and sanctification. As O’Donnell puts it, the document “echoes liberationist language… without the careful metaphysical distinctions that protected earlier papal teaching from Marxist or materialist interpretations.” This rhetorical shift, he warns, could recast the Church as a political or ideological movement rather than a sacramental and truth-bearing body.
Most provocatively, Dilexi Te urges that the Church be “shaped by the poor,” a phrase O’Donnell sees as an ecclesiological inversion that subordinates doctrine to sociological categories. If the Church’s identity is redefined by social service rather than divine worship, it risks becoming a secular NGO—an organization driven by empathy and activism, but untethered from its supernatural mission to save souls. The critique underscores that true Christian charity must be ordered toward eternal salvation, not merely temporal relief.
Ultimately, O’Donnell calls for a reintegration of caritas and veritas—charity with truth, mercy with conversion, and service with worship. Without this doctrinal anchor, he warns, the Church’s witness may devolve into sentimental activism, losing its evangelical power and theological integrity.
When Pope Leo XIV released his first apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te (“I Have Loved You”), it was greeted with enthusiasm across much of the Catholic world. Written in the pastoral style of his predecessor, it calls the Church to renew her love for the poor, to reject indifference, and to embody mercy in concrete social witness. The document’s warmth, its biblical cadence, and its appeal to conscience are unmistakable. It speaks to a wounded and weary world in language that is simple, compassionate, and accessible—qualities that many find refreshing after decades of theological polarization.
Yet for those rooted in the tradition of perennial Catholic teaching, Dilexi Te also raises serious questions. Beneath its lyrical calls to solidarity lies an uneasy theological shift: from the primacy of Divine Revelation to the primacy of social engagement, from the Supernatural to the sociological, from Sacred Doctrine to sentiment. It risks advancing what Benedict XVI once described as “a moralism that seeks to save the world by its own effort,” where compassion becomes detached from conversion and charity is stripped of its Christological core.
This essay does not deny the noble intentions or pastoral sensitivity of the Holy Father. Rather, it seeks to engage Dilexi Te critically, through the lens of traditional Catholic theology and the social encyclicals that preceded it—from Rerum Novarum to Quadragesimo Anno and Caritas in Veritate. Its purpose is not to condemn but to clarify: to discern where continuity with the Church’s doctrinal patrimony is maintained, and where ambiguity clouds the supernatural horizon. For a Church that truly loves the poor must also love the Truth, for only truth can make charity Divine.
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