India, Nov. 9 -- Pope Leo XIV's first Apostolic Exhortation, "On Love for the Poor," released on October 4, 2025, although written in a broader context, offers important reminders for Catholic health care in India and around the world. In this Exhortation, Pope Leo presents Pope Francis's unfinished work and adds his own reflections.

We are reminded that "Love for the Lord ... is one with love for the poor" (Dilexi Te 5) and that the cry of the poor continues unabated. This cry "challenges our lives, societies, political and economic systems, and, not least, the Church (DT 9). We are also reminded that forms and faces of poverty - "... the poverty of those who lack the material means of subsistence, the poverty of those who are marginal...