Pope Leo XIV’s message for the 9th World Day of the Poor has been published. The Day will be celebrated on Sunday, 16 November 2025, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The message, entitled "You, O Lord, are my hope" (Ps 71:5), is a strong call to live Christian hope as a concrete response to poverty in all its forms.

The Pope begins with the cry of the Psalmist, born of suffering yet anchored in trust in God, inviting the Church to rediscover poverty not as a hindrance but as a theological space of encounter with Christ. The poor, he affirms, “are not a distraction for the Church, but our most beloved brothers and sisters,” capable of revealing the truth of the Gospel through their lives.

In his message, Pope Leo XIV emphasizes that the most severe form of poverty is the absence of God, and that the Christian response cannot be reduced to acts of assistance alone: what is needed is an incarnated charity—rooted in listening, closeness, justice, and social transformation.

“Charity is the greatest social commandment,” the Pope recalls, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In this Jubilee Year, the World Day of the Poor becomes an urgent appeal to take real responsibility—so that the fruits of the Holy Year do not remain only internal but take shape in inclusive policies, renewed forms of volunteer service, and visible signs of hope: soup kitchens, family homes, community schools, and centers of welcome.

As UISG, we gratefully and wholeheartedly embrace this invitation. Our women religious communities, present in places of great fragility and conflict, recognize themselves as called to walk with the poor as sisters and mothers—not only as pastoral workers. With them, and not only for them, we believe another world is possible.

“The poor,” the Pope writes, “are creative subjects who challenge us to constantly find new ways to live the Gospel today.”

As we journey toward the Day, we commit ourselves not to let this call fall silent—so that every word and action of consecrated life may be born from listening to the voice of the least among us.

CLICK HERE to read the full message