Pope Leo Thinks the Benedictine Tradition is Great (Part 1): Solidarity with the Poor

In the two major writings of his young pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has commended St. Benedict as an example for all people of good will. In Dilexi te Leo points out that the hospitality and vowed poverty of the monastery constitutes solidarity with the poor, whereas in Magnifica humanitas, he commends the integration of work and prayer as a sign of a rightly ordered life in the digital age.

First let’s look at Dilexi Te, a letter from the pope “to all Christians On the Love of the Poor.” In it, Pope Leo makes it clear what is on his mind: Catholic Social Doctrine broadly and those living in poverty in particular.

After encouraging the church to take up its responsibility to the poor, Leo develops an account of moral exemplars in the history of the Church who have taken the responsibility to the poor seriously (§35-§84). In the course of this history, he reminds us that the monastic traditions embody solidarity: the social principle that requires us to relate to the most vulnerable through brotherhood and sisterhood (§55).

Brothers and sisters put themselves in a position to see the injustice suffered by their siblings, and they respond by partaking in their siblings’ suffering and helping materially. Leo claims that the monastic tradition, by requiring its “brothers and sisters” to live in poverty and to help the poor, becomes a useful example for all.

Leo also finds solidarity in one of the most well-known passages of the Rule: “All guests who arrive should be received as Christ for he himself will say, ‘I was a stranger and you took me in’” (53:1). Isn’t that a strange sentence? And what does it have to do with solidarity in Dilexi te?

In Perspectives on the Rule of St. Benedict: Expanding Our Hearts In Christ, Aquinata Böckmann writes that the word for guests in Benedict’s Latin, hospites, might be easier to understand by looking back to its Greek equivalent, xenos: “Xenos in Greek (in Latin: peregrinus, hospes, hostis) means the stranger who may become either a threatening enemy (hostis), or a guest through love (hospes).” Benedict is writing about welcoming the unexpected stranger who is in need of hospitality. Through this fraternal welcome, both guest and host are transformed.

But that’s not all. The sentence starts out with “all guests” as its subject, but in the second half of the sentence, the subject becomes singular: Jesus. Shouldn’t Benedict have written, “just as Jesus himself said...” rather than “he himself will say?”

In writing the sentence this way, Benedict transforms the stranger into Christ. Böckmann again: “The presence of Christ is mysterious. Christ is no longer in need. Yet, although he as the head is perfect, he is yet poor in his members and dependent on shelter. The stranger and the poor in his members become a sacrament of Christ’s saving presence as they are Christ for us.”

So, the first Benedictine idea that Pope Leo XIV commends to all Christians is the witness of the Benedictine tradition to true hospitality, which reaches its fullness in solidarity with the poor.