How Do You Define Being Poor and Living in Poverty Today?

By Tom Dwyer

“In fact, there are many forms of poverty: the poverty of those who lack material means of subsistence, the poverty of those who are socially marginalized and lack the means to give voice to their dignity and abilities, moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a condition of personal or social weakness or fragility, the poverty of those who have no rights, no space, no freedom.” ¹

This is how Pope Leo XIV hears the “cry of the poor,” as he writes in his recent and first Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, or On Love for the Poor.  If that is Pope Leo’s take, what is yours?  In this starting month of 2026, designated Poverty Awareness Month, what do you hear and see when you look out on the landscape of our communities – national, state, town, and neighborhood?

Like me, you have undoubtedly passed many homeless persons sleeping on a cold slab of sidewalk cement with cut-up, decaying cardboard boxes pretending to be a tent or a mattress.  Or perhaps as you walked by, you noticed a disheveled and scruffy-looking person crouched into a little ball inside the doorway stoop of a business closed for the day.  This Fall, on a street in a world-class city of a foreign country, l passed a young mother huddling herself and an infant inside her coat against the incoming night without even the shelter of cardboard boxes or a doorway stoop. I shivered, though the night was not yet that cold.

“If I encounter a person sleeping outdoors on a cold night, I can view him or her as an annoyance, an idler, an obstacle in my path, a troubling sight, a problem for politicians to sort out, or even a piece of refuse cluttering a public space. Or I can respond with faith and charity, and see in this person a human being with a dignity identical to my own…” ²

How many of us truly consider this person, as Pope Leo writes above (again in Dilexi Te), as a human person with a dignity identical to my own? Can we see ourselves there, or can we see that person where we are?  Is that what is meant by a “dignity identical to my own?”

The late Pope Francis used to rail against the “throw-away culture.”  He was not referencing recycling or wasteful product packaging, but society’s tendency to treat the marginalized as debris to be disposed of.  Pope Leo sees the same.

One of the most challenging moral dilemmas for all Christians, especially our spiritual leaders, is explaining to the poor that God loves them. Liberation Theology, now back in favor, has this question at its core. Though the explanations may be phrased in many ways, it is crucial to understand that the answer is not abstract. It must be concrete, or, in other words, it must be shown through personal accompaniment and encounter with the poor.  Liberation theologian Father Gustavo Guitierrez (1928-2024) famously puts it this way: “You say you care about the poor. Then tell me, what are their names?”

In Dilexi Te, Pope Leo declares similarly, starkly, and unambiguously:

“The Doctor of Grace saw caring for the poor as concrete proof of the sincerity of faith. Anyone who says they love God and has no compassion for the needy is lying.” ³

Here is where the dictum “See, Judge, and Act” of Catholic Social Teaching comes into play.

We must not only see the ills; we must judge the situation, though not from a point of moral superiority or condescension.  Then, we act!  There are myriad ways to act, and each in its own way will complement the others.  It is the failure to act that gives the lie to any postures we assume or statements we make that pretend we care.

For those who believe in a “faith that does justice,” Dilexi Te, already quoted here three times,  should be a “must-read,” perfect for Poverty Awareness Month.  Its 27 pages are filled with insight, inspiration, challenges, and bluntness.   Next Tuesday, we will consider other aspects of poverty and care for the poor as articulated in Dilexi Te.

In the interim, click here to read Dilexi Te in a form that may be helpful; it is my copy, on which I have highlighted passages that I find most compelling, thought-provoking, and engaging. We encourage you to write A Faith That Does Justice with your thoughts.  We will share them in a community forum.

You might want to comment on where you see poverty today  (the first quote), or about the Pharisees of today (those who lie when they say they care about the poor), or about how you or we show or should show that we care for the poor with concrete actions, or our personal reaction to poor persons – say, for examples: an adult drug addict trying to sell to a teen; a single mother with seven children fathered by three men; a homeless person who trails us for a half-block asking for money; or an unemployed but able-bodied father who can’t hold a job to support his family because his anger repeatedly boils over at work.

Pope Leo challenges us in another way.  He asks us to re-examine the definition of “what it means to be poor” today.

“The claim that the modern world has reduced poverty is made by measuring poverty with criteria from the past that do not correspond to present-day realities. In other times, for example, lack of access to electric energy was not considered a sign of poverty, nor was it a source of hardship. Poverty must always be understood and gauged in the context of the actual opportunities available in each concrete historical period.”⁴

Do you concur?  Is the lack of reliable electricity in a home in the United States a sign of being poor, all things being equal?  How about in other areas of the world?  And what about the lack of access to the Internet?  What about a person or a family’s lack of fundamental health care coverage?  Do these signify being poor?  Are these matters to which we are called to respond?

In short, what does love for the poor or the preferential option for the poor mean in today’s world?  The “preferential option for the poor” principle, much like the “Black Lives Matter” slogan, used to trouble me a bit.  I wondered if this implied disregard for others who are not poor or not black.  Are we not all to be treated equally and without favor before God and man?  Then I heard this story, which I paraphrase below to be personal to me in my role as a grandfather.

On a few occasions, after mustering her intestinal fortitude and probably being desperate if truth be told, a daughter of mine has dared to entrust her young children to me (without my wife, no less) for their care for a day or half-day, once even an overnight!  Each time, I am happy to report, I have returned the children to her not appreciably worse for the experience, generally happy, and in one piece.  But during the day, I am quite conscious that I am paying far more attention to the 3-year-old than the 7-year-old.  Is that because I love the 7-year-old less?  Of course not. It is because I recognize that the 3-year-old is much more vulnerable and needs my attention to thrive, perhaps even to survive.

If we say we truly love the poor and subscribe to the principle of the preferential option, how do we show it?  Let’s really ponder that question during Poverty Awareness Month.  Let’s make it real and not abstract.  Write to us at editorialteam@faith-justice.org with your thoughts so we can have a vibrant exchange on this vital matter.

¹Dilexi Te, Paragraph 9

²Dilexi Te, Paragraph 106

³Dilexi Te, Paragraph 45

⁴Dilexi Te, Paragraph 13

Tom Dwyer is the President and Executive Director of A Faith That Does Justice. He writes and speaks frequently about the imperatives of faith-filled social justice in building the common good and guiding our responses to political questions.