Rome (Italy). Sunday 16 November 2025, marks the IX World Day of the Poor, established by Pope Francis in 2017, at the end of the Jubilee of Mercy, “so that throughout the world Christian communities may become an increasingly more and better the concrete sign of Christ’s charity for the least and neediest,” adding to the Days established previously, “an element of exquisitely evangelical completion, that is, the predilection of Jesus for the poor.”
“You, my Lord, are my hope” (Ps 71:5) is the theme of the Day 2025. It is to be remembered with the words of the psalmist flowing from a heart oppressed by grave difficulties, that those who hope in the Lord do not remain disappointed, “We cannot forget that we have been saved in this hope, in which we need to remain rooted,” says Pope Leo XIV in his Message.
This is why the poor, “can become a witness to a strong and reliable hope, precisely because it is professed in a precarious living condition, made up of deprivation, fragility, and marginalization. they do not count on the certainties of power and possessing. On the contrary, they suffer them and are often victims of them. Their hope can only rest elsewhere. Recognizing that God is our first and only hope, we too make the transition between ephemeral hopes and lasting hope. Faced with the desire to have God as a companion on the road, riches are scaled back, because the true treasure we really need is discovered.”
Before the greater Good, which is the desire to have God as a companion on the road, riches are scaled back. The Holy Father observes that the majority of the poor in fact, possess a “special openness to faith” and that in reality “the most serious poverty is not knowing God,” as Pope Francis also recalled, highlighting the lack of spiritual attention that discriminates against the poor.
Pope Leo emphasizes that the day providentially comes now, at the end of the jubilee year:
“It is no coincidence that the World Day of the Poor is celebrated towards the end of this year of grace. When the Holy Door is closed, we will have to guard and transmit the divine gifts that have been poured into our hands throughout an entire year of prayer, conversion, and testimony. The poor are not objects of our pastoral care, but creative subjects who provoke us to always find new forms to live the Gospel today.
Faced with the succession of ever-new waves of impoverishment, there is a risk of getting used to it and resigning ourselves. We meet poor or impoverished people every day and sometimes it can happen that we ourselves have less, losing what once seemed safe to us: a home, adequate food for the day, access to health care, a good level of education and of information, religious freedom, and freedom of expression.”
From this consideration, his concrete hope, “I therefore hope that this Jubilee Year will encourage the development of policies to combat ancient and new forms of poverty, as well as new initiatives to support and help the poorest of the poor. Work, education, home, health are the conditions of a security that will never assert itself with weapons. I congratulate the initiatives that already exist and the commitment that is made every day internationally by a large number of men and women of good will.”
In order to prepare for and live this Day to the fullest, Dicastery for Evangelization makes available a Module in several languages. It should also not be forgotten that on 4 October 2025, on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, “the poor man of Assisi”, Pope Leo XIV published an Apostolic Exhortation on love for the poor, Dilexi Te.
On Sunday the 16th – as part of the Jubilee of the Poor, held in Rome from November 14 to 16 – Pope Leo will preside over Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at 10:00 a.m. The Basilica will exceptionally house the relics of Saint Benedict Giuseppe Labre, known as “the vagabond of God”, normally preserved in the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti. Labre is a saint who had no fixed abode, and who had chosen the Colosseum as his home.
The Mass will be attended by the poor and associations committed daily to accompanying those most in need, 1,300 of whom will be guests in Paul VI Hall for lunch with the Pope, organized by the Dicastery for the Service of Charity. At the end of lunch, everyone will receive a backpack with basic necessities, thanks to the support of the Vincentian Fathers who, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of its foundation, wanted to offer a concrete gesture of closeness.
Solidarity initiatives also include those promoted, as every year, by the Dicastery for Evangelization, which will continue to support less well-off families through, for example, paying their bills and vouchers for supermarket purchases.
