Pope Leo urges leaders not to leave poor behind

Pope Leo XIV decried poverty on Sunday, urging world leaders and Catholics to reach out to marginalised people, as the Church celebrated a “Jubilee of the Poor”.

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The US pope has made social justice a key theme of his papacy, now in its sixth month since being made head of the world’s Catholics in May following the death of Pope Francis.

The Church, Pope Leo said during a mass at St Peter's Basilica, is “still wounded by old and new forms of poverty”, but “hopes to be ‘mother of the poor, a place of welcome and justice”.

Sunday marked a special Jubilee of the Poor, one of many such celebrations during the holy year, which has drawn pilgrims from around the world. It fell on the World Day of the Poor, an annual observance begun by Pope Francis in 2017.