Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Matthew Petrusig, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute

and the host of the Word on Fire show. Thank you for joining us. Pope Benedict XVIth memorably summarized

the work of the Catholic Church by identifying what he called her three essential marks. One, worshipping,

two, evangelizing, and three, caring for the poor. It including care for the poor at the heart of the church's identity,

Benedict was highlighting a fundamental truth of the faith.

That his successor, Pope Leo XIV, recently reaffirmed

in his first apostolic exhortation, delixite.

That truth is that following Christ necessarily, necessarily

entails working to protect and advance the authentic good of the least among us. It's not optional.

Poverty, however, is not only a complex problem to address economically, not to mention

sociologically, psychologically, and culturally,

it is also often caught up in political and ideological currents, both domestically and internationally, that run counter to a Catholic understanding of human dignity and the common good.

So what then is the authentically Catholic way of caring for the poor?

What does it mean to say that Catholicism has a preferential

option for the poor? How, moreover, can the church coherently both advocate for reducing poverty

on the one hand, while praising and embracing voluntary poverty on the other? Here to shed light

on these and related questions is Bishop Robert Barron.

Thank you. on these and related questions is Bishop Robert Barron. Bishop, welcome back to the studio.

Thanks, man.

So today we're talking about the distinctively Catholic understanding of what it means to care for the poor, especially in light of Pope Leo's recent, his first, his first apostolic exhortation, delixite, which means on the love for the poor.

But before we get into all that, what have you been up to recently?

Well, as we record these words, I'm about to leave, actually tomorrow for the

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