‘We were made to love and be loved,’ Pope Francis writes in latest encyclical

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Addressing a world faced with consumerism, division and artificial intelligence, Pope Francis urged faithful to “return to the heart” in his new encyclical, “Dilexit Nos” (“He Loved Us”), published on Thursday (Oct. 24).

“In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fiber of our being, we were made to love and to be loved,” the pope wrote.

This is the fourth encyclical by Pope Francis, following “Lumen Fidei,” co-written with his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI; the so-called green encyclical, “Laudato Si’”; and “Fratelli Tutti.” The pope announced the new document in June, the month traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The new document’s publication comes in the 350^th anniversary year of the first visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673. For 17 years, the French nun had visions of a fiery heart surrounded by thorns, meant to signify the ongoing suffering of Christ because of sin and lack of faith.

The encyclical, divided into five chapters, draws on past reflections on the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Catholic saints and popes that urge a conversion of all believers and that the pope hopes can cure the world of violence and suffering. In some sections of the document, Francis speaks directly to the reader.

“The pope’s message to the church and the entire human family, rather than being merely focused on the social aspect, as it has been sometimes clumsily described, is born from a single source, that is explicitly presented here: Christ Lord and his love for all humanity,” said Archbishop Bruno Forte, a theologian, who presented the document at the Vatican on Thursday.

Forte said this encyclical should be taken as a synthesis of everything that the pope has tried to describe and achieve in his previous writings and gestures.

The first chapter, “The Importance of the Heart,” says human feeling has been cast aside throughout history in favor of “reason, will or freedom.” The technocratic societies of today, the pope wrote, favor the mind over the heart and risk turning people into “insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of the market.”

This can be seen in the wars and conflicts in the world today, he added, where some “may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart.” Francis described the pain of mothers losing their children to war as “a sign of a world that has grown heartless.”

“In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity,” Francis wrote. Unlike the mind and the will, he continued, the heart cannot be easily swayed or manipulated.

“The world can change beginning with the heart,” Francis wrote.

In the second chapter, the pope laid out examples of Jesus showing “closeness, compassion, and tender love” especially toward outcasts in society, including tax exactors, prostitutes and the disabled. “He encourages us to overcome our fear and to realize that, with him at our side, we have nothing to lose,” he wrote.

Francis highlighted previous teaching, saying that believers are not forced to venerate the formal images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, commonly depicting Christ holding a fiery heart pierced by thorns and bearing a cross. Nor are Catholics are compelled to believe the visions of saints, though “they are rich sources of encouragement and can prove greatly beneficial,” the encyclical says.

The third chapter focuses on how the Sacred Heart can renew spirituality, especially among pastors who can get “excessively caught up in external activities, structural reforms that have little to do with the Gospel, obsessive reorganization plans, worldly projects, secular ways of thinking and mandatory programs.”

In the next chapter, the pope showcases examples of Catholic spirituality, many of them involving women, that have focused on the Sacred Heart and the wound where Jesus was pierced by a lance during his crucifixion. Quoting the writings of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the pope meditated on the possibility of receiving forgiveness regardless of one’s sins and criticized those “moralizers who want to keep a tight rein on God’s mercy.”

The encyclical’s final chapter, “Love for Love,” showcases the humanitarian and missionary spirit that can derive from devotion to the Sacred Heart and explained the ideal of Christian reparations. “In union with Christ, amid the ruins we have left in this world by our sins, we are called to build a new civilization of love,” Francis wrote.

The pope proposed a transformation, with faithful repairing their own hearts and sins and learning how to repair those of others, and he urged missionaries to “feel bound to share this love that has changed their lives.”

“Dilexit Nos” follows the pope’s previous writings aimed at solidifying a Catholic framework for building a better world, one marked by fraternity, dialogue and respect. With pastoral and poetic language, the 87-year-old pope wrote an appeal to build a new generation of believers capable of overcoming the temptations of modern society and technology and speaking from the heart.

“We are constantly being pushed to keep buying, consuming and distracting ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs,” Francis wrote. “The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, yet only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for a gratuitous love.”