Pope Leo condemns economies that marginalize the poor while the wealthy live in a bubble of luxury

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV criticized how the wealthy live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while poor people suffer on the margins, confirming in his first teaching document that he is in perfect lockstep with his predecessor Pope Francis on matters of social and economic injustice.

The Vatican on Thursday released the document, entitled “I have loved you,” which Francis had begun to write in his final months but never finished. Leo, who was elected in May, credited Francis with the text, cited him repeatedly, but said he had made the document his own and signed it.

The 100-page document traces the history of Christianity’s constant concern for poor people, from Biblical citations and the teaching of church fathers to the preaching of recent popes about caring for migrants, prisoners and victims of human trafficking.

Leo credits especially women’s religious orders with carrying out God’s mandate to care for the sick, feed the poor and welcome the stranger, and also praised lay-led popular movements advocating for land, housing and work for the society’s most disadvantaged.

The conclusion Leo draws is that the Catholic Church’s “preferential option for the poor” has existed from the start, is non-negotiable and is the very essence of what it means to be Christian. He calls for a renewed commitment to fixing the structural causes of poverty, while providing unquestioning charity to those who need it.

“When the church kneels beside a leper, a malnourished child or an anonymous dying person, she fulfills her deepest vocation: to love the Lord where he is most disfigured,” Leo writes.

Leo cites Francis frequently, including in some of the Argentine pope’s most-quoted talking points about the global “economy that kills” and criticism of trickle down economics. Francis made those points from the very start of his pontificate in 2013, saying he wanted a “church that is poor and for the poor.”

“God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest,” Leo writes.

Echoing Francis, Leo rails against the “illusion of happiness” derived from accumulating wealth. “Thus, in a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.”

Francis’ frequent criticism of capitalism angered many conservative and wealthy Catholics, especially in the United States, who accused the Argentine Jesuit of being a Marxist.

In a recent interview, Leo said such misdirected criticism cannot be leveled against him. “The fact that I am American means, among other things, people can’t say, like they did about Francis, ‘he doesn’t understand the United States, he just doesn’t see what’s going on,’” Leo told Crux, a Catholic site.

As a result, Leo’s embrace of Francis’ teaching on poverty and the church’s obligation to care for the weakest is a significant reaffirmation, especially in Leo’s first teaching document.

Vatican officials insisted that the text was fully Leo’s and declined to say how much Francis had written before he died.

“It's 100% Francis and it's 100% Leo,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, who runs the Vatican's development and migrants office and was a top Francis aide. Asked if the same conservatives who labeled Francis a Marxist or Communist will now accuse Leo of the same, Czerny noted that both are merely following the Gospel.

Such labels “say much more about the person who is using the label,” Czerny said. “The problem is not Pope Francis’ or Pope Leo’s. The problem is the person,” using such labels to reject the church's teaching.

Francis’ spirit was very much infused in the document and in its official presentation on Thursday.

In addition to Czerny, the news conference featured a rare appearance by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Polish prelate whom Francis entrusted with carrying out his personal acts of charity over the course of his pontificate. Under Krajewski's quiet eye, the Vatican installed showers for homeless people off St. Peter’s Square, provided COVID-19 vaccines for 6,000 migrants and people without access to Italy's health service, sent ambulances with medicine to Ukraine and hosted weekly luncheons for the hungry.

Krajewski said the document was proof that such gestures of charity toward the needy come straight from the Bible, recalling that Jesus didn't work 9-5 in an office, but rather went out and looked for people who needed him.

Krajewski regaled reporters with anecdotes of his behind-the-scenes dealings with Francis, who would jokingly reprimand him if his bank account had too much money in it because it meant he hadn't spent enough on poor people.

Leo signed the text on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century mendicant friar who renounced his wealth to live poor among the poor. The date was not coincidental.

The late Pope Francis named himself after the saint and one of the pontiff’s most important documents — “Fratelli Tutti” (Brothers All) — was itself published on the Oct. 4 feast day in 2020.

Leo, too, seems inspired by the saint’s example: As a young priest, the former Robert Prevost left the comforts of home to work as a missionary in Peru as a member of the Augustinian religious order, one of the other ancient mendicant orders that considers community, the sharing of communal property and service to others as central tenets of its spirituality.

“The fact that some dismiss or ridicule charitable works, as if they were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the church’s mission, convinces me of the need to go back and reread the Gospel, lest we risk replacing it with the wisdom of this world,” Leo writes.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski attends a press conference at the Vatican to present Pope Leo XIV's exhortation "Dilexi te"about love for the poor, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Cardinals Konrad Krajewski, left, and Michael Czerny attend a press conference at the Vatican to present Pope Leo XIV's exhortation "Dilexi te"about love for the poor, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Cardinal Michael Czerny attends a press conference at the Vatican to present Pope Leo XIV's exhortation "Dilexi te"about love for the poor, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV presides over a Mass for the participants in the jubilee of ordained people in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Leo XIV presides over a Mass for the participants in the jubilee of ordained people in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.

However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)