Jim Sullivan, professor of economics and co-founder and director of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), sees Pope Leo’s first apostolic exhortation as a renewal of the Church’s call to love the poor not only through charity, but through the pursuit of justice as well. He calls this a “moral imperative” even, as poverty remains one of humankind’s greatest challenges despite decades of progress on the issue worldwide.
“Pope Leo emphasizes that every person deserves the dignity of opportunity and the chance to flourish,” Sullivan said.
In his exhortation, Pope Leo writes: “All the members of the People of God have a duty to make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve.”
Sullivan sees this as a reminder that “love for the poor must move us to act — and to act wisely.”
As the director of Notre Dame’s Poverty Initiative, Sullivan sees this exhortation as an opportunity to put words into action on a practical level through the work and research conducted at Notre Dame. “‘Dilexi Te’ reminds us that those in poverty are not merely recipients of care or study, but participants and teachers,” Sullivan said.
The researchers at LEO take this calling seriously. “We conduct research with communities, not to them,” Sullivan said. “Each partnership formed is an opportunity to not only analyze, but listen, and the evidence built is a powerful tool illuminating the inherent dignity of every person.”
Here at Notre Dame, Sullivan continued, we are called to cultivate “a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice and oppression that burden the lives of so many.” And, as a research university, one of the ways we fulfill that calling is by “working to create a world intolerant of poverty by expanding knowledge about how to solve it,” he said.
But this work demands great courage and an enormous amount of discipline and collaboration, he added. “And we do it that way because those we serve are worthy of our best efforts.”
As “Dilexi Te” affirms, Sullivan pointed out, “the care of the poor is not peripheral to the Church, but central to her life.”
“We share in that mission by forming students who see poverty in all its complexity and are equipped to address it with both intellect and compassion. Our students are among Notre Dame’s most powerful means of impact in the world. They are the next generation of leaders who will carry forward this call — to recognize the poor as part of our own family and to build a world where dignity, justice and hope flourish for all.”