Various media reports indicate that Pope Leo is preparing his first apostolic exhortation and his first encyclical, to be published in the upcoming months.
According to Reuters, Pope Leo is writing an apostolic exhortation by the name of Dilexit te (He loved you), while other outlets have reported that he is also preparing an encyclical focused on AI and other social issues.
But what do we actually know about Pope Leo’s first published documents? The Pillar takes a look.
According to several media reports, the pope will publish his first apostolic exhortation in early October.
Many reports indicate that Leo has picked up an apostolic exhortation on the needs of the poor, begun by Pope Francis in early 2025 by the name of Dilexit te, echoing the name of Francis’ last encyclical, Dilexit nos (He loved us).
That would mean that Leo is following in the footsteps of Francis.
In the early months of his pontificate, Francis published Lumen fidei, an encyclical about the virtue of faith that Pope Benedict XVI had almost finished before resigning in February 2013.
A few months before his death, Pope Francis had said he was preparing an apostolic exhortation dedicated to children. And it had long been rumored that a first draft of an apostolic exhortation on the poor, one of Francis’ key themes, was ready.
It is unknown whether Leo might unify both topics into a single exhortation, leave the exhortation on children for later, or simply shelve it.
Beyond Reuters’ report and long-standing rumors, not much is known about the document itself.
When Francis published Lumen fidei three months into his pontificate, he readily admitted that most of the job was actually done by his predecessor, even saying it was written “by four hands.”
“[Benedict] himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own,” Francis said in the encyclical.
Therefore, many believe a similar situation might happen with Dilexit te. While it will bear Leo’s name, many believe it will be mostly the doing of Francis himself.
New popes frequently end up continuing or publishing a work of their immediate predecessor. Leo himself had already resumed Francis’ cycle of catechesis on the theme “Jesus Christ, our hope,” drawing mostly on descriptions of works of art as Francis had been doing.
After John Paul II’s death in 2005, Benedict XVI continued with JPII’s meditations on the Psalms and the Vespers, while JPII himself followed John Paul I’s cycle on Christian virtues.
Nevertheless, Pope Leo has not been shy in stopping or reworking drafts or documents that were ready during Francis’ pontificate or commissioned by him.
The clearest example of this is a document on Mariology prepared by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith. In January, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the DDF, had said that the dicastery was preparing a number of documents, including one on “some Mariological questions,” as a follow-up of the 2024 ‘Norms for proceeding in the discernment of alleged supernatural phenomena.’
According to various media reports, the pope did not approve the DDF’s draft on the document on Mariological questions, instead requesting significant changes. The document was rumored to deal both with Marian apparitions and, according to Vatican sources, other theological issues such as the doctrine of the co-redemptrix.
The fact that Dilexit te had originally been rumored to be published in September while now most reports point at an October release might mean that the changes in the document have been more than aesthetic, or that Francis did not finish a first full draft of the document.
Either situation might mean the final document may have a significant Leonine contribution rather than simply a polishing of Francis’ work.
Since the early days of his pontificate, Leo made it clear that one of his priorities would be offering an ecclesial response to the ethical, societal, and spiritual challenges of artificial intelligence.
In one of his first public apparitions as a pope, Leo explained that he chose his name in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who developed Catholic social teaching during the Industrial Revolution, while saying that he will seek to offer a response to the challenges of AI.
Ever since, it has been widely expected that one of his first major documents would be about AI.
According to media reports, the pope is aiming to publish an encyclical on various issues, including AI, peace, and the unity of the Church, in early 2026.
The Vatican has hosted several events on AI, including an upcoming conference on AI and medicine to be held in the Pontifical Academy for Life in November, sources close to the Academy told The Pillar.
This would be consistent with a brainstorming phase of what would be the first document on AI penned by a pope, following last year’s DDF and Dicastery for Catholic Education’s joint “Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence.”