A world that has become “heartless” and indifferent to greed and war, and a Church in need of revitalising its missionary joy must open themselves up to Christ’s infinite love, Pope Francis says in his new encyclical.

By contemplating Jesus’ Sacred Heart, the faithful can be filled with the “living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together toward a just, solidary and fraternal world,” the Pope wrote in his encyclical, Dilexit nos (‘He loved us’): on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.

The Vatican released the 28,000-word text yesterday.

While it is the Pope’s fourth encyclical, he wrote that it is meant to be understood in tandem with his previous two encyclicals, Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home and Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship.

“The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social encyclicals … is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ,” he wrote.

“For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognising the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home.”

The encyclical includes numerous reflections from the Bible, previous magisterial texts and the writings of saints and his fellow Jesuits to re-propose the centuries-old devotion to the whole Church.

“In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved,” the Pope wrote.

However, he wrote, “when we witness the outbreak of new wars, with the complicity, tolerance or indifference of other countries, or petty power struggles over partisan interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart.”

“It is heartbreaking,” he wrote, to see elderly women, who should be enjoying their golden years, experiencing the anguish, fear and outrage of war.

“To see these elderly women weep, and not feel that this is something intolerable, is a sign of a world that has grown heartless.”

“The most decisive question we can ask is, ‘Do I have a heart?’“ the Pope wrote.

Source: CNS