Pope Francis had an extraordinary gift for language and images: “The church is a field hospital after a battle,” “We have created a throw-away culture which discards even lives,” “Mercy is God’s name,” “A self-referential church is sick,” “Go out to the peripheries!” He urged everyone to remember the three T’s: Tierra, Techo, y Trabajo (translated into English as three L’s: Land, Lodging, and Labor). He called them sacred rights and invoked them repeatedly whenever he addressed the World Meeting of Popular Movements, an annual international gathering of small community-based organisations working for justice. His 3 T’s or 3 L’s became a battle cry for social justice and minimum standards of living.
Francis first used the three T’s image in 2014 (here, the English translation is slightly different):
“This meeting of ours responds to a very concrete desire – something that any father and mother would want for their children – a desire for what should be within everyone’s reach, namely land, housing, and work. However, nowadays, it is sad to see that land, housing, and work are ever more distant for the majority. It is strange, but if I talk about this, some say that the pope is a communist. They do not understand that love for the poor is at the center of the Gospel. Land, housing and work, it is the social teaching of the church.”
Francis echoed this theme in a variety of ways in Evangelii Gaudium, Laudato Si’, and Fratelli Tutti. Applying it concretely, he warmly embraced our FamVin Homeless Alliance and its 13 Houses Project. He inaugurated the project during a crowded audience in St. Peter’s Square in 2017. During a later audience in 2022, he blessed a sculpture called “Sheltering,” created by the Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz, which symbolizes our project’s goal of reducing or eliminating homelessness. At a third audience on November 17, 2024, he blessed symbolic keys for thirteen homes to kick off our 13 Houses Jubilee Project, “Pilgrims of Hope,” while also offering the Vatican’s financial help in building homes in Syria. Francis coined the three T’s image himself, but the principle that underlies it is the universal destination of material goods, emphasized in the first social encyclical, Rerum Novarum, written by Leo XIII in 1891. Over the 134 years since then, popes have explained this principle and developed it. In Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II stated forcefully that this principle, which subordinates private property to urgent communal need, is the “first principle of the whole ethical and social order” (No. 19). Techo, literally “roof,” means not just shelter, but a real home with clean water and adequate sanitation, along with health care and educational and job opportunities. Francis dreamed aloud in 2021: “Continue to promote your agenda of land, work, and housing. Continue to dream together. And thank you, thank you very much, thank you for letting me dream with you.”
In Laudato Si’ (n. 152), Francis spoke eloquently about homelessness:
“Lack of housing is a grave problem in many parts of the world, both in rural areas and in large cities, since state budgets usually cover only a small portion of the demand. Not only the poor, but many other members of society as well, find it difficult to own a home. Having a home has much to do with a sense of personal dignity and the growth of families. This is a major issue for human ecology. […] Creativity should be shown in integrating rundown neighborhoods into a welcoming city: “How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralyzing mistrust, integrate those who are different, and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive are those cities which, even in their architectural design, are full of spaces which connect, relate, and favor the recognition of others!”
Our new Pope Leo XIV’s background is rich: an Augustinian friar, a missionary in Peru, Provincial Superior in Chicago, Prior General in Rome, missionary again in Peru, named a bishop there, and then called back to Rome by Pope Francis as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. His choice of name serves as a reminder of the Catholic Church’s “social teaching,” which is usually regarded as beginning with Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. On May 19, 2025, less than two weeks after his election, Pope Leo cited Fratelli Tutti, urging an ecumenical gathering to say “no” to an economy that impoverishes people and the Earth and “yes” to integral human development.
While he was still Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, where our Vincentian Family has a strong presence, Pope Leo blessed a 13 Houses project in the Lambayeque region and emphasized how important adequate housing is: 13 Houses Projects in collaboration with the Congregation of the Mission.
It is already clear that Pope Leo, like Pope Francis, will have a strong social justice agenda. He can be expected to continue the Church’s commitment to the main concerns of Pope Francis, like listening to all by using a synodal methodology, emphasizing the promotion of peace and justice (as he did in his first address after being elected), insisting on the dignity and rights of refugees, and showing compassion for the marginalized.
