Abstract

Though not part of the corpus of Catholic social teaching, Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World merits attention from a social-ethical perspective. The other-directed quality of Christian holiness draws Francis into the social dimension of the Gospel. The text’s meditation on the Beatitudes and the Last Judgment scene of Matthew 25 tethers holiness to empathy and justice for those who suffer. It also critiques ideologies within the Church whose hierarchy of evils constitutes our holistic response to the call of Jesus. The article places its exposition of Gaudete et exsultate within the context of theological literature on holiness and the early reception of the text in the Church. While the apostolic exhortation has important social content, its passing references to the common good and politics and its lack of explicit treatment of nonviolence represent a missed opportunity to deepen its message about what it means to live a holy life today.