Introduction: A Church of and for the Poor

William T. Cavanaugh introduces this special issue of Vincentian Heritage by reflecting on Pope Francis’s exhortation in Evangelii Gaudium: “I want a Church which is poor and for the poor.” In other words, it is not enough to advocate for the poor; the Church itself must be poor. Cavanaugh summarizes the obstacles that the world faces in fulfilling these goals and explains in more detail what it means for the Church to become poor. He also points out that, globally speaking, the Church is made up of poor people, that it is a position of privilege to “aspir[e] to change our own lives and those of others,” and that “Evangelii Gaudium is primarily addressed to the non-poor, exhorting us to grow closer to the excluded.” This issue is an attempt to bridge that gap. The essays in this issue are summarized. They were a series of talks given in April 2023 at a DePaul University conference titled “Becoming a Church of the Poor: The Vincentian Charism and Reform.”