The poor are not “sacraments”: they are sinners like all, in need of sacraments for salvation

N.B. Saint Augustine was neither a modernist, nor a heretic. He sought clarity, for the sake of truth, not confusion to plant a false gospel. The poor are sinners as are we all, and all in need of sacraments, without the grace of which none can be saved. Without the sacraments we are all poor, none poorer, for death strips us completely of everything but grace, the only riches we can take with us.

Further, accidental poverty which is rejected as an evil does not avail as a virtue. Evangelical poverty, however, voluntarily embraced, for example as in the case of Saint Francis in imitation of Christ, as a vow of religious life in community, can be a source of sanctification.

From Gloria.tv:

Leo XIV Attributes a Quote from Liberation Theology to St Augustine

In his first Apostolic Exhortation 'Dilexi Te', Leo XIV writes the dubious line:

“For Augustine, the poor are not just people to be helped, but the sacramental presence of the Lord.”

There is no footnote to substantiate the quote of an alleged "sacramental presence".

Augustine spoke about a real encounter with Christ in the poor, but he did not refer to this presence as sacramental.

Applying the term 'sacrament' to social issues was popularised by liberation theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff and the Jesuit Jon Sobrino ("Los pobres son sacramento de Cristo").

A similar theological simplification was made by another Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio: "To touch a poor person, to care for a poor person, is in the Church a sacrament." (Francis, 13 November 2024).