Pope Francis sharply rebuked the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy in an open letter sent to U.S. Catholic bishops Monday, warning that the forceful removal of immigrants affronted the “infinite and transcendent dignity” accorded to all human beings and would “end badly.”
“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church … not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” he wrote, invoking the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and the exile of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as “the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition.”
“This is not a minor issue: an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” he continued. “The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all — as I have affirmed on numerous occasions — welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people have been arrested by immigration authorities since Trump took office. Some have been deported, while others are being held in both federal and private prisons or Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba.
Though the letter represents an escalation in his criticism of Donald Trump, the Pope has a long history of speaking his mind about the president and his politics. As early as 2016, he said that the then-presidential candidate was “not Christian” in his views on immigration, and just last month called Trump’s deportation plan “a disgrace.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also criticized the mass deportation, calling it “deeply troubling” in a statement last month. Recently, the pope appointed several like-minded prelates to U.S. dioceses, including Cardinal Robert McElroy in Washington D.C. and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger in Detroit, the latter suggesting in 2018 that Catholic border agents who assisted in its family separation policy could be denied Communion.
Meanwhile, Republican states and the Trump administration have gone on the offensive against Catholic groups they portray as enabling illegal immigration. Early in 2024, Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general and megachurch founder, demanded the surrender of documents from Annunciation House, a Catholic charity that provides shelter and meals to refugees on the U.S.-Mexico border. Annunciation House responded by seeking a restraining order on Paxton, who then filed his own unsuccessful lawsuit to shut down the organization completely.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, attempted to defend the immigration crackdown in a January interview by citing the Augustinian concept of “ordo amoris,” or “order of love,” which he claimed delineated a hierarchy of care — with family first, followed by neighbor, community, fellow citizens and then everyone else. The Pope corrected Vance in his letter, explaining that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”
“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,” he wrote.
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