Pope Francis issued a strong rebuke of the Trump administration's mass deportation of migrants, stating that such actions deprive individuals of their inherent dignity and will inevitably lead to negative consequences. He specifically addressed Vice President JD Vance's defense of the program on theological grounds, highlighting the biblical stories of migration and the right of people to seek safety and shelter.
Pope Francis presides over a mass for the jubilee of the armed forces in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday Feb. 9, 2025.
The Argentine Jesuit and President Donald Trump have long sparred over migration, including before Trump’s first administration when Francis famously said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants was “not a Christian.” “I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”
Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration’s America-first crackdown by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as “ordo amoris.” He has contended that the concept delineates a hierarchy of care -- to family first, followed by neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those elsewhere.“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he wrote.
POPE FRANCIS MIGRANTS DEPORTATION TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RELIGION
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