CV NEWS FEED // In an unexpected letter to US bishops dated Feb. 10, Pope Francis expressed concern over the Trump administration’s deportation initiatives and their impact on vulnerable populations and appeared to criticize Vice President JD Vance’s interpretation of ordo amoris.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” the Pope told the bishops in the letter. “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.”
Pope Francis affirmed a nation’s right to safeguard itself and maintain community safety against individuals who have engaged in violent or serious criminal activities, either during their time in the country or prior to their arrival.
“That said,” he continued, “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
The Pope asserted that “authentic rule of law” is tested by how it treats the most marginalized, calling for policies that welcome, protect, and integrate those in need.
“This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration,” the Pope asserted. “However, this development cannot come about through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others. What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”
Pope Francis also appeared to take issue with Vance’s recent interpretation of the “very Christian concept” of ordo amoris, or the proper ordering of loves, a principle cited by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
In a Jan. 29 interview with Fox, Vance said that one’s primary obligation is to love family first, followed by neighbors, the community, fellow citizens, and then to prioritize the rest of the world, asserting that America’s responsibilities begin with its own citizens before giving aid to immigrants and foreigners.
“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’” Pope Francis told the bishops, “that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception. But worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth.”
The Pope also recognized the “valuable efforts” of US bishops working with migrants and refugees, offering them words of encouragement and assuring them of God’s blessings for their dedication.
Concluding his letter by exhorting the faithful and those “of good will” to resist discriminatory narratives, the Pope reminded readers that the faithful are “called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.”
The Pope called on the Blessed Virgin to “grant us all to meet again as brothers and sisters, within her embrace, and thus take a step forward in the construction of a society that is more fraternal, inclusive and respectful of the dignity of all.”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) responded to the Pope’s letter, stating, “We are grateful for the support, moral encouragement, and prayers of the Holy Father, to the Bishops in affirmation of their work upholding the God-given dignity of the human person.”
President of the USCCB Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio thanked Pope Francis on behalf of the bishops for his “prayerful support.”
“As successor to Saint Peter,” Archbishop Broglio wrote, “you call not only every Catholic, but every Christian to what unites us in faith — offering the hope of Jesus Christ to every person, citizen and immigrant alike. In these times of fear and confusion, we must be ready to answer our Savior’s question, ‘what have you done for the least of these?’”
The Archbishop later added, “As we struggle to continue our care for the needy in our midst and the desire to improve the situation in those places from which immigrants come to our shores, we are ever mindful that in them we see the Face of Christ. In this Jubilee Year, may we build bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity. Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all.”
White House Border Czar of the Trump Administration Tom Homan responded to Pope Francis’ criticism, saying that as a lifelong Catholic, he wished the Pope would “concentrate on his work” of fixing the Church.
“He wants to attack us [for] securing our border?” Homan said to reporters outside the White House. “He has a wall around the Vatican, does he not? So he has a wall to protect his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States?”
“I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that, and leave border enforcement to us,” Homan added.
Vice President of CatholicVote Josh Mercer also reacted to the Pope’s letter:
“Those closest to the Pope have failed to give him the full picture of the humanitarian crisis we have experienced this last four years,” Mercer said. “Biden’s border policies were a boon to Mexican cartels, who made $30 million a day smuggling drugs and people across our southern border. This reckless open border policy allowed migrant women and children to be exploited. When Trump took office there were 300,000 migrant children who were missing.”
He added, “American Catholics have compassion for the plight of people in other countries and have long shown incredible generosity to other countries. But we don’t understand why our already-generous immigration laws are not respected.”
In a Jan. 23 joint statement titled “Human Dignity is Not Dependent on a Person’s Citizenship or Immigration Status,” the USCCB criticized Trump’s executive orders and advocated for immigration reform and virtuous immigration enforcement, CatholicVote reported.
Vance responded to the bishops’ statement Jan. 26, saying he was “heartbroken” by their take on his administration’s efforts to address humanitarian issues stemming from illegal immigration.
“I think the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they’ll do better,” the vice president said at the time.
Multiple bishops have written pastoral letters and statements to their respective dioceses addressing the issue, including bishops of North Carolina, Arlington, Michigan, and Georgia.
According to Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, all US bishops are in agreement that the country has the right and the responsibility “to promote public order, safety, and security through well-regulated borders and just limits on immigration.’”
Bishop Burbidge said in his Jan. 31 letter, “All my brother bishops agree with this, and together with Pope Francis, we affirm that every migrant is ‘a child of God.’”