Chicago – February 12, 2025
Pope Francis, in an open letter to Catholic bishops in the United States on Tuesday, warned that President Donald Trump’s cruel immigration policies “will end badly.”
In the letter, the pope said the criminalization of migrants and the mass deportations planned by the U.S. government are dangerous and called the country’s current immigration policies a “major crisis.”
“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,” he said. “I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
The pope recognized the efforts of American bishops who worked with migrants and refugees.
The pope also indirectly rebuked comments made recently by Vice President J.D. Vance, who cited an early Catholic theological concept called “ordo amoris” or “order of love” to defend the administration’s anti-immigration policies.
“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,” the pope said.
