Tells US Bishops to stand with immigrants
By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency
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| Pope Francis and Trump have a history |
In a letter published Feb. 11, the pope — while supporting a
nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or
serious crimes — said a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with
associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.
“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,” he said.
‘Respectful of the dignity of all’
Pope Francis penned the letter to U.S. bishops amid changes
to U.S. immigration policy under Donald Trump’s administration,
including the increased deportation of migrants, which numerous bishops have
criticized.
The pope’s letter recognized the “valuable efforts” of the U.S. bishops in their work with migrants and refugees and invoked God’s reward for their “protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important, or less human!”
Asking Our Lady of Guadalupe to protect all those living in
fear or pain due to immigration and deportation, he prayed for a society that
is more “fraternal, inclusive, and respectful of the dignity of all” and
exhorted Catholics and other people of goodwill “not to give in to narratives
that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and
refugee brothers and sisters.”
Francis emphasized that immigration laws and policies should
be subordinated to the dignified treatment of people, especially the most
vulnerable.
“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 underlined. “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.”
He said the just treatment of immigrants does not impede the
development of policies to regulate orderly and legal migration, but “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.”
The ‘ordo amoris’
In his letter, Pope Francis also weighed in on the Catholic concept of “ordo
amoris” — “rightly ordered love” — which was recently
invoked by Vice President JD Vance in the ongoing debate over immigration
policy.
“Christian love,” the pope wrote, “is not a concentric
expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and
groups. In other words: The human person is not a mere individual, relatively
expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!”
“The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the
constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually
mature in his identity and vocation,” he continued.
“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted,” the pontiff
wrote, “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.”
Jesus the refugee
“The Son of God, in becoming man, also chose to live the
drama of immigration,” the pope wrote.
Francis pointed out the social doctrine of the Church, that
even Jesus Christ experienced the difficulty of leaving his own land because of
a risk to his life and of taking refuge in a foreign society and culture.
Calling it the “Magna Carta” of the Church’s thinking on
migration, Francis cited a passage from Pope Pius XII’s apostolic constitution on the care of migrants, Exsul
Familia Nazarethana, which says: “The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of
an ungodly king, are the model, the example, and the consolation of emigrants
and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who,
beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved
family, and dear friends for foreign lands.”
“Likewise,” Pope Francis commented, “Jesus Christ, loving
everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the
dignity of every human being, without exception.”
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency’s senior Vatican
correspondent. After growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, she earned a degree in
English from Truman State University in Missouri. In 2016, she moved to Rome,
Italy, where in her spare time she enjoys reading and going on adventures with
her husband and son.
