The first American-born Pope marked his home country’s 250th birthday by urging it to continue its tradition of “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants.”
Pope Leo commemorated America’s Independence Day with a letter and a visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa––a gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to European sanctuaries.
In the letter, titled “Letter of his Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of the United States of America,” the Chicago native cited the “God-given dignity of every human life,” asserting that each person is “endowed with an inherent worth that calls for reverence, protection and care,” which calls for “safeguarding human life.”
“Defending human life,” Leo added, “also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning.”
Since his appointment in May of last year, Leo has been a vocal advocate of migrant rights, and a persistent critic of the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown, which he has called “inhumane.”
He continued that effort in his July 4th letter, saying that to welcome “those who have arrived seeking freedom, opportunity and a place to belong … is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person.”
Leo also used the letter to praise America’s longstanding encouragement of “religious freedom,” describing it as “central to the American promise, protecting both individual dignity and the peaceful coexistence of a diverse people.” The Trump Administration has recently undermined that sentiment, elevating officials who have challenged the longstanding idea of a separation of church and state.
In addition to his letter, Leo gave a speech on Saturday in Lampedusa in which he made a similar appeal to European leaders to address immigration “in a comprehensive manner, integrating immediate relief efforts into a long-term strategic plan capable of receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants.”
The Vatican announced in February that Leo would spend the Fourth of July on the island, Italy’s southernmost port, where thousands of migrants each year stop on their perilous and often deadly expedition across the Mediterranean and north to European countries.
Many migrants gathered on Saturday to hear the pontiff, who also called on European leaders to improve conditions in the countries immigrants come from to reduce migration.
Leo’s Saturday pleas to European and American leaders are not unprecedented.
In May of last year, Leo said the dignity of migrants must be respected, speaking to world diplomats and invoking his own immigrant background. “My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate,” he said before ambassadors at the Vatican.
Then in October, while meeting with migrant advocates visiting the Vatican from the U.S., Leo was moved to tears after viewing videos of people expressing their fear over Trump’s deportation campaign, according Dylan Corbett, an executive director of the Hope Border Institute, who was part of the visiting U.S. delegation and spoke to TIME.
As Trump was cracking down on Chicago’s immigrant community, Leo also met with union leaders in his home town and urged them to stick up for those most vulnerable populations in the city.
“While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep communities safe, I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” Leo said to the union leaders.
While many of Leo’s comments have not specifically targeted Trump, he has at times directly responded to the President’s attacks. In June, after Trump called Leo “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy” in response to the Catholic Church criticizing the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, Leo said that he had “no fear of the Trump Administration, or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel.”
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