(NewsNation) — Pope Francis has condemned the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy once more, in a letter to Catholic bishops in the U.S.
Published by the Vatican press office on Tuesday, the pontiff called on Catholics and all people to recognize the “dignity of every human being without exception.”
“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. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.
“That said, 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.”
It follows Vice President JD Vance’s, a practicing Catholic, defense of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, during which he cited Catholic theology “ordo amoris,” which he explained to have 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,” the pontiff wrote. “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.
“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.”
Border Czar Tom Homan rebuked the pontiff while speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning.
“I’ve got harsh words for the Pope,” he said. “Pope ought to fix the Catholic Church. I’m saying this as a lifelong Catholic. I was baptized Catholic. My first communion as a Catholic, confirmation as a Catholic.
“He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us. He wants to attack us (for) securing our border? 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? So, I’d wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us.”