Pope Leo XIV will mark the 250th anniversary of US independence by highlighting the plight of migrants, an space of continuous stress between the papacy and the Trump administration, on a visit to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
The remedy of migrants has been one of many essential sources of stress between the primary American pope and the Trump administration, with Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, this week describing the Vatican’s place on the subject as “troubling.”
Two high-profile leaders within the US Catholic church have advised NCS that Pope Leo’s July 4 visit sends a message to the US about immigration, with Lampedusa a main entry level to Europe for these embarking throughout the Mediterranean. Many danger their lives within the course of.
As a bishop in Peru, Leo XIV provided sensible assist to migrants fleeing Venezuela, and as pope, he has criticized the US administration’s crackdown on immigrants, describing their remedy as “inhuman.”
While in Lampedusa, the pope will lay a floral wreath on the tombs of migrants who died at sea, meet a group of migrants and have fun an open-air Mass.
Leo will likely be following within the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who visited Lampedusa quickly after his election to spotlight the plight of these dying in sea crossings on makeshift boats.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago and a shut ally of the pope, stated Leo’s visit will likely be “personal” provided that, like many different Americans, the pope is from a household of immigrants. Cupich stated Leo’s visit underlines the contribution made by new arrivals in nations.
“That’s sometimes forgotten in this moment in which we look at immigrants simply on the basis (that) they have violated a law or a statute in coming to a country without documents,” the cardinal, who’s the grandson of Croatian immigrants, advised NCS.
“He has said this before: God doesn’t look for passports and God looks at the dignity of every human being, and I think he’s going to lean into that and call us to our better angels.”
Meanwhile, Archbishop Ronald Hicks, who was chosen by Pope Leo to lead the Catholic New York archdiocese in December, stated the 5 years he spent in El Salvador had made him extra delicate to new arrivals within the US, giving him “direct experience of knowing what it feels like to be on the other side.”
“He (Leo) is saying the United States has always been a country of immigrants. Everyone has come from somewhere at different times,” the archbishop advised NCS forward of the pope’s visit. He stated Leo was elevating questions all ought to contemplate: “How do we treat people when they come? How do we see each other as a brother and sister? How do we see them as someone to be welcomed instead of a problem right away? I think that’s all ingrained in his visit and in his message.”
Since his election, the pope has appointed a number of bishops who got here to the US as migrants, together with one who was smuggled in from El Salvador aged 18 in the back of a car.
Both Cupich and Hicks emphasised the significance of a sound authorized system governing immigration. US bishops have grow to be extra outspoken on migration questions, releasing a uncommon joint assertion on the finish of final 12 months.
Tensions between the administration and the papacy blew out into the open when President Donald Trump launched a rare series of broadsides against the pope following Leo’s opposition to the war in Iran.
“I was sad, saddened to see that,” Cupich stated of the assaults. “I think it was unprecedented.”
Cupich added that it left him “with a sense that the standards that we should hold” for leaders within the US “really were absent in this moment, and we should be able to expect better.”
The cardinal additionally stated that the conflict in Iran couldn’t be described as simply, saying that “all of the measures that are part of the Just War theory were violated in that action.” Back in April, Vance stated the pope wanted to be “careful” when speaking about theology and will bear in mind “Just War” concept when speaking concerning the conflict in Iran.
Cupich stated that an “ongoing dialogue” was wanted between the Catholic Church and Vance to say that “you cannot use the Just War theory in that instance” and that it shouldn’t be seen as a “permission slip.”
Developed over centuries, the educating is incessantly utilized by army analysts as an moral and ethical justification for armed battle. One of its main architects is Saint Augustine of Hippo, the religious father of the Catholic non secular order to which Leo belongs. In a latest encyclical, the pope stated that Just War concept was now “outdated,” and the cardinal stated the educating wanted to be “updated” given the weaponry utilized in at this time’s conflicts.
The day earlier than he travels to Lampedusa, the pope will ship a digital tackle to a gathering on the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The heart has awarded Leo the 2026 Liberty Medal “for advancing religious liberty and freedom of conscience and expression.”
Cupich and Hicks confused that the pope is providing ethical management on the world stage.
“I think he listens more than he speaks, and yet when he does, there’s a sense of fortitude, a sense of strength, and a sense of courageous ‘leading us somewhere’,” Hicks defined.
Cupich stated fellow cardinals, who just lately took half in a assembly with the 70-year-old pope within the Vatican, are delighted that he has “stepped onto the global stage” shortly and is talking about points akin to immigration, ecology and peace.
“He’s not going to be afraid of opposition. He’s going to do what he’s called to do in his ministry,” Cupich stated of Leo. “He has the luxury of playing the long game… He’s fairly young.”