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Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday strongly affirmed U.S. bishops’ message condemning the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps, calling on Americans to listen to the migrants and treat them humanely and with dignity.
The pope was asked about the “special message” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted during their general assembly last week in Baltimore.
The bishops blasted President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda and the “vilification” of migrants, expressing concern over the fear and anxiety immigration raids stoking in communities, as well as the denial of pastoral care to migrants in detention centers.
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops’ statement reads. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care,” reads the bishops’ statement, which also opposed “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”
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Leo, the first American pope, said he appreciated the U.S. bishops’ message and encouraged Catholics and all people of goodwill to listen to treat migrants with dignity, even if they are in the country illegally.
“I think we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have,” Leo told reporters. “If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts, there’s a system of justice.”
The pope has previously urged local bishops to speak out on social justice concerns. Catholic leaders have been criticizing Trump’s mass deportation plan, as fear of immigration raids has slashed Mass attendance at some parishes.
The federal government earlier this year reversed a Biden administration directive prohibiting immigration agents from carrying out raids at sensitive areas such as churches, schools and hospitals.
Leo acknowledged problems with the U.S. migration system, but he emphasized that nobody has argued for the U.S. to have open borders and that every country may choose who can enter and the methods to do so.
“But when people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful to say the least — and there’s been some violence unfortunately — I think that the bishops have been very clear in what they said,” he told reporters as he left the papal country house south of Rome.
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“I would just invite all people in the United States to listen to them,” Leo added.
The bishops’ “special message” was the first time since 2013 they had drafted a single-issue statement at one of their meetings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.