The Pope’s Disastrous Letter on Immigration, by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Feb 12, 2025

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. 

In a letter ostensibly written to support the bishops of the US, Pope Francis has actually made life considerably more difficult for them. In his letter on the Trump administration’s immigration policies the Pontiff makes an argument that is poorly informed, easily rebutted, and likely to divide the American Catholic faithful. This is an argument that the American hierarchy cannot win. And, not coincidentally, the argument presented by the Pope differs notably from the most recent statements by more prudent American prelates.

Has any modern Pontiff ever written a statement so harshly critical of the policies of a sovereign nation? If so, it has escaped my notice. Mit Brennender Sorge unequivocally denounced Nazi racial ideology, but Pope Pius XI focused that encyclical on principles, not specific public policies. There is precedent for a papal letter cautioning the American hierarchy, of course, but in Testem Benevolentiae Pope Leo XIII too spoke in general terms—indeed, so general that the “Americanists” he set out to rebuke could and did reply that the Pope’s admonitions did not apply to them. …

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