Pope Leo Expands Anti-Trump Crusade, Urges American Bishops to STAND AGAINST ICE

He may be the first American Pope, but Leo is far from onboard with President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.

At least that’s the case as far as deportations and ICE.

While the Trump Administration is expanding operations aimed at fixing America’s long-broken illegal immigration problem…

The Pope from Chicago has kicked off his own modern-day crusade AGAINST the Trump Administration on the issue of mass deportations.

It isn’t all that surprising that the head of the Catholic Church would try to strike a balance between upholding a nation’s laws while simultaneously preserving human dignity.

But is that actually what Pope Leo XIV is doing?  You be the judge.

Just today, the Pope met with a group of American Bishops for the express purpose of pushing back against President Trump.  (While publicly feigning non-involvement, as we’ll get into…)

CNN’s correspondent covering the Vatican shared these photos from the Pope’s meeting which highlights one particular member of the US Bishop delegation.

Bishop Mark Seitz is widely seen as the one spearheading the Pope’s crusade against President Trump’s immigration policy:

Is it just me, or does the quote attributed to the Pope on that post — about the Church not remaining silent — seem to invoke something like Bonhoeffer’s call to speak up against Hitler?

During that meeting, the Pope strengthened his stance against the Trump Administration on the issue of immigration.

He specified that American Bishops should push back and speak up against the way ‘immigrants’ are being treated by the Trump Administration.

He was presumably referencing the ILLEGALS which ICE is currently bent on rounding up and sending home, which the Pope says does not line up with a pro-life worldview… as covered by the Reuters News Agency:

Pope Leo told U.S. bishops visiting him at the Vatican on Wednesday that they should firmly address how immigrants are being treated by President Donald Trump’s hardline policies, attendees said, in the latest push by the pontiff on the issue.

“Our Holy Father … is very personally concerned about these matters,” El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters. “He expressed his desire that the U.S. Bishops’ Conference would speak strongly on this issue.”

“It means a lot to all of us to know of his personal desire that we continue to speak out,” said Seitz.

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The Vatican did not immediately comment on the pope’s meeting.

But Leo has been ramping up his criticism in recent weeks.

The pope questioned on September 30 whether the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies were in line with the Catholic Church’s pro-life teachings, in comments that drew heated backlash from some prominent conservative Catholics.

The White House has said Trump was elected based on his many promises, including to deport criminal illegal aliens.

The Pope’s comments calling into question the Trump Administration’s orthodoxy on the issue of being pro-life was picked up by White House reporters.

Last week Gabe Gutierrez representing NBC News in the WH press pool questioned Karoline Leavitt — herself Catholic — on that Papal pushback.

She framed her response primarily in regards to the allegations that there were actually cases of INHUMANE treatment of illegals (not to be confused with simply deporting them lawfully) which primarily centered around events that happened under the Biden Administration.

Here’s a clip of her full response on that issue, though she didn’t speak directly to the current ICE deportations:

There’s one key reason I shared that clip.

Notice the point made by the White House Press Secretary is that the Trump Administration is attempting to ‘enforce our nation’s laws’ with regard to ICE and mass deportations.

As I stated earlier, the Pope would be expected to strike some sort of a balance between that, and emphasizing human dignity — as would any righteous government, I might add.

But again I ask, is that the balance the Pope is attempting to maintain in his criticism of the Trump Administration’s handling of illegals?

I want the Pope’s own words from just a few days ago hanging in the air as we look at that issue:

That post from the Catholic Pontiff is NOT a clear-cut attack on ICE deportations in accordance with US law.

But it is designed to carry that flavor, while contrasting upholding the law against maintaining human dignity.

Oops — there’s another one of those binary choices we’re always being told we MUST ACCEPT.

Is it not possible to protect human dignity at the most basic level while also enforcing a nation’s laws?

I’d even argue… you CAN’T have one, without the other.

But the meeting today with American Bishops went further than just flowery platitudes about peace in the Midwest.

Mark Seitz, the Bishop from El Paso mentioned earlier, brought with him a stack of letters and video clips which he shared with the Pope.

Those communications reportedly included the horror stories of families traumatized by President Trump’s immigration policy, as covered by the Associated Press:

The Texas bishop on the front lines of the U.S. immigration crackdown met Wednesday with Pope Leo XIV and brought him a packet of letters from immigrant families “terrorized” by fear that they and their loved ones will be rounded up and deported as the Trump administration’s tactics grow increasingly combative.

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz also showed Leo a video detailing the plight of migrants, and told The Associated Press afterward that Leo vowed to “stand with” them and the Catholic leaders who are trying to help them.

“He had a few words for us, thanking us for our commitment to the immigrant peoples and also saying that he hopes that the bishops’ conference will speak to this issue and continue to speak to it,” said Seitz, chair of the migration committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“We don’t want to get into the political fray, we’re not politicians, but we need to teach the faith,” and especially the Gospel message recognizing the inherent dignity of all God’s children, and to care for the poor and welcome the stranger, Seitz said.

History’s first U.S. pope has followed in Francis’ line. Last weekend, Leo celebrated a special Holy Year Mass for migrants, denouncing the “coldness of indifference” and the “stigma of discrimination” that migrants desperate to flee violence and suffering often face. Asked by reporters this week about the crackdown in Chicago, Leo declined to comment. (Emphasis added.)

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For all that talk about not wishing to wade into politics and governance, the Holy See certainly has a lot to say about politics and governance in the US!

Here’s a clip from Vatican News of the Pope declining to wade into those waters, remaining silent…

While sending American Bishops to do just the opposite:

The problem with that stance is that it’s not stance at all.

Or, rather, it’s an attempt at taking a stance on a hot button political issue in the US… while feigning non-involvement.

But that moral highroad doesn’t exist when word and deed do not match.

To claim non-involvement while speaking to the issue through another format isn’t virtuous; it’s duplicitous.

The underpinning of the moral highroad is a thing that happens on the ground level — where laws and real life collide, both words and deeds.

Where the abhorrence of lawlessness and the upholding of human dignity are indeed one and the same.

As they must be, if either is to exist at all.

I’d like to show one more video if you’ll hang with me, that highlights the problem with the Pope’s logic; or I should say illogical fallacy.

Check out this moment from just a few days ago when the Pope was asked about the convergence of a pro-life stance and the death penalty:

According to Pope Leo’s logic, if you say you’re pro-life and against abortion but support the death penalty, then you’re not really pro-life.

If pro-life meant a worldview in which no killing was ever justified, that might be a true statement.

But that’s not what pro-life means anymore than MURDER equals CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

One is a lawless act of sin; the other a righteous obedience of Biblical principles by authorities instituted among men by God.

The failure to make that distinction in principle is the sort of thing that will wreck one’s theology, as well as a person’s views on society and governance.

Thus, Pope Leo XIV has aligned himself against President Trump on the basis of oversimplifying the principles in play.

The law distinguishes between what is legal and illegal; and still insists on emphasizing the dignity of human life across the board.

But would it be DIGNIFY humanity to sink so low as to allow the distinction between what is legal, and what is illegal, be blurred so far that both are treated the same?

If those who enter this country illegally are treated identically to those who enter in by legal means — does that lack of distinction not bring low the DIGNITY of HUMANITY?

That’s the way it works in my Bible, and according to my worldview.

What do you think…?