Pope Francis rebukes Trump over mass deportations, warns policy ‘will end badly’

Pope Francis sharply rebuked President Donald Trump’s policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and urged American Catholics not to lean into anti-immigrant sentiment in an open letter to U.S. Catholic bishops Tuesday.

“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” Francis wrote in a lengthy letter.

The letter served as a strong rejection of Trump’s treatment of migrants with the pope emphasizing that “an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”

Francis also appeared to take aim at Vice President JD Vance’s recent use of a medieval Catholic concept to justify and defend the Trump administration’s deportation policy.

In his letter, the pontiff offered a different reading of “ordo amoris” in an apparent correction of Vance’s understanding of theology.

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he 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.”

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who is overseeing the mass deportation efforts, dismissed the pontiff’s criticism, calling on Francis to stay out of U.S. national security issues.

“Concentrate on the Catholic Church,” Homan, a Catholic, said in a message to the pope during an interview on Newsmax. “You’ve got a lot of problems right there in the Catholic Church. You have enough to fix in your own home. Leave the border stuff to us. We know what we’re doing.”

There has long been friction between the pope and Trump, particularly over the president’s treatment of migrants. During Trump’s first candidacy in 2016, Francis said Trump was “not Christian” for his plan to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall to deter migrants. Most recently, the pontiff called Trump’s plan to mass deport migrants “a disgrace” ahead of the inauguration.

And days earlier, the Vatican named one of the leading liberal prelates in the United States – known for his support of migrants and the LGBTQ community – to run the Washington-area archdiocese, a move some viewed as sending a message to the then-incoming Trump administration.

Ahead of the 2024 election, Francis described the choice for Americans as the “lesser of two evils” – noting Trump’s anti-migrant policies and the abortion rights stance of Vice President Kamala Harris. Ultimately, American Catholic voters backed Trump by a 20-point margin, according to exit polls. It was a reversal from 2020, when Joe Biden, who would become the nation’s second Catholic president, won Catholic voters by a five-point margin.

Massimo Faggioli, a Catholic theologian at Villanova University, said part of the letter was a clear “text message to Vance, or a subtweet” as the pontiff grapples with how “Catholicism has become part of Trumpism.”

“There are some bishops here … who need to figure out whether they are following J.D. Vance’s orders, or they’re faithful to the Vatican,” Faggioli said.

The Vatican, he added, wants to “make it clear that Vance’s Catholicism is not global Catholicism.”

The Vatican and the Trump White House are also now facing tensions as the administration is moving to gut funding that religious groups have long used to help migrants. Vance has openly questioned whether the Catholic Church’s substantial, decades-long work with migrants is driven by a desire for money, criticism that has dismayed Catholic leaders.

The Catholic bishops’ organization works with immigrants in different ways – mostly through Catholic Charities. It contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees who have been vetted by the U.S. government. It also – like many other aid groups and municipalities – receives public funds, including during the first Trump term, to help people at the border who need basic services such as shelter and food.

Catholic Charities across the country are facing layoffs amid uncertainty over the future of funding. Catholic Relief Services, the international sister organization founded by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is the top recipient of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and has been forced to shut down programs funded by the agency and begin to lay off staff as the administration looks to shut down USAID.

In his letter, Francis, who has made migrant rights a guiding light of his papacy, also warned that criminalizing immigrants over their legal status deprives them of their dignity and “will end badly.”

“The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all – as I have affirmed on numerous occasions – welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable,” Francis wrote.