Pope Leo praises US history of welcoming immigrants, implicitly rebukes Trump

Pope Leo, the first leader of the Roman Catholic church from the United States, used his first major address to his home country to praise the US history of welcoming immigrants, in an implicit rebuke to Donald Trump. Speaking live from the Vatican to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia as he received the Center’s Liberty Medal, Leo said the word “America” had become a “byword for freedom” across the world because of the way the country welcomed immigrants.

The pope expressed hope that the founding ideals of “unity, justice and peace” would guide the US as it celebrated its 250th anniversary. “This historic anniversary presents us with the opportunity to reflect once again on the nation’s founding principles in the hope that America will remain ever true to the dream that has earned it the title of land of the free and home of the brave,” he said.

Leo will mark the United States’s 250th anniversary on Saturday with a brief visit to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the main entry points to Europe for people making the perilous sea crossing from north Africa in search of refuge. He will first stop at a cemetery where many unmarked graves hold people who died during the Mediterranean journey. Then he will visit the Porta d’Europa (Gateway to Europe), a migrant memorial monument, before blessing a plaque on a pier named after his late predecessor, Pope Francis, who denounced the “globalisation of indifference” when he visited the island in July 2013.

Like Francis, Leo has clashed with Trump over his immigration policies. In November, he called for “deep reflection” in the US about the treatment of people held in detention. Relations with the Trump administration worsened further after the pontiff strongly condemned the US-Israeli war in Iran. Days before Leo’s trip to Lampedusa, US Vice-President JD Vance said the Vatican’s views on immigration were “troubling”. Leo has yet to accept Trump’s invitation to the White House, extended by Vance during a meeting at the Vatican last May.

Marco Politi, a Vatican journalist and author, said: “Leo’s trip to Lampedusa is strongly symbolic and is also a political sign. He is focusing on the theme of immigration. This means reaffirming what he recently said in Spain about the dignity of every human being, but the trip is also a political message against the persecution of immigrants and what is being done by ICE agents in the US. Furthermore, it is a strong political message against all the parties in Europe who sow hatred and polarise.” Andrea Vreede, Vatican correspondent for Dutch broadcaster NOS, said the trip was partly to pay homage to Francis but also to make a point to Trump: “The pope is telling Trump what is important to him, and that is migrants.”

Lampedusa, home to roughly 6,000 residents and located closer to Tunisia than mainland Italy, has for decades been the first port of call for people crossing the Mediterranean from north Africa. More than 182,000 people have transited the island’s reception centre in the past three years, according to Vatican News citing Italian Red Cross data. Since 2014, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded tens of thousands of deaths of people setting off from Tunisia or Libya. Despite a sharp drop in arrivals along Italy’s southern shores in recent years, fatalities continue; between January and early April, the IOM reported nearly 1,000 people either dead or missing in the Mediterranean.

Leo will celebrate mass and speak to people who have survived the journey as well as humanitarian workers in Lampedusa before leaving shortly after midday. Kandeh Abdourahman, a cultural mediator who crossed the Mediterranean and landed in Lampedusa in 2015, said: “The pope’s visit speaks to every one of us – a reminder that our stories are seen, that ‘welcome’ is not just a word but an act of humanity that can help us reach all 118 million people displaced in the world today.”