Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 09:35 am

Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the United States on Tuesday about the country’s ongoing mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants, urging Catholics to consider the justness of laws and policies in light of the dignity and rights of people.

In a letter published Feb. 11, the pope — while supporting a nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes — said a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.

“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution, or serious deterioration of the environment damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he said.

“All the Christian faithful and people of goodwill,” the pontiff continued, “are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.”

‘Respectful of the dignity of all’

Pope Francis penned the letter to U.S. bishops amid changes to U.S. immigration policy under President Donald Trump’s administration, including the increased deportation of migrants, which numerous bishops have criticized.

The pope’s letter recognized the “valuable efforts” of the U.S. bishops in their work with migrants and refugees and invoked God’s reward for their “protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important, or less human!”

Asking Our Lady of Guadalupe to protect all those living in fear or pain due to immigration and deportation, he prayed for a society that is more “fraternal, inclusive, and respectful of the dignity of all” and exhorted Catholics and other people of goodwill “not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”

Francis emphasized that immigration laws and policies should be subordinated to the dignified treatment of people, especially the most vulnerable.

“This is not a minor issue: An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” he underlined. “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.”

He said the just treatment of immigrants does not impede the development of policies to regulate orderly and legal migration, but “what is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly.”

The ‘ordo amoris’

In his letter, Pope Francis also weighed in on the Catholic concept of “ordo amoris” — “rightly ordered love” — which was recently invoked by Vice President JD Vance in the ongoing debate over immigration policy.

“Christian love,” the pope wrote, “is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: The human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!”

“The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation,” he continued.

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted,” the pontiff wrote, “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.”

Jesus the refugee

“The Son of God, in becoming man, also chose to live the drama of immigration,” the pope wrote.

Francis pointed out the social doctrine of the Church, that even Jesus Christ experienced the difficulty of leaving his own land because of a risk to his life and of taking refuge in a foreign society and culture.

Calling it the “Magna Carta” of the Church’s thinking on migration, Francis cited a passage from Pope Pius XII’s apostolic constitution on the care of migrants, Exsul Familia Nazarethana, which says: “The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example, and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family, and dear friends for foreign lands.”

“Likewise,” Pope Francis commented, “Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception.”