Standing before some 40,000 missionaries, migrants and those who tend to them in a drizzling St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV said that refugees must not be met with “the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination” upon reaching new lands in pursuit of a better life.
The pope urged Christians not to flee “to the comforts of our individualism” but to open their arms and hearts to “those who arrive from lands that are distant and violent,” capping off an eventful week on migration that culminated with Leo celebrating Mass for the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of the Missions on Oct. 5.
Yet what swept global headlines this week were not the carefully prepared words of his homily, but rather an unscripted remark Leo offered to reporters days earlier as he departed the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.
“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in favor of the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” Leo told a small group of journalists on Sept. 30.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Justin McLellan, where this article originally appeared.
