Imagine living in your own holy fiefdom, with some of the strictest security on earth, and lecturing other nations about how to deal with illegal immigration. That’s Pope Francis for you. There he is in the Apostolic Palace, sentries at every door, wagging his be-ringed finger at Donald Trump’s America for its ‘mass deportation’ of undocumented aliens. Even for a Pope this is some next-level cant.
You can’t help but marvel at the sheer sanctimony of Francis’s position
The pontiff’s latest bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome came in a letter to America’s Catholic bishops. He said he is watching closely the ‘major crisis’ unfolding in the US, by which he means President Trump’s ‘initiation of a programme of mass deportations’. The mind boggles at the luxuriant unworldliness of the man who thinks the real crisis is not the presence in the US of 12 million undocumented migrants, but the president’s promise to do something about it.
Francis acknowledged the right of nations to defend their citizens from foreigners who have committed serious crimes – why, thank you, Your Holiness! But he cautioned against using ‘force’ to expel illegal arrivals. With his crusade against illegal immigration, Trump is overlooking ‘the truth about the equal dignity of every human being’, wrote the Pope with superb haughtiness.
Here’s my question: did Vatican City also overlook ‘the dignity of every human being’ when it initiated a stiff crackdown on illegal entry just two months ago? A decree issued by the Holy See on 19 December 2024 promised severe punishment for any mortal who enters the territory of the Vatican with ‘violence, threats or deception’. If you evade our ‘border controls’ you’ll be judged as having entered ‘with deception’, the Holy See decreed, and heaven help you then.
Illegal arrivals in the territory of the Vatican risk being jailed for up to four years or whacked with a fine of €25,000 (£20,000), the See said. They might also be banned from Vatican City for 15 years. Ouch. It seems invaders of the Vatican have no right to that ‘dignity’ the Pope goes on about. Cross illegally into the US and the pontiff will shed a tear for you; cross illegally into Vatican City and it’s off to the slammer.
You can’t help but marvel at the sheer sanctimony of Francis’s position. He lives in perfect tranquility in a super-secure sovereign state of fewer than 800 souls. He is surrounded by Swiss Guards wielding literal spears who have sworn to sacrifice their lives in his defence. His government issues dire threats against illegal arrivals. And yet when Trump proposes fixing America’s immigration system, the Pope’s firing off furious edicts. I say let he who is without the ‘sin’ of a crackdown on illegal entry cast the first stone at The Donald.
The Pope’s intervention feels like a metaphor for the elites’ moral preening on the immigration question. It is always those who live a safe, comfy distance from the consequences of illegal immigration who are the most ‘pro-immigration’. They know their wages will never be depressed by the arrival of cheap labour. They know their neighbourhoods are not the ones to which the badly off arrivals will move. They get to bask in the glow of their performative pity for immigrants without ever encountering an immigrant – except maybe the dude who delivers their Ocado groceries.
The Pope also seemed to have a pop at JD Vance. The US Vice President won the ire of wet liberals everywhere, including Rory Stewart, when he spoke about ‘ordo amoris’ (the order of love) a couple of weeks back. First you love your family, then your community, then your country, then the world, said Vance, to the fury of moral oddballs who apparently love strangers in far-flung lands as much as they do their own kids.
‘The true ordo amoris’, says the Pope in his new missive to America, is building ‘a fraternity open to all, without exception’. Except the scoundrel who scales the walls of your sacred city, right Francis? I might be a very lapsed Catholic but even I’m horrified that we have a Pope who is basically Rory Stewart in a frock. How long before Gary Lineker signs him up for a podcast? The Rest is Religion. I should trademark that.
It feels like Trump has become a substitute devil for a Catholic Church that knows its old tunes just don’t connect anymore. If the Pope were to hold forth on Hell, the chattering classes would guffaw. But when he muses on the hell of Trump’s America they’re all ears. It’s an unholy alliance of depressed liberals and crisis-ridden men of the cloth, bonded by a neo-religious fury with Trump and the people who voted for him. Sad!
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