Pope Francis condemned on Tuesday, February 11, the will of US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, February 11 to “launch a mass deportation program” of migrants, believing that this policy represented a “great crisis” that “undermines its dignity” .
The expulsion of “people who, in many cases, have left their country for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, undermines the dignity of many men and women”, deplore François in a directed letter directed American bishops and published by the Vatican.
François invites “all the faithful and all the people of good will (…) to examine the legitimacy of the standards and the policies, in the light of the dignity of the person and their fundamental rights, and not the opposite.”
A “calamity”
The sovereign pontiff also expresses his “disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of certain migrants to crime.” However, he recognizes “the right of a country to defend themselves” against migrants who would have committed “serious crimes”, either in the United States or in their country of origin.
The Pope had already criticized in mid -January, on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump, his expulsion plan for undocumented migrants, which would represent “a calamity.” François, who had received Donald Trump to the Vatican during his first term in 2017 for a half -hour interview, had already criticized him for his antimigrant positions.
Last year, the sovereign pontiff had made a rare incursion into the US electoral campaign by calling hostile attitudes to migrants as “madness” and criticizing the right American Catholic personalities for their too conservative positions.
A critical arc named in Washington
Before the entry into the position of Donald Trump, Pope Francis also appointed the Archbishop of the Cardinal of Washington Le Robert Mcelroy, a critic of the Republican Migration Policy during his first term.
The friction between Donald Trump and religious power has been repeated since his choice. During a religious service after its inauguration, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Budd had urged the new president to show “mercy” with respect to LGBT or immigrants “fearing for their lives.” A sermon that did not please Donald Trump, who requested “apologies” of the nun.
Before the elections, Pope Francis had returned to return to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, believing that the two candidates were “against life” due to the hostility of Republicans towards migrants and positions in favor of abortion of The Democrats.
Source: BFM TV
