The pope’s strict borders

Pope Francis has made little secret of his dislike for Donald Trump. The appointment of the progressive Cardinal McElroy as archbishop of Washington was a clear signal earlier this year that the pontiff wanted an obvious contrast between the Catholic Church’s top man in Washington and America’s head of state. Now he has waded into the debate over Trump’s immigration policies with a letter to the American bishops, the burden of which is to imply that the policies are contrary to Christian love and dehumanizing of those illegal immigrants at whom the laws are targeted.

This letter has caused a storm among Catholics. At First Things, Rusty Reno characterized it as a “suicide note.” At The Pillar, Ed Condon’s criticism was more muted, calling it a “hot take” and pointing to its obvious superficial treatment of very deep and complicated issues. How the letter will be handled by the bishops remains to be seen.

It is tempting to see the letter as nothing more than the pope’s latest predictable ecclesiastical intervention in politics. It is certainly no less than that. But it is also more. The pope is not simply the leader of the Catholic Church. He is also a head of state. Vatican City may be the smallest nation in the world, but it is still a sovereign nation and the pope is the man at the top. And that makes this intervention interesting because the Vatican too has a border and immigration policies, the details of which are instructive. And, rather like the Trump-era policies in the United States, recent changes represent a move towards a tougher stand on the matter of illegal immigrants.

In a document issued on Dec. 19, 2024 (over a month before Donald Trump took office) the Vatican stipulated new policies on illegal immigration. For example, anyone entering Vatican City illegally may be subject to a four-year prison sentence and a fine ranging from 10,000 to 25.000 euros. These will be applied especially to those who gain entry by violence, threats, or deceit. Those entering with expired permits or who do not meet entry criteria will find themselves facing administrative bills of 2,000 to 5,000 euros.

Penalties can increase if the person uses guns, corrosive liquids, or a vehicle to enter. Anyone convicted will be banned from Vatican City for 15 years, and any breach of this ban will be punished by a prison sentence of one to five years. The Vatican’s promoter of justice also has the right to summons an offender the day after he receives the complaint.

To summarize: The pope presides over immigration policies that are arguably far more restrictive than anything that currently applies in the United States. Of course, we can debate the rights and wrongs of the policies of the United States and of the Vatican. But it is simply not appropriate for one head of state to engage in criticism of another head of state for policies that he himself has approved and applied in his own territories.

“Hypocrisy” is a word that has been subject to significant grade inflation over recent decades. Now almost any minor discrepancy between someone’s beliefs and their behavior is liable to be denounced as such. But here the word seems most applicable: On immigration, Pope Francis is a hypocrite. He lives in a nation that is policed by his own security forces and that is intolerant of any outsider infringing its immigration policies. Swift and brutal is the justice that this pope’s men will mete out on those who transgress the integrity of his nation’s borders.

This sanctimonious letter to the bishops is not simply a suicide note or a hot-take. It is the self-righteous dishonesty of a head of state, so brazen that it is staggering anybody takes it seriously at all. And who knows? Given that the Vatican issued its policies last December, maybe they provided a blueprint for the Trump administration.