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In his nearly decade-long spat with President Donald Trump over illegal immigration, Pope Francis recently crossed a political Rubicon.
On Feb. 10, the pope issued a letter to American bishops that, while seemingly innocuous, basically constitutes a declaration of war. It effectively places the privileges of the immigrant as defined by Rome over the safety of the American people and over the American government’s moral responsibility to protect them.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.
“Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity. But worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth.”
The pope even committed blasphemy by taking Jesus Christ’s name in vain as a testimonial for a political agenda.
“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” Francis wrote. “With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.”
That letter is the latest salvo in a conflict not just between both men but between the Vatican’s embrace of globalist utopianism — as FrontPage Magazine’s readers know all too well — and a president’s responsibility to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies, even foreign ones.
On Dec. 20, Trump appointed Brian Burch as ambassador to the Holy See. Burch led CatholicVote, a civic advocacy group that supported Trump’s presidential campaign last year. In 2022, the group joined Judicial Watch in suing the Biden Administration for communication records between the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, and Catholic agencies helping immigrants at the Texas border. Two previous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests were ignored.
“American Catholics deserve to know the full extent of the U.S. government’s role in funding and coordinating with Catholic church affiliated agencies at the border,” Burch said in a statement, “and what role these agencies played in the record surge of illegal immigrants over the past year.”
Francis responded on Jan. 6 by appointing San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy to be the next archbishop of Washington, D.C. McElroy — a vigorous opponent of Trump — fully supports Francis on open borders.
Following Trump’s inauguration came mass deportations of immigrants with criminal records and Elon Musk’s audit of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which revealed that Catholic Relief Services accepted $4.6 billion between 2013 and 2022 — the largest single amount for any recipient.
The website Complicit Clergy reported Jan. 25 that since 2009, Catholic agencies have received $5.2 billion from the federal government for immigration projects. The Biden Administration distributed more than half of that total: $2.9 billion. Catholic Charities obtained $2.61 billion, with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops getting $1.58 billion. Of that last figure, $1.55 billion went to the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. — where the USCCB has its headquarters.
One of the Catholic agencies receiving USAID funds was Caritas Internationalis, an international charity based in and governed by the Vatican. In July, the agency embezzled $67 million from its Luxembourg branch.
It gets worse.
Catholic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receivedmoney from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to resettle immigrants through FEMA’s Shelter and Service Program. During Fiscal Year 2024, Catholic Charities of San Diego collected about $41.2 million in two separate installments; Catholic Charities of San Antonio obtained more than $27.8 million, also in two installments.
In all, FEMA distributed $641 million in grants to various NGOs during the last fiscal year. How much of that money could have helped the victims of Hurricane Helen in the Southeast, or the wildfires in Southern California?
It gets even worse.
Corpus Christi for Unity and Peace, a Catholic organization, reported Feb. 4 that during the Biden Administration, about 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children entered the United States. But the whereabouts of more than 323,000 remain unknown.
The NGOs responsible for caring for them included the USCCB, Catholic Charities, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and Catholic Relief Services. The first two agencies alone received $449 million during Biden’s tenure.
“This issue strikes at the heart of our faith,” wrote Vicki Yamasaki, the group’s founder and chair. “Rather than supporting the children, these Catholic NGOs worsened their trauma by perpetuating separation. Catholic Charities, in particular, has received intense scrutiny, for the sheer volume of children they have trafficked, and their role in fracturing the family unit as well as placing children with unvetted sponsors.”
As FrontPage magazine reported, the USCCB exploits the plight of desperate immigrants to get federal taxpayer dollars.
In his letter, Francis acknowledged “the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival” and that a humane approach “does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration.” But as FrontPage reported concerning abortion and homosexuality, Francis uses rhetorical duplicity to disguise his actions and appointments.
Six years before writing that nations have the right to devise immigration laws to protect their citizens, Francis argued that those same nations no longer hold sovereign authority.
“The nation-state cannot be considered as an absolute, as an island with respect to the surrounding circumstances,” he said. “In the current situation of globalization not just of the economy but also of technological and cultural exchanges, the nation-state is no longer able to procure on its own the common good of its populations. The common good has become global and nations must affiliate themselves for their own benefit.”
As with homosexuality and abortion, personnel equates to policy on immigration. McElroy embraced the “woke” critique of society in 2020 in an address at the University of San Diego:
“The culture of exclusion has unleashed a poison of animosity against immigrants that paralyzes our politics so deeply that we cannot even find a pathway to protect young men and women who came to this nation as children and now thirst to be citizens of the only land they have ever known,” he said, blaming “racial and ethnic disparities … rooted in our nation’s historic culture of exclusion.”
Three years earlier in another speech, McElroy used the irresponsible rhetoric of anti-Trump “resistance” in encouraging his audience to defend immigrants regardless of legal status or criminal record.
“We must disrupt those who would seek to send troops into our streets to deport the undocumented, to rip mothers and fathers from their families,” he said. “We must disrupt those who portray refugees as enemies, rather than our brothers and sisters in terrible need.”
McElroy’s histrionics effectively equated legitimate immigration authorities to Gestapo agents seeking Jews.
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, whom Francis appointed Feb. 11 as Detroit’s new episcopal leader, offered a theological equivalent. When the USCCB met in 2018, Weisenberger suggested the bishops make what he called a “prophetic statement” by issuing “canonical penalties” to Catholics who support Trump’s immigration policies or work for the Border Patrol.
“Canonical penalties” includes excommunication.
“I think it’s important to point out the canonical penalties are there in place to heal. First and foremost, to heal,” saidWeisenberger, a canon lawyer who was archbishop of Tucson at the time. “Therefore, for the salvation of these people’s souls, maybe it’s time for us to look at canonical penalties.”
Deal Hudson, the editor of the Catholic magazine Crisis at the time, begged to differ.
“Imagine being a Border Patrol officer reading the paper at breakfast and learning you are targeted for ‘canonical penalties’ just for doing your job,” Hudson said. “He asks himself, ‘Do I have to confess my occupation to my priest in confession?’
“The intention of using excommunication to force Catholics into line about immigration policy is demeaning. It won’t be viewed as an opportunity for spiritual healing but as punishment for being part of the Trump administration.”
Making the bishops’ position more infuriating — besides their profiting from human trafficking — is their absolute indifference toward the victims of their stance, as FrontPage reported.
The bishops are silent about the Laken Rileys of the world and their grieving families. They are silent about the young victimsof sex trafficking. They are silent about the addicted victims of drug trafficking. They are silent about the corruption that allows access to traffickers. They are silent about gangs such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua terrorizing the innocent. They are silent about terrorists exploiting the open borders. They are silent about children being sexually molested by illegal aliens.
So, too, is Francis.
“Why is Francis in such a frantic state about these grants being dismissed and defunded?” asked Elizabeth Yore, a conservative Catholic and former general counsel for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Yore then raised a more disturbing question:
“I’m going to ask this question of OMB (the Office of Management and Budget) and DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency): Is 10 percent going to the big guy? I want to know that, and so do a lot of Catholics.”
But who could be “the big guy”? Joe Biden? Maybe the pope himself?
By issuing his de facto declaration of war against the American people, Pope Francis inadvertently might have sparked the destruction of the Catholic Church in the United States.
Does anyone pay attention to him?
The Pope should keep his comments and commands to Rome and stop meddling in U.S.A. business.
The Pope is a Fake the whole Vatican is hangout for Satanists and Satan Worshippers and Francis is a total Imposter just like with the rest of them all
I agree with what you wrote. If the pope is so concerned about the illegal migrates we should send all of them to him and let him support them. I see the people from FPM are censoring me now they say I already wrote this and I didn’t and this isn’t the first time.
The United States just got rid of an imbecile sitting in the highest office in the land – it’s past time for Catholics to do the same. Hope they can – for everyone’s sake.
He’s not long for this world.
Pope does look like he’s going downhill fast!
ThePope of Potemkin Village.
“In his letter, Francis acknowledged “the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival” and that a humane approach “does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration.”
Wow. Just Wow. Red Frances gave us permission to defend our country as long as it doesn’t interfere with illegals coming here. All wrapped, of course, in what isn’t said. Red Frances didn’t say a thing about illegal immigration. What a liar and a hypocrite.
There hasn’t been pope this stupid in my lifetime. After all he is Leftist.
Typo alert: There hasn’t been a pope this stupid in my lifetime. After all he is a Leftist.
We got it anyway!
Good on ya. Just want to be clear.
Destruction? Perhaps so. Or is it possible that a ‘new’ Church will emerge? Time will tell. In all this, with the governments in the West, and the RCC, these sacred words come to mind, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open..” Lk 8.17
“We must disrupt those who would …” Etc etc etc. Does anyone in the Catholic hierarchy support those who disrupt the abortion of children in the womb? As for “canonical penalties” which include excommunication, whatever happened to penalties for “Catholics” like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi who obstinately and relentlessly support abortion?
And if Francis were so foolish as to open his own borders (surrounded by a wall and defended by Swiss mercenaries) he would get no more mercy from Tren de Aragua or MS-13 than from the Vikings or the Huns of old.
PS: Any non-governmental organization (NGO) that gets money from FEMA (or USAID) is not “non-governmental”.
I am glad I am a member of a non-denominational church.
Yes, they have some ideas and charity I do not agree with. Yet they will not kick me out.
Hey Catholics. There are worshiping options that will satisfy your spiritual needs. And your offering will not go to Rome so your Catholic “betters” can purchase more gold.
The poop is all too willing for the USA to surrender to the MILLIONS of ILLEGALS who are already here and would cheer and ENCOURAGE MILLIONS MORE to invade Our Nation! He does this at the same time as HE strengthens HIS protection of HIS little “country” – the Vatican! They seem to have their own prison for anyone who INVADES THEIR SANCTITY – I think it’s FOUR YEARS for illegally ENTERING the Vatican! Such HYPOCRITES!! When it’s PROVEN that a church violates Our laws then that church no longer should be CONSIDERED a church anyone than a leftist PAC! Think of all the tax exempt property of these Catholic churches. WHEN, not IF, any are PROVEN to have engaged in ILLEGALITY for illegals or child trafficking, that should be the END of their special privileges!
The poop needs to stay in his lane!!
Right. The pope should tear down “walls of ignominy” that surround his Vatican fortress.
I like the way the back of the chair frames his head, by circumstance it shows who he is a disciple of.
Jsus’ own words put the lie to this poopy charlatan:
my paraphrase from memory:
Jesus, speaking to his Twelve:
“if you are in bed at night with your Wife and children, and someone enters into your home uninvited, you may strike him that he die, and there shall be no blood guilt upon you”.
Consdr the underlying principles:
your HOME is your domain, YOU are in control of who may enter and when. You may take exreme violent measures against anyone violating the security of your home.
A nation is an extension and type of your home. No outside entity have the right to enter against the will of those comprisng the nation. Those ruling that nation have he authority to set policies and sanctions regulating who may/may o enter. Even the Vaitcan, as pointed out above, strictly regulate who may enter and upon what terms.
How is the parallel of a nation such as the US any different? We are not. CONGRESS have the responsibility and authority to establish a “uniform code of immgration and citizenship”. they have done so. My Grandparents emigrated from Germny in the 1th century, and followed all those rules and proceedures. My paernal Grandmother, one hundred years afer coming, was eted at her hundrredth biurthday party. About 265 people were in attendance, all but perhaps five or so, were her direct descendants, or by marriage. Some ov those spouses are from VietNam, Italy, England, Scotland, Irelnd Norway, China, CanadaALL came here in full compliance with US laws.
Thus frad of a pope is attempting to use the “authority” of Gpds Word to establish and promote his own warped view of justice and law.
I grew up roman catholic, we were not encouraged to read and study the scriptures on our own. The “right way” was to take it from the ordained priests as they saw fit to interpret it, and from the special “revelations” the pope got sometimes. Wha came dwn from abve in the hierarchy was “the truth”. SInce then I have been brought into a very acive and living faith in Jesus, and have become a serious student of God;s Word. This sorry excuse of a head cheese is rewriting God’s Word to suit his own selfish ad warped agendae. He is a powermad charlatan.
Soon he will be dead and irrelevant☠️
This is what ‘religion’ will get ya. Jesus didn’t die for these scum bags…He came to establish a ‘personal relationship, one on one’ with His creation. And He didn’t come to save all…He came to save all who would call upon His name ! The ‘whosevers’ of the world. Huge difference, eh?
Rev. Roy…………<
Just send the Vatican a dozen or so members of Tren de Aragua and see how welcoming the Vatican is. Too bad that Cardinal Law is dead. He had experience in covering up crimes.
One wonders how much good could have been done if that 5.2 billion were spent on helping veterans, homeless and otherwise?
The Fake Pope forgot about one of the 10 Commandments THIOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
The US needs the same immigration policy as the Vatican. High walls and no immigrants.
The Catholic Church and its charities are not the only one’s who are in on the federal governments illegal immigration resettlement and charity funding kickback scams. While they may be at the top of the charity racket pyramid, in actuality all the major religion charity organizations have their tentacles in the pot as well. They were all getting subsidised by the Feds to break US Immigration law! Tin Cup Francis could care less about who pays the price in blood for he and his Vatican Mafia of Cardinals and Bishops sanctimonious humanity.
Brilliant and accurate summary, whiskey jack.
Micah 3: 5 “Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him..”
Bergoglio, is concerned over the “infinite dignity of every person,” but not by the abortions being sanctioned under Biden and Pelosi, nor by rapes snd murders if American citizens by unvetted invaders. But let Trump touch the “Blessed Sacrament” of USAID funds finger through Catholic Charities and other bogus NGO fronts and the guy presently squatting on the Throne of St. Peter
“prepares war against him!”