In a gilded reception room at Rome’s Quirinale Palace on October 14, 2025, Pope Leo XIV—draped in a formal red cape and brocaded stole—thanked Italy for its efforts to combat human trafficking and for its “generous assistance” to migrants during the busy 2025 Holy Year. But the newly elected pontiff, the first American to lead the Catholic Church, didn’t stop at gratitude. With Italian President Sergio Mattarella and top government officials looking on—including Premier Giorgia Meloni and her hard-line interior minister Matteo Salvini—Pope Leo urged Italy to remain open and welcoming to newcomers, emphasizing “the importance of constructive integration of newcomers into the values and traditions of Italian society, so that the mutual gift realized in this encounter of peoples may truly enrich and benefit all.” According to the Associated Press, his words were a clear reference to Italy’s position at the center of Europe’s migration debate, where the Meloni government has prioritized cracking down on illegal migration, deporting arrivals, and prosecuting smugglers.
This was more than a routine diplomatic visit. The meeting at the Quirinale Palace, a site that once served as the summer residence of popes before the unification of Italy, underscored the deep and sometimes fraught ties between the Vatican and the Italian state. The symbolism of the moment wasn’t lost on observers, as the Pope’s call for solidarity and openness contrasted sharply with the government’s tough stance on migration—a policy that has seen migrants sent to detention facilities in Albania and increased efforts to send new arrivals back to their countries of origin.
Pope Leo’s message to Italy was consistent with a broader, increasingly forceful campaign he has waged against anti-immigrant policies worldwide. The Pope’s advocacy has been especially vocal in the United States, where President Donald Trump’s administration has launched a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants. In the week before October 8, 2025, Pope Leo met with American bishops and Catholic leaders in a ceremonial throne room at the Vatican. There, he watched video messages from migrants in the U.S. describing their fear of Trump’s deportation campaign. According to Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, the Pope was visibly moved—his eyes filling with tears—as he listened to stories of families living in fear. "You stand with me and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants," Pope Leo reportedly told the delegation. Corbett, who lives in El Paso and has worked for the Vatican on migrant rights, said the Pope was “emotionally moved by what we told him, almost, you know, almost angry at times. Just very clear that what was happening was, you know, the church needed to raise its voice, and it was unacceptable.” (TIME)
The issue has become personal for Pope Leo. Born in Chicago, he has watched as his hometown became the epicenter of the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” a campaign that since September 2025 has flooded the city with federal agents. These agents have conducted aggressive raids, including a military-style operation in south Chicago that saw dozens arrested and children separated from their parents. On October 8, the day after meeting with the bishops, Pope Leo met with union leaders from Chicago, urging them to advocate for immigrants as the Trump administration sought to deploy the National Guard in the city. “While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep communities safe, I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” Leo told the union leaders. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, who accompanied the group, told the Associated Press that the Pope was clear in his support for undocumented immigrants, emphasizing the need to “preserve their dignity.”
These developments have sent shockwaves through the Catholic community in Chicago, where about 30 percent of the population is Latino or Hispanic—many of them Catholic. Father Brendan Curran, a Dominican friar, told AFP, “Almost to a person, they’re in shock. This isn’t what they signed up for.” Curran noted that while many Chicago Catholics supported Trump’s return to the presidency, they are now horrified by the violent immigration enforcement actions unfolding in their city. “We as a church, and church leaders and faithful, have every right to say... our opinion on immigration policy in the United States. And right now we’re in absolute opposition with the federal policy of the White House,” Curran said.
The response from the faithful has been one of defiance and solidarity with migrants. Pastor Gary Graf, for instance, has embarked on an 800-mile walk from Pope Leo’s boyhood home in Chicago to the Statue of Liberty in New York, protesting the administration’s policies. Hundreds joined a Eucharistic march from a Catholic church to an immigration detention facility in Broadview, west of Chicago, in an attempt—ultimately unsuccessful—to share communion with detained migrants. “Our mission as a church is under threat,” Curran said. “When we are talking about feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and that is considered a federal crime, we’re in trouble as a country.”
Pope Leo’s rhetoric has only grown sharper. In a letter marking the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees in September, he wrote, “The current global context is sadly marked by wars, violence, injustice and extreme weather events, which force millions of people to leave their homelands in search of refuge elsewhere.” He urged Catholics worldwide to see migrants as “messengers of hope” and to foster “a future of peace and of respect for the dignity of all.” During Mass at St. Peter’s Square in October, he told the faithful that immigrants should not be met with “the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination.”
His stance has drawn fierce criticism from some conservative Catholics and Trump loyalists. Influential right-wing voices have branded him “anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist,” as Laura Loomer put it on X, while Vice President J.D. Vance declined to engage in what he called “the politicization of the Pope game.” Yet for many, Pope Leo’s words resonate deeply, especially as they come from a leader who is himself the descendant of immigrants and spent decades working among poor Venezuelan migrants in Peru before his elevation to the papacy.
Pope Leo is not the first pontiff to challenge U.S. immigration policy. His predecessor, Pope Francis, repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s border wall plans and mass deportations, calling such actions a “major crisis” and warning that deporting those fleeing poverty and violence “damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families.” But Leo’s American roots and personal connection to Chicago have brought a new urgency and visibility to the church’s advocacy.
As the world watches the escalating clash between the Vatican and the White House, Pope Leo’s message is clear: the dignity of migrants is not negotiable. For many Catholics in Chicago and beyond, his words have become a rallying cry—one that challenges both the faithful and political leaders to remember the shared humanity at the heart of the immigration debate.