Pope praises US history of welcoming immigrants in implicit rebuke to Trump | Pope Leo XIV
In his first major address to his home country, Pope Leo praised the United States’ history of welcoming immigrants and called on Americans to live up to the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
The word “America” has become a “symbol of freedom” around the world because of the way the country welcomes immigrants, the first US leader of the Roman Catholic church said in his latest veiled rebuke of Donald Trump.
In a speech delivered live from the Vatican to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia as he received the Center’s Medal of Freedom, Leo said he hoped the ideals of “unity, justice and peace” held by the founding fathers would guide the United States as it celebrates its 250th anniversary.
“This historic anniversary offers us the opportunity to reflect once again on the founding principles of the nation, in the hope that America will always remain faithful to the dream that earned it the title of land of the free and home of the brave,” the Pope said.
Leo will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States on Saturday with a brief visit to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the main entry points into Europe for people making the perilous sea crossing from North Africa seeking asylum.
Leo will arrive in Lampedusa by helicopter early on Saturday morning and make his first stop at the cemetery, which contains many unmarked graves of those who died during the Mediterranean journey.
Will visit later Porta d’Europe (Gateway to Europe), an immigrant memorial monument, before consecrating a plaque on a pier named after his late predecessor, Pope Francis, who condemned the “globalization of indifference” when he visited the island in July 2013 on his first official papal trip.
Like Francis, Leo has clashed with Trump over immigration policies and in November called for “deep reflection” on the treatment of people detained in the United States. Relations with the Trump administration deteriorated further after the Pope strongly condemned the US-Israeli war in Iran.
Days before Leo’s trip to Lampedusa, US vice president J.D. Vance He said the views of the Vatican He was “disturbing” about immigration.
Leo has yet to accept a White House invitation made by Vance during a meeting at the Vatican the day after Trump’s papal inauguration in May last year.
The United States is not included in Leo’s 2026 overseas schedule, but some in the Trump administration reportedly have expectations that Leo will attend Fourth of July celebrations.
Vatican journalist and author Marco Politi said: “Leo’s trip to Lampedusa is highly symbolic and at the same time a political signal. It focuses on the issue of immigration. This is meant to reaffirm what he recently said in Spain about the dignity of every human being, but this trip is also a political message against the persecution of immigrants and what is done by ICE agents in the USA.”
“It is also a strong political message against all polarizing and sowing hatred parties in Europe.”
Andrea Vreede, Vatican correspondent for Dutch broadcaster NOS, said Leo’s trip was partly to pay homage to Francis but also to touch on Trump. “The Pope is telling Trump what is important to him, and that is immigrants. He chose July 4 to highlight that.”
Home to a population of approximately 6,000 and located closer to Tunisia than mainland Italy, Lampedusa has for decades been the first port of call for people crossing the Mediterranean on flimsy boats from North Africa. More than 182,000 people have passed through the island’s reception center in the last three years. Vatican News It was reported this week based on data from the Italian Red Cross.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded that tens of thousands of people who set out from Tunisia or Libya have died since 2014. Although there has been a sharp decline in the number of arrivals to Italy’s southern coast in recent years, deaths continue. The IOM reported that nearly 1,000 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean between January and early April.
Leo will celebrate Mass and speak to people who survived the journey and humanitarian workers in Lampedusa before departing shortly after noon.
Cultural mediator Kandeh Abdourahman, who works on the island for the International Rescue Committee, said: “I was one of thousands of people who crossed the Mediterranean and landed in Lampedusa in 2015, exhausted and uncertain. The Pope’s visit speaks to us all, reminding us that our stories are seen, that ‘welcome’ is not just a word, but an act of humanity that can help us reach all 118 million displaced people in the world today.”
