If I believed in miracles as strongly as I as a Catholic student, I could hope that the vice-president JD Vance would be transformed by his audience with Pope Francis on Easter Sunday a few hours before the death of the Pope, that he would embrace Francis' compassionate opinions on migrants from the world. But I no longer believe in miracles anymore, especially for the Veep. It is too coveted by terrestrial political awards.
However, thank God that Francis left a few last words – for Vance, a Catholic convert; For other Catholics (the majority of which voted for Donald Trump and Vance, election watch)); And for people of a religious persuasion or not – flocking the efforts of expulsion without heart and without law of the administration.
Vance will almost certainly ignore the Pope's inheritance. President Trump, who attend Francis funeral Saturday will surely do it. After all, Francis Admonition In 2016 concerning the candidate of the time – “a person who only thinks of building walls … and not to build bridges, is not a Christian” – did not decrease the anti -immigrant zeal of Trump. Nevertheless, the words of François are a reproach to the current policies of the administration, a pastoral shot heard “around the world.
After his brief meeting with Vance, Francis in a wheelchair went to the balcony overlooking Saint-Pierre square. He grated a short Easter blessings; A archbishop read his full Easter message to 35,000 people below and millions watching by video.
“How many contempt is sometimes stirred towards the vulnerable, marginalized and migrants!” Francis lamenta. “I call on all those who occupy positions of political responsibility in our world not to give in to the logic of fear, which only leads to isolation of others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight against hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development.
Of course, the pope had just met one of the worst contempt for contempt. It was Vance who, in the last weeks of the 2024 campaign, first spreads Me on Haitian immigrants Eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio, that Trump has echoed enthusiasm despite calls from local Republicans to stop. The neonazis arrived To intimidate the refugees to leave. Trump, referring to Haitians as well as other migrants nationwide, said Wisconsin supporters, “getting them out will be a bloody story”.
The story has not yet been bloody. But it's cruel. The Washington Post, in a first page story on Monday next to that of Vance's visit with Francis, reported On conditions in the detention centers of crowded American migrants. “You are eliminated from your humanity,” said American Platt to the post. She spent four white nights on a floor mat in a center of Texas after being arrested for an unresolved traffic note, reported the post, then was expelled in Mexico, where she had not lived since her fleeing a violent father two decades ago.
Although Trump and border TSAR Tom Homan say that it is only criminals who have known criminals, about half of the persons detained by border officials have no accusation or criminal conviction, according to federal data. The overwhelming number of migrants who now languish in a Salvadoral gulag has no criminal record, media surveys find. Meanwhile, immigrants here legally come their revoked status, some were torn off by hooded agents and many detainee or expelled without regular procedure.
Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun reported Last week, a majority of the Haitian population of the city, most of whom are American legal residents, remain there despite the threats of Trump to revoke their immigration status and to expel them. “They have no other place to go to the United States where they will not face the same problem,” said Vilès Dorsainvil, president of a local Haitian assistance group, in the newspaper.
Vance helped see it. In his first interview after having become vice-president, he attacked the American conference of Catholic bishops for opposite Trump's policy to allow immigration agents to enter and search the churches and schools; He suggested that bishops were worried about losing federal subsidies to their migrant assistance programs: “Are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they really worried about their results? ” He asked slyly On CBS of “Face The Nation” of CBS.
Otherwise, the cardinal adapted to Trump Timothy Dolan from New York sentenced Vance's remark as “scurrileuse”, noting that immigration aid is a loser of money even with federal funds. The Conference of Bishops is pursue the government So that millions of people are due to the church. Earlier this month, Catholic leaders quoted The in progress federal cuts end a long -standing partnership with the government that reinstates migrants who have fled violence, persecution and poverty, as well as a separate program for undocumented migrant children.
Francis looked at all of this. “I closely followed the major crisis which takes place in the United States with the initiation of a mass deportation program”, ” He wrote To us Bishops in February, in a letter that implicitly refuted the criticism of Vance. “Consciousness rightly cannot fail to make a critical judgment.”
The Pope has recognized the right of a nation to control its borders, but urged openness to the innocent fleeing “extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment” – as Jesus, Mary and Joseph did it when they fled in Egypt.
“What would Jesus do?” The question happens. Not What Trump and Vance do, Francis said in his letter – as he did again in his Easter speech before his death.
It should not be said that government leaders should take their bearings from a pope in Rome. Unlike Maga Republicans (and conservative Catholic judges dominant the Supreme Court), I am among The majority of Americans which support a strong wall between the church and the state. But some public actions are so odious that a pope is forced to speak, and we should also. And for the love of God, politicians should listen to.
