Pope Francis calls potential U.S. deportation plans ‘a disgrace’

Michie said:

Pope Francis criticized potential plans for mass deportations in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump during a wide-ranging Italian television interview on Sunday.

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian broadcaster Nove’s “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Jan. 19, speaking about plans to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

The U.S. bishops said in November they would speak out forcefully if Trump does advance the proposal in a way that undermines human dignity.

There are an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., according to July 2023 statistics from the Center for Migration Studies.

Continued below.

Pope Francis: U.S. deportation plans ‘a disgrace’

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian TV.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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Did you read the latest from the Vatican about what THEY will be doing to illegals in the Vatican territory? It's harsh. Much more harsh than mere deportation. Real prison time.

Michie said:

Pope Francis criticized potential plans for mass deportations in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump during a wide-ranging Italian television interview on Sunday.

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said

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The imbalance comes because the governments in the banana republics which the illegals come from consist of corrupt, greedy dictators, Marxists, and dope dealers who treat their own citizens worse than cattle. And the people can do nothing about it because they're powerless.

Maybe what we should be doing is arming all 7 million illegals to the teeth right before shipping them back, so they can overthrow the scumbags running their countries, and improve their lot in life. Maybe that might solve the problem.

Wolseley said:

The imbalance comes because the governments in the banana republics which the illegals come from consist of corrupt, greedy dictators, Marxists, and dope dealers who treat their own citizens worse than cattle. And the people can do nothing about it because they're powerless.

Maybe what we should be doing is arming all 7 million illegals to the teeth right before shipping them back, so they can overthrow the scumbags running their countries, and improve their lot in life. Maybe that might solve the problem.

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THAT would be revolutionary. I'm presuming that we would be DISARMING any gang members who were deported though.

The article simply quotes him as saying:

"If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved."

Okay, but if what is true? What was the question that preceded that answer? It seems very important to know what he was actually responding to given this opening.

This seems to be a video of the exchange:

Unfortunately, I know basically nothing of Italian. But I was able to set up an auto-transcriber paired with an auto-translator. Obviously we shouldn't expect great work from this, but it's the best I've got. Here's what it said (it was originally without punctuation, which I added):

Host: "Tomorrow will be the inauguration of President Trump, who has already made it known that in two days he wants to begin his program of expulsion of illegal immigrants from the United States. Here I wanted to ask if you have already spoken. If you have spoken about it."

Francis: "No, we have not. I heard he came here once when he was President the other time, but we didn't hear each other. But if this is true, it will be a disgrace because he has to pay and make the poor unfortunates who have nothing pay the bill for the imbalance. It doesn't work like this, they don't solve the problem, things like this can't be solved."

Again, obviously one needs to be cautious trusting an automatic translation of an automatic transcription, but I'd assume the important points still get through.

If Francis is interpreting this as expelling all illegal immigrants--which is how the host made it sound--then his statements are actually quite valid. A mass expulsion of at least a million (millions?) people would cause a whole lot of economic problems and infeasible to carry out anyway. Trump's big promise has been that he would carry out the "largest deportation program in American history" which could obviously be done without a full-on expulsion of everyone. A more limited expulsion of all those who commit crimes (beyond just entering the country) would probably still fulfill that promise and not be particularly controversial, and I expect that is what we will actually see done. But there seems no indication Francis is referring to that.

Michie said:

Pope Francis criticized potential plans for mass deportations in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump during a wide-ranging Italian television interview on Sunday.

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian broadcaster Nove’s “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Jan. 19, speaking about plans to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. ...

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Pope Francis is entitled to his opinion, but Catholics do not have an obligation to agree. In his statement, he has gone beyond the authority of his prophetic voice. The moral principles that Catholics accept in bringing about the social order are four in number.


The pope and the bishops have authority and duty to teach the faithful these fundamental moral principles that ought to underpin the social order. The laity have the authority based on those principles to effect, albeit in an imperfect way this side of the Parousia, that social order.

From "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship", USCCB, November 2015:

The immigration policy according to Catholic teaching must balance the rights of those to migrate and the needs of the common good. The balancing of these issues is a matter of prudential judgement. Not all who immigrate have a natural right to migrate; their situation in their homeland must be dire.

​

Michie said:

Pope Francis criticized potential plans for mass deportations in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump during a wide-ranging Italian television interview on Sunday.

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian broadcaster Nove’s “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Jan. 19, speaking about plans to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

The U.S. bishops said in November they would speak out forcefully if Trump does advance the proposal in a way that undermines human dignity.

There are an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., according to July 2023 statistics from the Center for Migration Studies.

Continued below.

Pope Francis: U.S. deportation plans ‘a disgrace’

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian TV.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

Click to expand...

Illegals have no place in the country to which they are immigrants. They are criminals, not Christlike, so the much-abused passage St Matthew 25.31-46 does not apply. The should be expelled from all countries where they are illegal immigrants, not just from the USA. Pres. Trump is to be praised for setting a good example to the leaders of other countries with similar problems.

If he were the "Nazi" some people's fantasies say he is, he would be killing migrants, by the thousands; not expelling them. He would also be passing legislation to outlaw all opposition parties, and all other opposition.