Pope Francis and Old Joe Biden are two of the towering figures of our times, and that says more about our times than it does about them. The two actually have a lot in common. Both are Roman Catholics, although both have sparked considerable speculation as to whether they are really believers at all. Both have a tendency to say outrageous things that are left to their handlers to do their best to “clarify.” And both are about as far to the left as it is possible to go, as the pontiff affirmed again Sunday with the latest guilt trip he attempted to bestow upon those who don’t think the United States should have open borders.
Appearing on “60 Minutes,” the pope claimed that “migration is something that makes a country grow,” and really, there’s no arguing with that. Just look at how the ranks of criminals, people on welfare, and the homeless have grown since Old Joe and his henchmen decided to erase the Southern border. Above all, look at how the ranks of Democrat voters have grown, and that’s what it has been all about.
As far as Pope Frank was concerned, however, opposition to open borders was just — you guessed it! — bigotry against the new arrivals. He recalled what Americans said in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries about the new migrants of the day: “They say that you Irish migrated and brought the whiskey, and that the Italians migrated and brought the mafia. Migrants sometimes suffer a lot. They suffer a lot.”
Stop it, Your Holiness, I’m gonna weep. But he has said worse. Back in April 2022, he stated that it was really all about — you guessed it again! — racism. “It is true,” the pope said, “refugees are subdivided. There’s first class, second class, skin color, [if] they come from a developed country [or] one that is not developed. We are racists, we are racists. And this is bad.”
On Sunday, the pope referred to the accusations of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) against Annunciation House, a Roman Catholic charity where migrants arriving across what used to be the border can stay for a while before they move into our major cities and the fun really begins. Paxton accused Annunciation House of “alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house.”
These charges appalled the pope, who responded, “That is madness. Sheer madness.” And it wasn’t just that he didn’t like what was being said about Annunciation House. Pope Francis made it clear that he didn’t like any criticism of open borders: “To close the border and leave them there, that is madness.”
For the U.S. to have a secure Southern border would, apparently, be un-Christian. “The migrant has to be received,” he proclaimed. “Thereafter, you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely.” Well, of course. That much was obvious already. But does the United States really have an obligation to welcome the entire world?
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It looks like it. Francis has consistently framed the acceptance of mass migration policies, with no regard for the cultural identity or integrity, much less the security, of the host nation, as a core aspect of the Christian commitment. In his 2018 apostolic exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate” (Rejoice and Exult), he asked rhetorically whether welcoming migrants was “exactly what Jesus demands of us, when he tells us that in welcoming the stranger we welcome him (cf. Mt 25:35)? Saint Benedict did so readily, and though it might have ‘complicated’ the life of his monks, he ordered that all guests who knocked at the monastery door be welcomed ‘like Christ,’ with a gesture of veneration; the poor and pilgrims were to be met with ‘the greatest care and solicitude.’”
Guests at a monastery are one thing. Millions of illegal arrivals, among whom are an unknown number of criminals and terrorists, are quite another. The pope cannot conceive of the possibility that Americans want a secure Southern border because they want economic and physical security for themselves and their loved ones, and racism and bigotry have nothing to do with it. He cannot even consider the idea that some deeply committed Christians, including Roman Catholics, might not equate the obligation to welcome the stranger with any movement to weaken the nation, dilute its national character, and manipulate its political scene. As far as the Pope is concerned, if we oppose open borders, we are racists, and racists are bad. That’s the depth of this man’s analysis.
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