Papal Debate

The Conclave ended yesterday with the elevation of the first American-born pope, who took on the name of Pope Leo XIV. This is viewed as a continuation of the doctrines of Pope Francis, focused on inclusivity and the advocacy of the most marginalized of the world, specifically immigrants. Nothing more defines our epoch of the world than the issue of immigration. I’ve said it before, so I will risk repeating myself by saying that this is direct result of the convergence of two social phenomenon, the demographics of an 8 billion person world, bursting at the seams, and a forty year right wing trend of growing wealth disparity. When the rich get too rich and the poor get too poor, things are going to change, and the tip of that spear of change is found in migration patterns.

There is literally no issue more central to the meaning of Christianity than the acceptance of the burden of immigration. The very heart of Christ’s ministry was embodied in the the Parable of the Good Samaritan, one of Jesus’s most well-known teachings, found in the Gospel of Luke (10:25-37). It’s a powerful story about compassion that transcends social boundaries. In the parable, a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds by asking what the law says, and the lawyer answers that one must love God and love one’s neighbor. When the lawyer then asks, “And who is my neighbor?”, Jesus tells this story. A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers who stripped him, beat him, and left him half-dead by the roadside. A priest came by, saw the injured man, and passed by on the other side. Similarly, a Levite (a religious functionary) also passed by without helping. But then a Samaritan traveler came upon the man. Despite the fact that Samaritans and Jews were historical enemies with deep cultural animosity between them, the Samaritan was moved with compassion. He attended to the man’s wounds, placed him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he gave money to the innkeeper to continue caring for the man, promising to reimburse any additional expenses upon his return. Jesus then asked the lawyer which of the three was a neighbor to the injured man. The lawyer replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus concluded by telling him, “Go and do likewise.” The parable remains significant for its moral teaching about compassion that crosses social, racial, and religious boundaries, and for redefining “neighbor” not as someone of your own group, but as anyone in need of mercy.

No group of people better represent those in need of mercy in these times than refugees and immigrants. And yet, no group of people are being more put upon by the “Christian Right” than immigrants, either mass deportations and the elimination of any semblance of due process and any concept of asylum. The core elements of Christ’s ministry included teaching through parables and sermons (like the Sermon on the Mount and the Good Samaritan). These teachings emphasized love, forgiveness, and compassion and form the foundation of Christian theology and practice that has shaped Western civilization and much of world history for the past two millennia.

Recently, a good deal of attention was given to last formal audience granted by Pope Francis, which was with Vice President J. D. Vance. Vance had recently invoked the concept of ordo amoris − meaning “order of love” − as he defended President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. During an interview, Vance argued that Christianity teaches people to love those closest to them and accused Democrats of caring more about migrants than American citizens. Francis disagreed, telling U.S. bishops in a widely publicized letter to American bishops that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.” Vance met with Francis at the Vatican presumably to make peace or at least to drive home his point on the deathbed of the pontiff.

When the Conclave of Cardinals met this week. among the most pressing questions the cardinal-electors had to answer was whether, at a critical moment in international affairs, they wanted a pope ready to use the moral authority of the pontificate in the same way as his predecessor, to challenge the precepts of the new, populist right, notably in respect of migration. In electing Leo, who cited Francis in his first address, they have opted for a fair measure of continuity with the late pope’s approach. And the election of an exceptionally cosmopolitan American smacks of outright defiance of Mr Trump and his aggressive nationalism. In fact, earlier this year, then-Cardinal Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV) rebuked Vice-President J.D. Vance for his views on immigration. He also retweeted a post decrying the president’s attitude towards Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from America to El Salvador. The response to the new pontiff was recently captured in the words of Tom Homan, the “Border Czar”, who slammed the new Pope, telling him to stay in his own lane and not involve himself in national immigration policies.

Now I am a big advocate for Thomas Jefferson’s vision of the separation of church and state, but the issue of immigration simply transcends those boundaries (catch the irony in that statement?). Nothing is more fundamental to the tenets of humanity in the world we humans have created for ourselves in 2025, than how to deal with immigration. Nothing issue defines us more than the issue of how we choose to react to those who are NOT in our closest concentric circles of importance. The very challenge of Christianity (and Judaism, Islam and all other major religions) is in how we treat those outside our closest concentric circles of interest. Will we be the Border Czar who advocates for mass deportation, the priest who crosses the road and ignores Christ’s ministry, or will we choose to be the Good Samaritan?

Who we define as our neighbor has plagued mankind for millennia. The 2,000 year old man even chanted, “let em all go to Hell, except Cave 76”, so we have recognized and made fun of our problem for many years. I don’t deny that it’s a conundrum in a world of 8 billion souls, and that there are practical limits to our resources and thus our humanity. But the Good Samaritan had the means to help and he did so. We certainly have the means to help and we should do so. So, instead of justifying our lack of prioritization of humanity over nationalistic interests through papal debate, we should be listening to the College of Cardinals and trying to find a path that allows us to embrace mercy and spend some time rhetorically washing the feet of the neediest among us.