Pope Leo has strongly criticized Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, questioning whether they were in line with the Catholic church’s “pro-life” teachings.
“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” the pontiff told journalists outside the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills, near Rome.
The Catholic church’s position that life is sacred from conception until natural death is one of the 1.4 billion-member religious denomination’s strongest teachings.
Leo, the first American pope, was responding to a question from a US journalist who asked about the country’s politics.
The White House said Trump was elected based on his many promises, including mass deportations, which have become an issue of fierce political division among US voters. “He is keeping his promise to the American people,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Elected in May to replace the late Pope Francis, Leo has shown a much more reserved style than his predecessor, who frequently criticized the Trump administration.
Leo was asked about a decision by the archdiocese of Chicago to give an award to Dick Durbin, a Democratic Illinois senator who supports abortion rights. The move has attracted vocal criticism from conservative Catholics, including several US bishops.
“It is very important to look at the overall work that the senator has done,” said the pope, Reuters reported.
“I understand the difficulty and the tensions but I think, as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the church,” he said.
“Someone who says I am against abortion but says I am in favour of the death penalty is not really pro-life.”
The Chicago archdiocese’s decision to confer a lifetime award on Durbin next month was immediately plunged into controversy when Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, the leader of the church in the Illinois capital of Springfield, objected, saying Durbin was “unfit to receive the proposed award or any Catholic honor”. Some other groups also objected.
Durbin on Tuesday night turned down the award that he was to receive on 3 November, the State Journal-Register reported.
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago said on the archdiocese website, where Durbin’s withdrawal was announced, that he was saddened by the news that he would not accept the Keep Hope Alive award, but he respected his decision.
“But I want to make clear that the decision to present him an award was specifically in recognition of his singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants, which is so needed in our day,” Cupich wrote. He added that he was witnessing divisions with the Catholic community in the US “dangerously deepen” and called it a tragedy.
Durbin announced in April that he will not seek re-election in 2026, after almost 30 years in the Senate.
