Pope Francis on Tuesday harshly criticized President Trump’s policy of mass deportations and urged Catholics to reject anti-immigrant narratives in an unusually direct attack on the American administration.
In an open letter to American bishops, Francis said that deporting people who often come from difficult situations violates the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families.”
The pope wrote that he had “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” adding that any policy built on force “begins badly and will end badly.”
Francis has long been an advocate for migrants, and has made denouncing their plight a pillar of his papacy. He has called the issue a “shipwreck of civilization” and spoken out repeatedly against what he considers unwelcoming and unchristian migration policies around the world.
Pope Francis had criticized Mr. Trump’s anti-immigration plans when he was a presidential candidate, but the letter was one of the first public and explicit criticisms he has directed at the United States’ president since the election. Experts said it amounted to a steep escalation in the temper of the relationship between the Vatican and the American administration.
“It turns up the heat of the conflict,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University.