If you're Catholic, you'll notice a peculiar change since the election of Pope Leo XIV: Suddenly, everyone's quoting St. Augustine. You'll run into it on EWTN, in Catholic publications, on social media, and at Masses on Sunday.
Which pretty well tells us the leaders of the Church here in the states are big on finding a way to think like the new pope.
Pope Leo XIV, back when he was Cardinal Robert Prevost, had been the head of the Augustinian order, intensely focused on the introspective thinking and spirituality of St. Augustine.
So it ought to be no surprise that there's some shifting thinking on illegal immigration, subtle, but meaningfully different, much like Pope Leo himself. Much of the Church is coming around to a more sensible point of view that is way less confrontational against the Trump administration and which can be embraced by all sides of the political spectrum.
NEW: The first U.S. bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV—a refugee himself—is mobilizing priests to accompany migrants at immigration court on June 20.
— Christopher Hale (@chrisjollyhale) June 13, 2025
This is the kind of leadership Leo’s picking. pic.twitter.com/QTsutj6TDV
This is obvious in the pastoral letter of San Diego's new bishop, Michael Pham, and his two auxiliary bishops, Ramon Bejarano and Felipe Pulido, who lead the diocese Pope Francis viewed as most important to the question of illegal immigration.
According to the Latin Times:
Rev. Michael Pham, the first U.S. bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV, has called on priests, deacons and ministry leaders across the Diocese of San Diego to accompany asylum seekers to court on International Refugee Day, June 20.
In a joint letter with Reverends Ramón Bejarano and Felipe Pulido, Rev. Pham announced that a group of clergy and faith leaders will stand in solidarity with migrants at San Diego's federal courthouse from 7 to 10 a.m. The letter described the migrants' situation as a "difficult predicament," noting they are being summoned to court only to face swift expulsion from the country.
While acknowledging their presence is unlikely to change the outcome, they emphasized that migrants are treated with greater dignity simply by virtue of their being there.
"Following the court appearances, the faith leaders will have a press conference so that the clear message that people of faith stand with immigrants and refugees can be delivered to the broader public," the letter stated.
The letter should be read closely: All he's asking is that the Church should stand with illegal migrants being sent home, the practical aim of which is to ensure that they are less likely to be maltreated by lawmen, which I don't think is happening but it's no harm if he wants to stand with illegal migrants "in solidarity" to make it less likely.
He's not yelling about President Trump. He's not calling for any laws to be changed. He's not asking for mass amnesty -- he's clearly accepted the law as it is and he's not making the strange, disordered, impractical arguments for open borders we have effectively seen in the past by his predecessor, as well as Pope Francis. He sure as heck isn't doing what his predecessor, wokester Cardinal Robert McElroy did, which was to stand up at demonstrations and hold up a sign that said "Justice for Immigrants," as if America were somehow the bad guy here which had done illegal immigrants wrong.
All he's doing is coming to the aid of those in distress, recognizing them as human beings, and standing with them at what has to be a very hard time for them at the end of their ill-fated journey to the states. Even if one considers this too soft, no bishop could ever be expected to take any other stance.
The statement implicitly recognizes that the migrants are still human beings, which is well within any ethical teaching, and certainly within the teaching of the Church.
What's more, despite the problems the migrants have created for U.S. society, (something even Pope Leo has reportedly recognized), the statement recognizes that they are victims, too.
They had been lured by cartels, who made big dollars off their journeys. They traveled tens of thousands of miles, some in very rough and dangerous conditions. Many were victims of crimes. Many lost their meager fortunes. They were lied to by NGOs who coached them how to make phony asylum claims which didn't get through courts, and told they were 'legal' immigrants, which they weren't, the NGOs incentivized by more government funding for more immigrants.
Worst of all, they must come to realize that they were used as pawns in a vile political project to import Democrat voters by assimilating them into a new underclass to serve as future, and sometimes present voters, loyal only to them.
They were valuable as commodities to these money- and power-motivated players until the U.S. voters said 'no' and elected President Trump, demanding rule of law at the border.
Trump has to move with a hard hand because the law has been so badly abused. He has to make deportation so swift and certain that everyone eventually gets the message that illegal immigration is a dead end and the idea of engaging in it is unthinkable. This is the only way it to stop the border surge and the madness of judges and activists now that they are in.
But that doesn't mean the bishops forget the people, caught as they were in this maelstrom.
To stand with the migrants, and offer them a smile or a reassuring blessing and a wish of 'godspeed' on their return home after all the abuse they have been through, will undoubtedly be treasured by the migrants as they make their way back. It may be the only kindness they encounter. That's a Christian duty and an act that everyone on all sides of the spectrum can get behind. I certainly can. And with a wise letter and message like this, the divisions in the Church are likely to be repaired.
That's the Pope Leo effect. I think his bishops will succeed in this mission.
Image: KhanhTran21, via Wikipedia // CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed
