Leo, the first American pope, criticized nationalist policies.
At a mass in St. Peter’s Square attended by tens of thousands of people, Leo asked God to “open borders, tear down walls [and] eliminate hatred.”
There is no place for bigotry, the pope said, neither for “security zones” that separate us from our neighbors nor for the “exclusivist mentality” that we are now unfortunately also seeing in political nationalism.
Leo, the first pope from the United States, was elected on May 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis as leader of the 1.4 billion Catholic community.
According to the report, before becoming pope, Leo was not shy about criticizing US President Donald Trump and, in recent years, had posted several posts criticizing Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, on the social network “X”.
Pope Leo’s critical remarks today came as the city of Los Angeles became the scene of intense police clashes with anti-immigration protesters following raids by federal immigration agents and the arrest of dozens of people.
Also, while Trump recently ordered the deployment of the National Guard amid confrontations between federal agents and protesters over immigration policies, California National Guard troops entered downtown Los Angeles today, Sunday.
Francis, who was pope for 12 years, was also a fierce critic of Trump. The late pontiff said in January that the US president’s plan to deport millions of immigrants during his second term was “a disgrace.”
Francis had previously said that Donald Trump was “not Christian” because of his views on immigration.
In 2016, when Trump was first nominated for president of the United States, he said regarding Trump’s statements about deporting illegal immigrants, especially South American immigrants, and building a wall on the US-Mexico border, “Anyone who only thinks about building a wall anywhere and not building a bridge is not a Christian,” and that Trump’s beliefs are outside the commands of the Bible.
According to IRNA, Newsweek had previously written in a report referring to the latest posts of “Pope Leo XIV” on social media that these actions reflect his criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.