Faith, Borders, and Conscience:
A Catholic Reflection on Pope Leo XIV’s Recent Comments
By Chris M. Forte
When Pope Leo XIV speaks, the world listens. His recent remarks on immigration enforcement, abortion, and the death penalty in the United States have stirred praise, discomfort, and debate — even among devout Catholics.
He’s challenged American Catholics to consider whether one can truly be “pro-life” while supporting strict immigration policies, questioned the moral consistency of certain political ideologies, and reiterated the Church’s evolving opposition to capital punishment.
As a lifelong Catholic, I take the Holy Father’s words seriously. But as a thinking Catholic, I also believe in discernment — in prayerfully engaging Church teaching, Scripture, and reason.
1. What Pope Leo Actually Said
In October 2025, Pope Leo spoke about U.S. immigration enforcement, calling the mistreatment of migrants “a grave crime” and reminding the faithful that he himself is “the descendant of immigrants.”
“Where there is love, there is no room for borders of hatred, no room for security zones that separate us from our neighbors.” — Pope Leo XIV (Reuters, Oct 23 2025)
In another interview, he warned that political movements emphasizing exclusion “cannot call themselves pro-life” if they disregard the suffering of migrants.
“Someone who says, ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants’ — I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” — Pope Leo XIV (The Guardian, Oct 2025)
The Holy Father’s words were pastoral, not partisan. Yet for many faithful Catholics — myself included — they raised serious questions about moral equivalence, law, and prudence.
2. Immigration: Dignity and Law
I agree wholeheartedly that migrants and refugees must be treated with dignity as children of God. The Catechism affirms this:
“The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of security and livelihood.” — CCC §2241
But the same paragraph adds an often-overlooked clause:
“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good… may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the person’s duties toward their country of adoption.” — CCC §2241
In other words, the Church calls for mercy and order.
Welcoming the stranger and enforcing immigration law are not opposites; they’re moral complements.
I believe we should continue to welcome immigrants — but lawfully, with due process, background checks, and respect for national borders. Compassion without structure becomes chaos; structure without compassion becomes cruelty. True Christian charity lives in the tension between both.
3. Abortion and Immigration: Not Moral Equivalents
Here I must respectfully disagree with the Holy Father’s comparison between abortion and immigration enforcement.
Abortion directly and intentionally takes an innocent human life. Deportation, while sometimes tragic, sends a person back to their homeland — it does not end a human life.
“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion… abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.” — CCC §2271–72
To equate these actions risks confusing their moral gravity. One involves unjust killing; the other involves governance and law.
That distinction matters. It’s possible to be pro-life and still believe in enforcing immigration laws.
Defending the unborn and defending national sovereignty are not mutually exclusive.
So when the Pope says, “I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” I answer respectfully: Yes, it can be — if one defends life from conception to natural death while also defending lawful order.
4. The Death Penalty: Where I Find Agreement
Here, I actually find myself in closer alignment with Pope Leo XIV.
I believe the death penalty should remain theoretically permissible for the most heinous crimes — but in practice, I agree with the Church’s modern caution. Until our justice system can guarantee that no innocent person is executed and that justice is applied without bias, the death penalty should remain off the table except in the rarest cases.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” — CCC §2267
The dignity of human life — even of the guilty — must be upheld. Justice without mercy ceases to be just.
5. How Catholics Should Respond When We Disagree
Disagreement with the Pope can be delicate, but it is not rebellion. The Church distinguishes between doctrinal authority (on faith and morals) and prudential judgment (on social or political applications).
When the Pope speaks about immigration or economic policy, he teaches moral principles — not necessarily binding policy prescriptions. We owe him religious respect and serious consideration, but we are not bound to agree on every prudential conclusion.
What we must do:
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Listen carefully. Understand his words in context.
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Study the Catechism. Know what is doctrine and what is prudence.
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Pray for the Pope. Always.
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Speak with charity. Disagreement must never become disrespect.
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Stay in communion. A Catholic remains Catholic even when conscience requires nuance.
As St. Catherine of Siena — a laywoman who once admonished popes — said:
“Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”
We can follow conscience within obedience, not outside it.
6. My Perspective in a Sentence
I believe we can — and must — be both pro-life and pro-law.
We can love the unborn and the immigrant, while recognizing that the two issues are morally distinct.
We can uphold mercy without sacrificing order, and justice without surrendering compassion.
As I often tell friends:
“I don’t have a Bible-based Church. I have a Church-based Bible.”
And that Church teaches both mercy and moral law — both welcome the stranger and render to Caesar.
7. Final Thoughts
Pope Leo XIV’s heart is in the right place: he calls the world to see Christ in every person, including migrants, prisoners, and the condemned. His vision challenges our comfort zones — and that’s what a pope should do.
But as a Catholic layman trying to live faith in the real world, I also see the need for balance. Law and order are not the enemies of charity; they’re its framework.
So yes — let’s welcome the stranger. Let’s protect the unborn. Let’s guard against injustice in capital punishment.
But let’s also enforce just laws, defend borders, and uphold national sovereignty — always with compassion, but also with clarity.
Because as Catholics, we are called not just to feel love, but to order it rightly.
“Truth without love is cruelty. Love without truth is sentimentality. But love ordered by truth is divine.”
That’s the kind of love I believe Christ calls us to — and the kind I believe Pope Leo, deep down, calls us to as well.
Sources & References
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Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§2241, 2267, 2271–72.
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Dei Verbum (1965).
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Gaudium et Spes (1965).
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Pope Leo XIV, interviews reported by Reuters (Oct 23 2025), The Guardian (Oct 1 2025), and Politico (Oct 8 2025).
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USCCB: Catholic Teaching on Immigration and the Movement of Peoples (usccb.org).
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Catherine of Siena, Letters.
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