POPE LEO XIV: CARDINAL ROBERT PREVOST BECOMES FIRST-EVER AMERICAN PONTIFF

Shared ideals on immigration with Pope Francis

Leo shared an America Magazine article on Feb. 13 that recounted Pope Francis’s criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policy and of Vice President JD Vance’s defense of it.

Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration https://t.co/Ikk8gqOMzn

— Robert Prevost (@drprevost) February 13, 2025

“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis said in a letter to American bishops. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”

Francis also commented on the “ordo amoris” or “order of love” espoused by Vance to justify immigration control in an interview. “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world,” Vance said. He claimed that the “far left” has inverted that.

Vance said the concept is “basic common sense” because one’s moral duties to one’s children outweigh those “to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away.”

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’, that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,” Francis wrote.

JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others https://t.co/hDKPKuMXmu via @NCRonline

— Robert Prevost (@drprevost) February 3, 2025

The former pope often clashed with the Trump administration over migrants and had done so for years.

He spoke about them on Easter Sunday this year, the day before he died. “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!” he said. “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas.”

Francis criticized Trump when he was a presidential candidate in February 2016, saying, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”

Trump said at the time that it was “disgraceful” for Francis to question his faith.

Pope Leo XIV‘s past support for DACA and other left-leaning positions

Francis also criticized Trump during his first term in 2017 for rescinding the DACA program that allowed children of illegal immigrants to enter the United States.

“The President of the United States presents himself as pro-life and if he is a good pro-lifer, he understands that family is the cradle of life and its unity must be protected,” Francis said.

Leo mirrored Francis’s thoughts on DACA while also appearing to signal his support for gun control. The new pope reposted Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) post on X pleading with Republicans after the Las Vegas shooting in 2017. “To my colleagues: your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers. None of this ends unless we do something to stop it,” Murphy said in October 2017.

Leo reposted a social media post critical of DACA’s revocation from Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich in June 2018. “There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages. This is being carried out in our name and the shame is on us all,” Cupich wrote. He added that there was “no biblical justification for building internment camps for children torn away from their parents.”

ROBERT PREVOST ELECTED FIRST AMERICAN PONTIFF: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT POPE LEO XIV

There are several other instances of Leo reposting pro-DACA content as well. The most illuminating of his support was the sharing of a social media post from Sister Helen Prejean in September 2017. I stand with the #Dreamers and all people who are working toward an immigration system that is fair, just, and moral. #DefendDACA #DACA,” the post read.

The new pope reposted a social media post in 2020 praying for George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, which ignited the Black Lives Matter movement. “We continue to pray for Mr. George Floyd and his family. In his honor, and as we prepare for Pentecost, we ask the Holy Spirit to unite us and heal our wounds. May all hatred, violence and prejudice be eradicated so that we may live in harmony and in the peace of Our Lord Jesus,” Arlington, Virginia, bishop Michael Francis Burbidge said in a post.

A conservative lean on abortion and gender ideology

Leo has shown conservative thought on other topics, including abortion and gender ideology. He said, “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” while he was a bishop in Chiclayo, Peru.

Like Francis was, and as is common in the Catholic Church, Leo is seemingly anti-abortion. He reposted a Catholic News Agency article that covered a Catholic group that was calling on former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to veto an abortion funding bill. He also reposted an article from the same outlet reporting on what “happens when babies survive abortion? A doctor’s alarming response.”