Criticism of Pope Francis’ Letter to the US Bishops on Immigration: Some Measured, Some Blunt

When asked by a journalist about the “harsh words” Pope Francis had for President Trump’s immigration policies as expressed in yesterday’s letter of Roman Pontiff to the US Bishops, the administration’s “Border Czar,” Tom Homan, said, bluntly,

I’ve got harsh words for the Pope. The Pope ought to fix the Catholic Church. I’m saying this as a lifelong Catholic. I was baptized Catholic, [received] my first Communion as a Catholic, confirmation as a Catholic. He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us. He wants to attack us securing our border? He has got a wall around the Vatican, does he not? So he has a wall to protect his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States.

Here is a less-than-one-minute video of Homan’s remarks, by Forbes Breaking News:

A piece by Rachel Quackenbush at CatholicVote quotes the Vice President of CatholicVote, Josh Mercer, expressing a less blunt, more moderately worded criticism:

Those closest to the Pope have failed to give him the full picture of the humanitarian crisis we have experienced this last four years,” Mercer said. “Biden’s border policies were a boon to Mexican cartels, who made $30 million a day smuggling drugs and people across our southern border. This reckless open border policy allowed migrant women and children to be exploited. When Trump took office there were 300,000 migrant children who were missing.

American Catholics have compassion for the plight of people in other countries and have long shown incredible generosity to other countries. But we don’t understand why our already-generous immigration laws are not respected.

Then there’s this, from R. R. Reno at First Things:

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