By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY (Worthy News) – The border czar in the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump has accused Pope Francis of hypocrisy for condemning mass deportations of illegal immigrants in the United States while living at the Vatican, which is surrounded by a wall.
Tom Homan reacted to Pope Francis’ letter criticizing the Trump administration’s policies as unbiblical. Francis recalled that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were “emigrants” and “refugees” to escape “the wrath of an ungodly king.”
Yet Homan, who identified as a baptized and confirmed Catholic, said he “got harsh words for the pope.”
He urged the pontiff of over 1 billion Calling to first “fix the Catholic Church” and not “attack us for securing our border.”
Also, “He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not? So, he’s got a wall around to protect his people and himself but we can’t have a wall around the United States?”, the official added.
“I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us,” Homan concluded.
MORE CONTROVERSIES
It wasn’t the first time that Francis’ actions raised eyebrows. In 2016, three Syrian refugee families flew to the Vatican with Pope Francis following his brief but provocative visit to a Greek island at the center of the European migrant crisis.
“The Pope has desired to make a gesture of welcome regarding refugees, accompanying on his plane to Rome three families of refugees from Syria, 12 people in all, including six children,” the Vatican said at the time after the pope’s plane took off from Lesbos, Greece.
Fast forward, Francis suggested in his letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday that the United States should embrace migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty.
He noted the “major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations.”
Francis acknowledged that “one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.
However, he added that “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest Stories from Worthy News
Hamas has formally rejected Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal, criticizing it as a “partial” deal that fails to guarantee a complete end to the war or a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The United States may abandon efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine within days if no clear progress is made, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on April 18. Speaking after talks in Paris with European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said President Trump is prepared to “move on” from the negotiations in the absence of any clear signs of progress.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced a Christian man to death on Good Friday on controversial charges of blasphemy against Islam, Christians told Worthy News.
Christians across autocratically-ruled Nicaragua “are celebrating Holy Week” leading up to Easter under the watchful eye of police and paramilitary forces, Christians told Worthy News on Good Friday.
Italy’s rightwing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says U.S. President Donald J. Trump has accepted her invitation for an official trip to Rome at a time when the third largest economy in the European Union tries to bridge differences between the EU and the U.S. over trade and security.