"In 'Dilexi te' (I have loved you), Leo called for global support for immigrants, invoking the late Pope Francis' rebuke of Trump-era immigration crackdowns. "The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking," the pontiff wrote. "She knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community." "No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem; they are part of our 'family,'" he continued."
""The experience of migration accompanies the history of the People of God," he wrote. "Mary and Joseph flee with the child Jesus to Egypt. Christ himself, who 'came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him'... lived among us as a stranger. For this reason, the Church has always recognized in migrants a living presence of the Lord.""
"Leo also sent a separate message Thursday to Catholic Charities USA, praising its work with migrants and urging members to keep serving as "agents of hope" despite a federal funding freeze. "I encourage you, then, to continue helping the communities who receive these newly arrived brothers and sisters to be living witnesses of hope, recognizing that they have an intrinsic human dignity and are invited to participate fully in community life," he said."
Pope Leo XVI issued the encyclical Dilexi te calling for support for immigrants and invoking Pope Francis' rebuke of Trump-era immigration crackdowns. He wrote that the Church accompanies migrants like a mother and that rejected migrants embody Christ knocking at the community's door. He emphasized that the poor are part of the Church's family and shared biblical examples linking migration to Mary and Joseph's flight to Egypt and Christ's life as a stranger. Leo praised Catholic Charities USA, urged continued service as agents of hope despite a federal funding freeze, and intensified calls to welcome migrants amid increased deportations.
Read at Axios
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