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VATICAN CITY (RNS) \u2013 This 4th<\/sup> of July, on the 250th<\/sup> anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, the first American-born pope chose to spend the day in the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a symbol of the immigrant influx polarizing the political debate in Europe.<\/p>\n The same day, Pope Leo XIV also issued a letter to the United States, reminding the country of its duty to uphold religious freedom and the respect of human life, including the unborn and immigrants.<\/p>\n In the letter, Leo described religious freedom as among \u201cthe most cherished\u201d of America\u2019s founding principles, allowing people to worship freely, without coercion or fear. He also pointed to \u201cthe God-given dignity of every human life\u201d as a guiding principle that \u201cleads to recognizing the importance of safeguarding human life from its beginning at conception until natural death,\u201d including the vulnerable and forgotten.<\/p>\n \u201cDefending human life also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning,\u201d Leo write.<\/p>\n The pope recognized the role that immigrants have had in shaping the U.S., writing \u201cto receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person.\u201d<\/p>\n Leo and President Donald Trump have been at odds<\/a> on the questions of immigration and war. In October, the pope criticized<\/a> the \u201cinhuman\u201d treatment of immigrants in his home country and six months later warned that war \u201cis never blessed by God,\u201d adding that America\u2019s preemptive attack on Iran did not qualify as \u201cjust war\u201d according to Catholic teaching.<\/p>\n The pope said this year\u2019s anniversary is not just a cause for celebration, but also an opportunity to reflect on the responsibilities that American citizens bear to one another and to future generations. \u201cWe need one another, and we need to work together in unity to confront the challenges that the world is facing today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Leo\u2019s words echoed many of the themes<\/a> he addressed in his live video remarks to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Friday (July 3).<\/p>\n While in Lampedusa, the pope visited a cemetery where many immigrants \u2014 including children \u2014 who did not survive the deadly Mediterranean crossing from Africa are buried. He also met with migrant families and charity workers there, before visiting the port named after his predecessor Pope Francis.<\/p>\n Francis chose Lampedusa as his first papal trip on July 8, 2013, announcing to the world that safeguarding immigrants would become a key concern of his papacy. From that spot, Francis first called out what he described as \u201cthe globalization of indifference.\u201d<\/p>\n Standing before 4,000 people at the open field \u201carena\u201d in Lampedusa, Leo celebrated Mass and picked up the torch of his predecessor, launching a message meant to be heard across Europe and in the United States: to act as neighbors to the global community.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them,\u201d the pope said, in his homily drawing from the story of the Good Samaritan. \u201cThis is the heart of the Gospel parable: we become neighbors by acting as neighbors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance clashed with Catholic leaders in 2025 over the question of who should be considered a neighbor. Citing the Catholic concept of \u201cordo amoris,\u201d or the order of love, Vance argued that a person\u2019s first duties are, in order: to family, neighbors, community and fellow national citizens before the rest of the world. Pope Francis later pushed back<\/a> on that interpretation in a letter to U.S. bishops, writing that the \u201ctrue ordo amoris\u201d is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan and in a love open to all, without exception.<\/p>\n Leo pointed to indifference and corruption, an economy that generates poverty and exclusion, and the criminal networks that profit from human trafficking as examples of the tendency to ignore and \u201cpass by\u201d the suffering of others.<\/p>\n In this context, Leo once again spoke about how \u201creligious affiliation must never become a reason for discrimination.\u201d He appealed to Catholics to draw inspiration from popes, prophets and martyrs to \u201cgive spiritual, cultural, legal, political and economic expression to the civilization of love,\u201d in light of the suffering that exists in the world.<\/p>\n He also reminded Europe of its potential to rise to \u201cthe momentous challenge that the phenomenon of migration poses,\u201d by building institutional frameworks and relief efforts to receive, protect and support migrants while also assist developing countries so people are not forced to migrate.<\/p>\n The pope concluded his homily by asking for the Our Lady of Safe Harbor, one of the titles of the Virgin Mary, to encourage people and give them strength despite hardship. He then left Lampedusa and retuned to the Vatican.<\/p>\n
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