After all, this is a pontiff who chose to visit the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa on his very first trip outside of Rome following his election as pope to pay tribute to the lives of migrants lost at sea and spotlight the “globalization of indifference” towards their plight.

So this week, on Feb. 11, when the Vatican published a letter from the pope to U.S. bishops warning that Trump’s mass deportations plans would “end badly” and rejecting the administration’s characterization of migrants as criminals, no one should have been shocked by Francis’ concerns.

According to one senior Vatican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the pope has closely followed the response of U.S. prelates to Trump’s attacks on migrants and he expects them to offer a united front in opposing any mass deportation efforts.

What is novel about this latest papal correspondence, however, is the manner in which the pope directly responded to a recent effort by Vice President JD Vance to use Catholic theology to justify the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, invoked the ancient theological concept of ordo amoris to argue in a Fox News interview and later on social media platform X that “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.”

The pope didn’t buy it.

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” Francis wrote in his letter to U.S. bishops. “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.”

Mike Lewis writes:

While he acknowledges the need for policies that regulate orderly and legal migration, Francis warns that any approach built on force rather than on recognizing the truth of infinite human dignity “begins badly and will end badly.” For years, the United States government has been unwilling or unable to enact comprehensive immigration reform that has made it impossible for many to enter the country legally. As a document from the US Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) explains, “Under current laws, no ‘line’ for lawful immigration to the United States actually exists for the majority of our immigrants.”

The result has been a broken down system in which we benefit economically from the labor of millions of undocumented workers who have crossed the border illegally. They are often exploited by employers, landlords, and others as part of an underclass. In many cases they work in menial jobs and are underpaid. Typically they do not receive healthcare or many other benefits enjoyed by those who are here legally. And now, after decades of tolerating this system, it seems we are ready to cast them aside as an offering to a merciless but powerful political constituency.

He commends the U.S. bishops for their efforts in working closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ, and promoting fundamental human rights. Indeed, many of the US Bishops have spoken out against the inhumane and scandalous words and actions of the Trump administration towards migrants and refugees. The pope assures the bishops that God will richly reward their protection and defense of those considered less valuable or less human. Further, he exhorts all faithful and people of goodwill “not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.”

Elizabeth Bruenig writes:

Catholic politicians disputing the bishops’ witness to the faith is nothing new, though the allegations of avarice and corruption are somewhat surprising, and presage bitter conflict ahead. Perhaps that could be helpful, insofar as it would sharply distinguish the teaching of the Church from certain politicized versions of Catholicism tailored to the ideological preferences of their confessors. The Church is called to be a sign of contradiction—a bulwark of Christian priorities against the demands of the political and cultural eras that the faithful pass through. Comporting with political and cultural demands is what politicians do; the degree to which Catholic politicians do the same is the degree to which they ought to suspect themselves spiritually compromised. Perhaps they all are, and perhaps so are we.

In fact, the tendency of humankind to be self-serving and deceitful is part of what makes me believe that Christianity is at its purest and most beautiful when it is counterintuitive and unwieldy—that is, when it is least amenable to human convenience. The command to love even those who aren’t your kith and kin is an excellent example of just that. The command to serve the weakest and most outcast members of society is another. Thus, the decision to love and serve the stranger, the refugee, and the foreigner with charity is a hallmark of the Christian faith, such that a government crackdown on this work seems to be a threat to Christian practice itself, or an attempt to reshape it into something else altogether.

You can read the pope’s letter here.