ROME — Pope Francis weighed in on U.S. politics Tuesday, slamming new measures to deport irregular immigrants and insisting that illegal entry into the country is not a crime.
The pontiff has taken the extraordinary step of writing an open letter to the U.S. bishops in which he opposes the mass deportation of migrants, while also berating U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance for allegedly misinterpreting the Augustinian concept of “ordo amoris” (the order of love).
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” he states. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”
The act of “deporting people who in many cases…
