Pope Leo XIV has waded into U.S. politics, calling out the inconsistency of some Catholic conservatives when it comes to the treatment of immigrants.
While speaking with reporters Tuesday in Italy, the pope was asked about the controversy surrounding Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was set to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago for his work related to immigration advocacy.
Some criticized the announcement, pointing to Durbin’s support for abortion rights. Although Leo told reporters he wasn’t “very familiar with the case,” the Chicago-born pope said the award was likely a recognition of the senator’s “overall work” during his decades in Congress. (Following the backlash, Durbin declined to accept the recognition.)
“I understand the difficulty and the tensions,” Leo continued. “But I think, as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to consider many issues related to the teaching of the church.” The pope then questioned whether more traditionally politically conservative ideas were in line with Catholic teachings.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion’ but says ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo said. “So someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Following Leo’s remarks, the co-hosts of “The Weeknight” offered their takes on the situation. “The pope is reminding us that morality is not a buffet [where] you can just choose compassion for some and cruelty for others,” Symone Sanders Townsend said Wednesday.
Michael Steele said that the American-born pope’s Augustinian identity — a Catholic religious order focused on community and charity — was on full display, and he was “loving every moment of it.” The former Republican National Committee chairman said the remarks gave people a moment of “insight into the papal thinking on a critical moral question.”
Steele said Leo was highlighting a problem he had long recognized among some in the Republican Party who looked at him “cockeyed” because he was “pro-life across the board.”
“You don’t get to say, ‘I’m pro-life for the baby in the womb but I’m not pro-life for the man sitting in the jail cell,’” Steele continued. “And this pope is saying you don’t get to make that choice, because the moral compass connects to both.”
Alicia Menendez asked her fellow co-hosts if they believed Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic, would follow Leo’s advice. Steele threw cold water on that suggestion: “No, JD Vance doesn’t understand what the hell this pope just said.”
You can watch the full discussion between Sanders Townsend, Steele and Menendez in the clip at the top of the page.