A ‘grave sin’? Balancing the Pope’s statement on migration

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 29, 2024

At his regular weekly audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis once again prompted howls of protest when he said that efforts to repel immigrants were “a grave sin.”

The angry reactions were understandable, because the Pope’s remarks were inflammatory. But most of the protests were off-target, because they missed the main thrust of the Pope’s Wednesday talk. If we are hoping for a serious debate on the crisis of migration, and we deplore the Pope’s incautious rhetoric, we should ourselves be careful to dispute what he said—not what he did not say.

At his audience the Pontiff broke from his usual pattern of giving catechetical talks (recently he has been speaking about the Holy Spirit), to talk about the plight of those who “are crossing seas and deserts to reach a land where they can live in peace and safety.” He immediately focused on the Mediterranean, saying that it has “become a cemetery,” as countless migrants from Northern Africa head for Europe on flimsy boats, with many drowning on the trip. In this context he made the statement that prompted all the headlines:

It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants—to repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin.

Notice here that the Pope was not condemning lawful restrictions on immigration. He was specifically addressing efforts to stop the boats approaching Europe and send them back, to face grave dangers on the open seas. Later in his talk he spoke of other migrants who “have been taken to the desert and abandoned.” So the “grave sin” he condemned was deliberate action that exposes migrants to imminent danger of death.

“Let us not forget what the Bible tells us,” the Pontiff said, citing Exodus 22:21: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him.” This is certainly not a novel teaching; it is an established principle of Judeo-Christian morality.

If he had wanted to give a balanced presentation of the question, the Pope might have mentioned that countless thousands of migrants are endangered by the unscrupulous human traffickers—in North America they are called “coyotes”—who profit by sending migrants abroad in unsafe conditions. He might also have rebuked the non-profit organizations—some of them subsidized by Catholic charities—that patrol the Mediterranean, helping travelers to flout immigration laws, and thus encouraging the flood of migrants.

Pope Francis insists that wealthy nations must help migrants, and in his Wednesday talk he recommended “extending safe and legal access routes for migrants, providing refuge for those who flee from war, violence, persecution and various disasters.” But he did not address the injustices committed by the nations that are driving people away from their homes, forcing refugees to face the dangers that he described. He did not, for instance, mention the oppressive government of Venezuela, which is now the world’s leading producer of emigrants: a topic on which the Vatican has been curiously silent.

Pope Francis has taken a lopsided approach to the migration issue, harping on the duties of wealthy nations without mentioning either the failures of the countries they are leaving or the responsibilities of the migrants themselves. The Catechism of the Catholic Chuch (2241) offers a much more balanced treatment. Note the 2nd paragraph in particular:

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.

Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.

Pope Francis could cool down the passions that he has stirred, and advance the teaching of the Catholic Church in the process, if he would convey—in full—the Catechism’s teaching on migration.