When he made his first foreign trip as president, Donald Trump made a trip to the Vatican. While there, Pope Francis not-so-subtly criticized Trump by gifting the President with one of his encyclical letters about climate change. Now, the pontiff has once again criticized Trump by saying that repealing DACA would be extremely detrimental to families.
During a flight from Colombia, shortly after he suffered a minor injury inside the pope mobile, a reporter cited Pope Francis enthusiastically speaking to crowds of young people about hope and the future and asked if abolishing DACA robbed young people of those things:
While acknowledging that he had not been able to study the DACA decision in detail, Francis spoke about the challenges facing young immigrants more generally, saying that “to take away young people from their families is not something that bears fruit, neither for the young people nor for their families.” Referring to the current negotiations over a legislative solution, the pope expressed “hope that it can be re-thought a little.”
Then, in a highly significant remark, Pope Francis referred to President Donald J. Trump, saying, “I have heard it said that the president of the United States presents himself as a man who is pro-life, and if he is a good pro-life [man] then he will understand that the family is the cradle of life, and that it must be defended as a unit.”
Pope Francis then reiterated that he needed to study the DACA issue more but concluded that “young people today need to find again their roots, and whatever goes against the roots takes away their hopes.”
In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, former Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon blasted criticism the administration had received from U.S. Catholic bishops while accusing the Church of having “an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration” in order to fill its church services with undocumented worshipers. If the White House is still keeping in touch with its Breitbart contingent (or even not), the President could also fire back on Twitter in no time.
(Via America Magazine & The Guardian)