Pope Leo offers his strongest criticism of Trump yet

Born in Chicago, Pope Leo – or Robert Prevost as he was then – spent much of his working life as a missionary in Peru, an experience that has also shaped his approach. "I think this is an issue that matters to him personally," Professor Anna Rowlands of Durham University said. "He has lived in countries affected by these policies, and been welcomed himself as a migrant. He was in effect a migrant bishop." In his first major document, published last month, Pope Leo revealed that the issues of poverty and migration would remain at the heart of his papacy. He stressed that message at a recent meeting in the Vatican with US bishops. "Leo offers an entirely orthodox response" to migration, Prof Rowlands pointed out, "straight down the line." He is, she said, citing a church tradition stretching back more than 100 years on the issue, that includes ensuring the rights of families to remain together and protecting their spiritual needs. The Pope underlined that last point himself when journalists asked about an immigration facility near Chicago where detainees have reportedly been barred from receiving communion. Many people targeted in the ICE raids are Catholic, from the Americas. "I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people," he said. On Venezuela, and the Trump administration's policy of targeting ships and killing crew members, the Pope called for dialogue and calm. "I think that with violence we won't win," he said in Italian. He suggested that the deployment of US Navy vessels close to Venezuela was increasing tension rather than working to "defend the peace."