In Rebuke of Trumpism, Pope Leo Says the Future Isn’t Walls and Barbed Wire

Leo calls faith used to justify exclusion blasphemy and says act “now, not tomorrow.”

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Here’s the latest edition of that series on the Vatican’s most powerful woman and one of Leo’s closest confidants.

This past week, Pope Leo XIV urged young Christians to reject political nationalism, telling a Vatican audience: “For believers, the future is not one of walls and barbed wire, but one of mutual acceptance.”

The line came in an address to youth leaders linked to church initiatives around the Mediterranean.

However, Leo’s argument stretched far beyond the region.

He warned that peace too often becomes a slogan and said it must be practiced “in our homes, our communities, our schools and workplaces.”

The point was plain: Christian witness is measured in how we meet the people in our midst, not in how tall our fences stand.

He invoked Italian politician Giorgio La Pira’s conviction that reconciliation along one shore can ripple outward.

Leo also urged them to act without delay: “Now, not tomorrow.”

In recent years, many countries have answered increased migration with higher fences, new razor wire, and faster and harsher deportation policies.

The American pope’s moral argument is particularly poignant here in the United States, where President Trump’s ICE raids have driven terror across the nation, especially in Catholic communities.

His question is simple: do our choices make neighbors out of strangers, or hide strangers behind walls?

When religion is used to justify violence or exclusion, he said, it becomes a “blasphemy” that dishonors God.

Against that distortion, he called believers to be “patient builders of unity” and “the voice of those who have no voice” with work that starts small: legal aid for newcomers, host families, schools that enroll the child who arrived last week, and communities that pair welcome with accountability.

Christians can and will argue over legitimate instruments of migration control — screening rules, lawful entry points, humane enforcement.

But Pope Leo’s north star remains: the stranger remains a person to be received and protected, not a problem to be fenced away.

Leo’s closing emphasis was practical. Cultivate prayer and action together; reject the fear that freezes generosity and build habits of encounter that outlast eras of extreme anti-immigration fervor.

In short, practice love in your own backyard — and then keep going.