Pope Leo Defends Migrants in Istanbul as Trump-Vance Call for Total Immigration Shutdown
The first American pope uses his first overseas trip to defend migrants — even as MAGA pushes for a total shutdown of migration back home.
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At Istanbul’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Friday, Pope Leo XIV gazed out at a “little flock” of Turkish Catholics — a tiny community comprising just 0.05% of Turkey’s population.
Instead of lamenting their insignificance, the first American pope urged them to see grace in being small. “When we look with God’s eyes, we discover that he has chosen the way of littleness,” Leo said, pointing to the mustard seed and the “little ones” Jesus praised.
The true strength of the Church, he explained, “does not lie in her resources or structures” or in numbers or influence, “but in remaining gathered around Christ and sent by the Holy Spirit.”
In other words, the Gospel grows quietly from humility, not through displays of dominance.
The pope warned that the Church strays from Christ whenever it starts chasing wealth, political clout, or big crowds — a temptation to power that he insisted must be rejected if Christians are to be faithful.
Leo’s speech — delivered in a city that was once the heart of Byzantine Christian grandeur — deliberately flipped the script on what greatness means. He cautioned the Turkish faithful not to treat their rich heritage as mere nostalgia for past glory.
Instead, he called them to adopt God’s perspective: to recognize that the Almighty chose to come into the world in littleness, as a child in a manger on society’s margins.
“The Kingdom of God,” Leo reminded, “does not impose itself with displays of power.” In this paradoxical “logic of littleness” lies the true strength of the Church.”
Far from seeking privilege or dominance, the pope said, Christians should be known by their Christ-like humility and care for those on the peripheries. He even quoted Jesus’ reassuring words — “Do not be afraid, little flock” — to encourage this minority community to have hope.
That hope, Pope Leo stressed, must translate into concrete love, especially for migrants and refugees.
Turkey today hosts millions of displaced people, so Leo urged the Church there to step up as servants to “the most vulnerable people” arriving at their shores.
He lauded Turkish Catholics’ diversity — many are immigrants themselves — and said this calls for a deeper inculturation, a process of making the local language and culture “more and more your own.”
In short, Leo argued migrants should be welcomed and helped to integrate, enriching their new society without losing their identity.
Pope Leo’s vision is of a Church that walks with the outsider: listening to young migrants’ questions, providing for their needs, and building unity across cultures and religions.
It’s a vision utterly opposed to the idea that greatness is measured by might.
In Istanbul, the American pope chose the road of the Beatitudes — blessing the poor, the peacemakers, the meek — over any instinct to grasp at power.
As he prayed with Turkey’s tiny Catholic minority, Leo XIV was lifting up the little ones as the path for the Church’s future.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, a very different response to the little ones was unfolding in Washington, DC. Here’s what happened.
