Pope Leo’s Top Deputy: Trump-Vance ICE Killings in Minneapolis Are An Affront to God
Just back from Denmark — where he warned against U.S. threats to Greenland — Cardinal Pietro Parolin blasted the “unacceptable” deaths of two Americans during an ICE operation in Minneapolis.
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Pope Leo’s top deputy isn’t mincing words. On Thursday in Rome, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin condemned the deadly crackdown in Minneapolis that left two U.S. citizens dead during a federal immigration raid.
“The position of the Holy See is always to avoid any kind of violence, and therefore we cannot accept episodes of this kind,” Parolin told reporters, calling the situation “unacceptable.”
The Vatican’s second-in-command stressed that even in the face of immigration challenges, “difficulties, problems and contradictions must be resolved in other ways” — not with bullets and bloodshed.
Parolin’s remarks came on the heels of an unusually strong statement from Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. bishops’ conference, who denounced the Minnesota incident and a related detainee’s death as “examples of the violence” that betray America’s fundamental respect for life.
In Minneapolis, outraged Catholics and community members have joined in prayer vigils for the victims. The message from Church leaders at home and in Rome was unmistakable: enough is enough with policies that inflict lethal harm on civilians.
Defending Greenland’s Sovereignty
Parolin’s public rebuke in Minnesota’s case came just days after he returned from a two-day mission in Denmark — a trip where the Vatican diplomat found himself defending an entire nation against White House ambitions.
President Donald Trump has been pressuring U.S. allies over Greenland, at one point even floating the idea of acquiring the vast Arctic territory. European leaders reacted with alarm, and Parolin, visiting Copenhagen as Pope Leo’s special legate, lent the Holy See’s weight to Denmark’s corner.
“Conscience and reason can no longer tolerate violations of sovereignty in their most diverse forms,” the cardinal warned, responding to Trump’s threats toward Greenland. He reminded world leaders that any solution “based on force cannot be used.”
In fact, Denmark’s allies welcomed the Vatican’s moral support: French President Emmanuel Macron flew to Copenhagen the very next day to declare France’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland.
Thanks in part to back-channel dialogues — including outreach from Denmark’s foreign minister to Washington that Parolin helped facilitate — tensions have started to ease. “We are moving toward a solution, an agreement. Let us hope it is so,” Parolin reported, noting Danish officials were heartened by the Holy See’s stance.
In their actions, Pope Leo’s Vatican made clear that bullying a smaller nation, like spilling blood in Minneapolis, crosses a red line.
A Vatican Offensive Against Trump’s Agenda
From the Midwest to the Arctic, Cardinal Parolin’s interventions are part of a remarkable Vatican offensive against what Pope Leo XIV views as the moral offenses of the Trump regime.
Since his election, Leo — the first U.S.-born pope — has been unafraid to challenge President Trump by name and policy.
He’s warned of the “extremely disrespectful” treatment of migrants by U.S. authorities and blasted the growing “zeal for war” he sees in world affairs.
Last November, Pope Leo gave his blessing to an extraordinary message from U.S. bishops that denounced the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people” as an assault on human dignity.
Church observers note that this papacy’s outspokenness is a sharp break from the past.
“Leo is the pope for this moment,” theology professor Vincent Miller told Axios — a leader “utterly unambiguous” in his criticism of Trump’s policies.
Indeed, the Catholic Church under Leo XIV has become an unlikely bulwark of resistance. In Washington, the Trump White House finds itself confronted not only by politicians or protesters, but by an ancient religious institution rallying to protect the vulnerable.
America’s bishops have increasingly found their voice: they’ve pleaded for a more moral foreign policy and even suggested that U.S. troops can refuse unlawful orders that violate conscience. On issue after issue, Pope Leo’s Vatican is drawing a Gospel line in the sand.
The principle is simple, as vividly illustrated by Cardinal Parolin this week: whether it’s an immigrant family in Minnesota or an entire people in Greenland, no government’s “law and order” agenda can justify treating our brothers and sisters as expendable.
In Pope Leo’s eyes, such assaults on human life and dignity are serious sins — and he has charged his Church to stand firm against them. That moral stand was on full display in Parolin’s blunt verdict on Minneapolis: unacceptable. It echoes all the way from Rome to the streets of Minneapolis and the icy expanse of Greenland.
And it signals that the Vatican, under Leo XIV’s bold leadership, will continue speaking truth to power until the powerful get the message.
But as Cardinal Cupich said earlier this week, Pope Leo cannot take up the fight for justice alone. He’s calling all of us — Catholic or not — to join him in this mission.
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We had a vigil in my small Ohio town, a suburb of Cincinnati, yesterday evening honoring lives lost and families impacted by ICE. Many of the folks present were Catholic- as is only right given Catholic Social Justice teachings. I’m so thankful for Pope Leo’s leadership on this travesty.
At mass this morning the priest asked that we pray for all immigrants and homeless, for the people of Minneapolis, to end the violence and hate that has overtaken our country. Our priests always mention the problems going on in our country.