In February 2025, a rumor spread across multiple social media platforms – including Facebook (archived), X, Instagram (archived) and LinkedIn (archived) – that Pope Francis wrote an open letter to U.S. bishops regarding the initiation of mass deportation. More specifically, one post claimed the pope "condemned Trump's immigration crackdown" and another said he "took specific aim at remarks made by J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert."
The letter (archived) is authentic. Pope Francis wrote it to the bishops of the United States. It began with an examination of the Church's doctrine and the biblical history regarding migration. "Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception," he wrote.
The pope then directly addressed the United States' immigration policies, writing:
I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.
Although the letter did not specifically address President Donald Trump or his administration — as the circulated posts implied — it did touch on comments Vice President JD Vance made just days earlier on Jan. 29, 2025, in which he said (at minute 4:37 in the video below):
There's this old school — and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.
In his letter, the pope appeared not only to reference, but to directly challenge Vance's comments about Christian love:
Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity. Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the "Good Samaritan" (cf. Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.
The "ordo amoris" the pope spoke of — Latin for "order of love" — is the medieval Catholic concept Vance paraphrased in his Jan. 29 interview with Fox News. The next day, Vance told his followers on X to Google "ordo amoris."
Vance became a Catholic in 2019. He addressed the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 28, 2025, and appeared to directly reference the pope's letter (at minute 22:47). "As you've probably seen, publicly, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has criticized some of our policies when it comes to immigration," he began.
In sum, the letter by Pope Francis about immigration policies in the United States discussed in widely circulated social media posts is authentic. It did not specifically reference Trump, Vance or the Trump administration by name, but the letter did appear to refer to a specific Catholic concept Vance had invoked days earlier.