After more than a decade of chaos, confusion, and pseudo-progressive politics under the pontificate of the late Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV is restoring some sense of stability to the Vatican. The clarity of the pontiff’s words, however, would be greatly aided by a corresponding clarity in his actions. As our own Paul Kengor pointed out recently, Pope Leo has rejected the progressive, globalist call for open borders, instead reaffirming the Catholic Church’s longstanding support for national sovereignty and the authority — indeed, the obligation — for rulers and lawmakers to protect their people.
“Personally, I believe that a state has the right to regulate its borders,” Pope Leo recently said. “I am not saying that everyone must be allowed to enter without order, sometimes creating in destination countries situations more unjust than those they left behind.”
While the pope’s clarifications are helpful and — again, coming on the heels of the Francis pontificate and particularly at a time when the American president has pledged to carry out a mass deportation campaign — meaningful, the pontiff’s affirmation of the Church’s teachings on immigration, border security, and national sovereignty seem somewhat undermined when he appoints a deported illegal alien as the bishop of an American diocese.
Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, formerly an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has been named the bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia. “This diocese, which encompasses the entire state of West Virginia, lies in the heart of the Appalachian region, a land of striking beauty, rich in diversity and natural resources,” the newly-elevated bishop said in a statement, thanking the pope for the appointment. “At the same time, it is a place where much of the people have endured a long history of hardship, marginalization, and inequality. Yet, as it often happens, its people have been sustained by a resilient and enduring faith.”
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