Pope Leo has used his first major address to his home country to praise the US history of \u2060welcoming migrants, urging Americans to live up to the ideals put forward in the \u2060Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
In his latest implicit rebuke to Donald Trump, the first US leader of the Roman Catholic church said the word \u201cAmerica\u201d had become \u200ca \u201cbyword for freedom\u201d across the world because of the way the country welcomed migrants.<\/p>\n
In a speech given live from the Vatican to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia \u200cas he received the Center\u2019s Liberty Medal, Leo said he hoped that ideals \u200bof \u201cunity, justice and peace\u201d held by the founding fathers would guide the US as it celebrated its 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis historic anniversary presents \u2060us with the opportunity to reflect once again on \u200bthe \u200bnation\u2019s founding principles \u200bin the hope that America will remain \u200bever true \u200cto the \u200bdream \u200bthat has earned it the title of land of the free and home of the brave,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n
Leo will mark the US\u2019s 250th anniversary<\/a> on Saturday with a brief visit to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the main entry points to Europe for people making the perilous sea crossing from north Africa in search of refuge.<\/p>\n Leo will arrive in Lampedusa by helicopter early on Saturday morning and make his first stop at a cemetery where there are many unmarked graves of people who died during the Mediterranean journey.<\/p>\n He will then visit the Porta d\u2019Europa (Gateway to Europe), a migrant memorial monument, before blessing a plaque on a pier named after his late predecessor, Pope Francis, who denounced the \u201cglobalisation of indifference\u201d when he visited the island in July 2013 on his first official papal trip.<\/p>\n Like Francis, Leo has clashed with Trump over his immigration policies, calling in November<\/a> for \u201cdeep reflection\u201d in the US about the treatment of people held in detention. Relations with the Trump administration worsened further after the pontiff strongly condemned the US-Israeli war in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n Days before Leo\u2019s trip to Lampedusa, JD Vance, the US vice-president, said the Vatican\u2019s views<\/a> on immigration were \u201ctroubling\u201d.<\/p>\n Leo is yet to take up Trump\u2019s invitation<\/a> to the White House, made by Vance during a meeting at the Vatican the day after Leo\u2019s inaugural papal mass in May last year.<\/p>\n The US is not on Leo\u2019s overseas itinerary for 2026, although there were reportedly expectations among some in Trump\u2019s administration that he would attend the Fourth of July celebrations.<\/p>\n Marco Politi, a Vatican journalist and author, said: \u201cLeo\u2019s trip to Lampedusa is strongly symbolic and is also a political sign. He is focusing on the theme of immigration. This means reaffirming what he recently said in Spain about the dignity of every human being, but the trip is also a political message against the persecution of immigrants and what is being done by ICE agents in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, it is a strong political message against all the parties in Europe who sow hatred and polarise.\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Francis visiting Lampedusa in July 2013. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino\/AP<\/p>\n Andrea Vreede, the Vatican correspondent for the Dutch broadcaster NOS, said Leo\u2019s trip was partly to pay homage to Francis but also to make a point to Trump. \u201cThe pope is telling Trump what is important to him, and that is migrants. He chose 4 July to make this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Lampedusa, home to roughly 6,000 residents and located closer to Tunisia than mainland Italy, has for decades been the first port of call for people crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats from north Africa. More than 182,000 people have transited the island\u2019s reception centre in the past three years, Vatican News<\/a> reported this week, citing data from the Italian Red Cross.<\/p>\n