Pope Leo XIV has spoken out to remind us what it truly means to be pro-life according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. He emphasized that being pro-life is not limited to a single issue, but is instead a consistent ethic that must be lived out across all areas of life. 

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His statement underscored that politicians cannot claim to be pro-life while backing policies that deny human dignity, especially in how immigrants are treated. By condemning the U.S. treatment of immigrants as “inhuman,” he emphasized that compassion and respect for the vulnerable lie at the heart of the Church’s values.

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The Pope’s comments, directed to the American people—and American Catholics in particular—came in response to Vice President Vance’s calls to expand the use of the death penalty for crimes beyond murder, as well as the Trump Administration’s decision to impose federal control over Washington, D.C., in order to force prosecutors to pursue capital punishment in federal courts, despite its being outlawed in D.C.. His remarks also came at a time when ICE has been increasingly documented using violent tactics against both immigrants and U.S. citizens, often detaining individuals without charges and denying them access to lawyers, doctors, or family.