Pope Francis has come out against efforts to control America’s borders, arguing that attempting to stop the invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border would be “sheer madness.”
In a 60 Minutes interview with Norah O’Donnell, Francis denounced efforts by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to shut down a Catholic charity that is enabling the passage of thousands of illegal aliens across the southern border.
“Migration is something that makes a country grow,” he said. “They say that you Irish migrated and brought the whiskey, and that the Italians migrated and brought the mafia. Migrants sometimes suffer a lot. They suffer a lot.”
“To close the border and leave them there, that is madness,” he continued. “Migrants have to be welcomed. Thereafter, you see how you are going to deal with them. Maybe you have to send them back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely.”
Over the weekend, Paxton filed a fresh complaint against Annunciation House for its role in enabling the crisis at the southern border and warned that other charities involved in such illegal activities will face similar actions.
“Any NGO (non-governmental organization) facilitating the unlawful entry of illegal aliens into Texas is undermining the rule of law and potentially jeopardizing the safety and wellbeing of our citizens,” Paxton wrote in a press release.
“All NGOs who are complicit in (President) Joe Biden’s illegal immigration catastrophe and think they are above the law should consider themselves on notice.”
At another point in the wide-ranging interview, Francis accused conservatives of having a “suicidal attitude” to life and politics.
“You use an adjective – conservative. That is conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that,” Francis argued.
“It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account. To consider situations from the past. But quite another to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”
The Argentinian, who became pontiff in 2013, is notorious for hostility to conservatism and Catholic traditions. This has caused bitter divisions within the wider church, with some Catholics going so far as to call him a heretic.
