Pope Leo XIV will celebrate his inaugural mass on Sunday morning around 10 a.m. (that's 4 a.m. Eastern Time). Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather in St. Peter's Square for the "Holy Mass for the Beginning of the Pontificate." The pontiff will make an appearance for their sake before returning to St. Peter's Basilica to take part in the ceremony, which will include him receiving the Petrine Pallium and Fisherman's Ring, delivering a homily, and saying a prayer called the Regina Caeli.
Afterwards, the Vatican says that Pope Leo will greet the dignitaries in attendance. Among them will be a delegation from the United States that includes Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife, Jeanette. Seeing as how this is the first pope from the U.S., I think it's only fitting. (I will not make any jokes about what happened last time Vance was at the Vatican.)
As you probably already know, there has been much talk about the Pope's political and social beliefs. Leftists cheered him on for some of his remarks about illegal immigration. Conservatives like that he recently stood up for unborn babies and traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Some of Pope Leo's initial public remarks were about ending wars and welcoming peace, something I think we can all get behind, and he's invited Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to meet at the Vatican to end the war once and for all.
But earlier this week, Secretary Rubio said something that I think we all need to listen to: The Pope is not a political figure.
Rubio, who has been traveling with the president in the Middle East and spent time in Turkey this week meeting with NATO and a delegation from the Ukraine and took a few questions from reporters, and one asked, "Mr. Secretary, it was announced today that you're headed to Rome for the Pope's inaugural mass. Pope Leo, in different parts of his life, has spoken passionately about the plight of migrants. How do you reconcile what the Vatican has said on compassion for migrants with the Trump administration's policies?"
Rubio responded: "Well, first of all, the Pope is not a political figure. I know he's covered like one, but they're not. They're the earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church, and the church has strong social doctrine teachings, and I think there is not incompatibility."
Fair point. I'm not Catholic, but I do think people try to turn popes into political figures these days. Then again, some of them seem to ask for it.
But what Rubio said next is something I've been trying to hammer home for a long time. You can have all the compassion in the world for migrants and also be in favor of a secure border. As a matter of fact, it's really the most compassionate thing to do. Here's how the secretary explained it:
We too are compassionate towards migrants. I would argue there's nothing compassionate about mass migration. There's nothing compassionate about open borders that allows people to be trafficked here. There's nothing compassionate...to the American people about flooding our country with individuals that are criminals and prey on our communities. There's nothing compassionate about any of that.
But I would caution all of you — I understand there's this temptation to cover the papacy as a political office — it is not a political office, it is a spiritual office, and it is one that has social teachings that are aligned with the faith and with the gospel. And I don't believe those are incompatible with a national policy that tries to prevent mass migration, which is not compassionate to people that are being trafficked into our country, and is also not compassionate to people in the country who suffer gravely.
When a million people come here illegally, if 1000 of them are dangerous criminals, those are a lot of victims. And that's not fair either, and that's not compassionate.
Rubio, who is Catholic himself, followed that up with a great point:
So, by the way, and I don't mean this to be snarky, but the Vatican has rules about who can come in and who can stay. So every place has that. It's just, it's what you do to protect your sovereignty. We are the most compassionate nation in the world. Every single year, a million people legally migrate to the United States permanently, permanent residency. No other nation is nearly as compassionate as we are, and we've been doing it for a long time. But it can't be five million people a year that come, you know, with four million illegally. That's just not sustainable, and there's nothing compassionate about it for Americans.
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