Pope Leo XIV used a visit Saturday to the birthplace of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini — America’s first saint and the patron saint of immigrants — to deliver his latest call for protecting migrants, asking Catholics to follow her example as tensions with President Trump mount.
The American-born pontiff prayed at Cabrini’s tomb in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, the northern Italian town where the saint was born, and urged young Catholics to learn from her life serving immigrants who had left their homelands seeking better opportunities.
“What could be more relevant today than a missionary charism dedicated to serving migrants?”
But Leo also invoked his predecessor, Pope Francis, whose papacy was defined by calls to welcome migrants.
“Let us ask ourselves: if Mother Francesca were alive today, what would her missionary spirit tell her?” Leo said. “And what would a pope like Francis — who, as the son of Italian immigrants, made service to migrants one of the key priorities of his pontificate — ask of her?”
The remarks came as Leo continues making migration a central focus of his public ministry — a position that has sparked months of friction with Trump over immigration and foreign policy.
Last week, Leo traveled to Spain’s Canary Islands — a major destination for migrants departing West Africa — where he met migrants and called for greater efforts to welcome people fleeing hardship and conflict.
During that trip, Leo urged world leaders to create “legal and safe pathways” for migration and warned against reducing migrants to statistics.
Leo’s migration advocacy has drawn criticism from Trump, who has accused the pontiff of venturing into politics and sharply disagreed with his comments on immigration and foreign affairs.
The public disagreements have become one of the most closely watched relationships between the Vatican and Washington during Leo’s papacy.
Leo has rejected suggestions that his remarks are political attacks, arguing instead that his appeals stem from Catholic teaching on human dignity, peace and care for vulnerable people.
Saturday’s visit centered on Cabrini, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen and spent decades serving Italian immigrants through schools, hospitals and orphanages before her death in Chicago in 1917.
The Vatican has announced Leo will travel to the Italian island of Lampedusa on July 4 — a date likely to draw attention in the United States given the pope’s American roots. Lampedusa has become one of Europe’s most recognizable migration flashpoints because of the thousands of migrants who attempt dangerous crossings from North Africa each year.
The island also carries symbolic importance within the Catholic Church because it was the destination of Pope Francis’ first trip outside Rome after becoming pope in 2013.
