Pope encourages people to listen to US bishops’ message on immigration (Video)

Insisting that the dignity of all people, including immigrants, must be respected, Pope Leo XIV asked U.S. Catholics and “people of goodwill” to read and listen to the U.S. bishops’ recent pastoral message on the topic.

“When people are living good lives — and many of them (in the United States) for 10, 15, 20 years — to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least,” is not acceptable, the pope said Nov. 18.

Meeting reporters outside his villa in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo was asked what he thought of the “special pastoral message on immigration” approved overwhelmingly by members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12.

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops said. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status.”

The bishops also said, “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” and they prayed “for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”

“Very important statement”

Pope Leo told reporters in Castel Gandolfo that the pastoral message is “a very important statement. I would invite especially all Catholics, but people of goodwill, to listen carefully to what they said.”

“No one has said that the United States should have open borders,” the pope said. “I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter.”

However, he said, in enforcing immigration policy “we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”

“If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that,” he said. “There are courts. There’s a system of justice,” but the system has “a lot of problems” that should be addressed.

View the bishops’ statement on immigration below:

You can also view the video in SPANISH.

Featured image: Pope Leo XIV is seen speaking to journalists outside the Palazzo Barberini in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, in a screen shot from a video taken Nov. 4, 2025. (CNS photo/screen grab, Vatican Media)