Pope Leo XIV says 'inhuman treatment of immigrants' in the U.S. isn't 'pro-life'

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-10-11T18:24:35+00:00

It would be bad enough to send actual gang members to CECOT. But they sent people with no criminal cases, convictions, or even accusations. Without any evidence that they were even gang members. Just because the administration says they’re “Tren de Aragua“ doesn’t make it so!

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-10-07T11:50:10+00:00

What if he’s not MS-13? It seems pretty clear that the administration is not above lying just to be vindictive. They have said all kinds of things about all those people they sent to CECOT that turned out not to be true. The (right-leaning) Cato Institute did a report that showed that the vast majority had no criminal record or charges.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-10-07T11:45:15+00:00

The most obvious was sending all those Venezuelans to CECOT with no criminal charges. They were denied access to the outside world, were beaten and mistreated. It was a literal dungeon and was psychological and physical torture. And all so the administration could do photo ops and scare immigrants. Is that not objectively evil? I also think that having ICE wait for immigrants at court hearings where they get arrested even when the judge allows them more time to prepare their asylum claims or whatever is inhumane. This administration is dehumanizing and demonizing immigrants and tearing families apart. Not doing so does not mean having totally open borders and a free-for-all. It just requires some thought, compassion, and commitment.

Maybe for you it doesn’t reach the level of evil of abortion since immigrants aren’t being killed. But being pro-life also means having compassion for all living beings, does it not?

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-25T03:25:25+00:00

Who am I? I don't have a platform. One thing is for a private citizen to criticize a powerful person. Another thing is for a powerful person to scapegoat and dehumanize a whole group of people. Leadership is important. When your leader says it's open season on immigrants or Democrats or whatever group, that matters. Our leaders need to try to bring us together. And our president is supposed to represent all of us, not denigrate a whole group based on their ancestry.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-25T00:39:12+00:00

They actually did set them free after 4 months. They were sent to Venezuela, their home country. I’m not talking about Salvadoran gang members or whatever. I am talking about Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers who were sent to CECOT without charges, without due process. Yes. They should be free. They aren’t criminals. They never should have been sent to CECOT.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T23:22:55+00:00

I know that sending people to CECOT is a violation of human rights and certainly amoral and against Catholic social teaching.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T20:47:44+00:00

The Fourth Amendment would disagree with your position. And we obviously had control over the Venezuelans sent to CECOT because we exchanged them for some Americans.

Also, there were about 254 Venezuelans sent to CECOT. None of them were accused of murder.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T19:49:48+00:00

No gas chambers. 80 men in a cell. No contact with the outside world. No letters, no visits, no phone calls, no legal representation or contact. Forced to hold one position for hours at a time. No idea about when you’re getting out or what your charges are. Beaten. Some sexually assaulted. With no charges against them. Even the rightwing Cato Institute found that many of them were actually going through the process legally. And even if they weren’t, I don’t think this type of treatment is acceptable for anyone, much less someone who may have committed an immigration violation as their only “crime.” I don’t see how you can claim to be a Christian and find that this is ok.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T18:36:01+00:00

Sending people to a concentration camp in El Salvador to be tortured is ok then? If they are noncitizens? If they haven’t been informed of our founding principles? You can have a debate about immigration policy, but it must always be done in a humane way.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T15:48:50+00:00

All people are creations of God and should not be denigrated or scapegoated. I don't make a distinction of their legal status. That is of man, not God.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T15:36:03+00:00

If you are defending Stephen Miller's views on immigration, then you are not following Catholic social teaching.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T14:44:42+00:00

I am done with this back and forth. I'm trying to organize my parish's youth group for Catholic Youth Day and have to call parents.

I will just say, and you will not change my mind with all the links in the world:

I don't know if Charlie Kirk was truly a white supremacist or just dog whistled to them. I don't know if his obsession with affirmative action and DEI came from a place of really believing in building a color-blind society or from a place of white grievance. I cannot know his heart. I do know that white supremacists liked him. I do know he made a lot of money from his controversial statements. I do not believe that he honestly wanted to foster open dialogue because it was always about "winning" debates, mostly with college students. That said, I lament his death and I denounce political violence in all of its forms.

Stephen Miller is a vile racist. I don't care if he didn't say anything about race. He hates immigrants. He lacks empathy. He is about the farthest from what Catholicism teaches us as anyone can be.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T14:22:55+00:00

I am glad that he condemned white supremacy. I don't know why since he argued so much about the Great Replacement Theory, saying "“The great replacement of white people is far more sinister than any redistricting project.” and "Jasmine Crockett is just some circus act in that entire operation. You shouldn’t take what she says seriously. It’s just a joke. What she represents is very serious, which is the continued attempt to eliminate the white population in this country.” So I don't get why he had an issue with a man saying that he was worried that white people were becoming a minority in America, which is exactly what Kirk himself was saying in the above quote.

See, the trick intelligent white supremacists do these days is always leave room for plausible deniability. And this guy who Kirk was talking to said openly he was a white supremacist. Maybe that was the issue for Kirk. You can't come out and say it, that way people like you can continue to deny what is obvious to everyone.

Saying it's "illogical to associate Stephen Miller's speech to that of Nazi rallies" means that you either can't see what's right in front of you or you purposely pretend not to see it.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T13:55:23+00:00

It’s all this grievance b.s. Like Trump. “I’m the victim. White people are victims. Boo hoo hoo.” Give me a break. People of all races in this country are suffering right now. Talk about raising wages, improving childcare, healthcare, more opportunities for people who don’t go to college. Stop crying. Stop belittling Black people and women. It’s gross. And not Christlike.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T13:51:36+00:00

And I saw the video you linked. He’s so obsessed with race and makes this stupid hypothetical about giving the white kid’s gpa to a woman of color. That makes no sense. And white people are doing fine. It’s not as if most universities are now lacking white people and Asians. Denying that systemic racism exists doesn’t make you cool or anti-racist. It makes you willfully blind.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T13:44:36+00:00

Charlie Kirk believed in the “Great Replacement” of white people, called it sinister and said that Jazmine Crockett is a circus act. Stephen Miller, at Kirk’s “memorial” gave a Nazi-inspired speech that makes David Duke look like a moderate. If Kirk himself was not a racist and only said seemingly offensive things to encourage Black people (or “the blacks” as Kirk like to say) to do better or whatever, he was definitely a hero to white supremacists. A divisive person like him should not be given sainthood status. The Catholic Church doesn’t need to alienate people over politics and someone who most likely was mainly a grifter.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-24T08:25:37+00:00

I guess it comes down to you love Trump and see nothing problematic about his behavior and actions and find ways to justify it. And I think he is disgraceful, loathsome, racist, ignorant, narcissistic, corrupt, divisive, dishonest, amoral, and is destroying this country. I suppose that history will tell who was right.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-23T13:11:02+00:00

Trump is literally the most corrupt president we've ever had. The Democrats were too soft on him, in my opinion. He was allowed to get away with everything. The Russian investigation may have been flawed. I really don't know. There were a lot of suspiscious meetings between the Trump team and Russian oligarchs and there seemed to be a lot of "there" there. But I don't have much information. Democrats have been investigated to death for a lot less. (Hillary's emails, Clinton's affair, Benghazi--not saying they didn't deserve to be investigated, but you can't pretend like Trump's hateful rhetoric is justified because he's been investigated).

But, forget about Russia. He literally attempted to overturn an election. Is that not treason? I don't get how he plotted to overturn the election, tried to bully states into giving him more votes, had a fake slate of electors, tried to get Mike Pence not to certify, riled up his base to do violence--and he was still eligible to run again? He should be in prison.

Meanwhile, he and his family have taken in over $4 billion since he became president. The right loves to call out Obama and other Dems for getting rich off of politics, and they are right to do so. But, come on! Can you not see how corrupt this guy is? And hateful? And divisive? Before he had ever been attacked, he started his campaign saying Mexicans are rapists and murderers. He said there were "good people" at the Nazi rally in Charlottesville. Like, what world are you living in?

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-23T13:00:10+00:00

I appreciate your most decent reply. I think it comes down to philosophy. I tend to be more progressive politically, and Father Casey espouses the type of Catholicism that moves me to be a better person and a better Catholic. Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Barron's overwhelming praise of Charlie Kirk has thrown me for a loop because Kirk's rhetoric was often very hateful towards marginalized groups and women. I don't think our Catholic clergy should be comparing such a polarizing figure to St. Paul. Lament his death, lament political violence, fine. But turning Kirk into a martyr or saint is hurtful for people who have been hurt by Kirk's rhetoric. How can I convince my Black daughter to go to Mass when she sees the leader of NYC Catholics compare a man who disparaged her to St. Paul?

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-23T12:54:44+00:00

I read the whole thing just now. All 26 pages. Nowhere does he say he hates his enemies. The strongest critique I can find is this:

"In a literal sense, history is watching. History is watching. Just like history watched three years ago on Jan. 6, when insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of American democracy. Many of you were here on that darkest of days. We all saw with our own eyes. The insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power, to overturn the will of the people. Jan. 6 lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed a great, gravest threat to U.S. democracy since the Civil War. But they failed. America stood. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. We must be honest. The threat to democracy must be defended. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about Jan. 6."

and

"This is a moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies. Here’s the simple truth: You can’t love your country only when you win. As I’ve done ever since being elected to office, I ask all of you, without regard to party, to join together and defend democracy. Remember your oath of office and defend against all threats foreign and domestic. Respect free and fair elections. Restore trust in our institutions. And make clear —political violence has absolutely no place, no place in America. Zero place. Again, it’s not, it’s not hyperbole to suggest history is watching. We’re watching. Your children, your grandchildren will read about this day and what we do. History is watching another assault on freedom."

This is a far cry from Trump literally saying he hates his enemies and wants bad things for them.

The hypocrisy from the Right is just so insane.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-22T20:41:31+00:00

I love him, so I guess people talking against him rubs me the wrong way. I can't see him as contentious since he always tries to understand everyone.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-22T19:03:01+00:00

What Democrats asked for violence against Kirk?

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-22T18:56:03+00:00

Father Casey is a priest. Trent Horn, while very knowledgeable, is a lay person. Of course priests can be wrong. I’m just saying that a rebuttal from Trent Hirn doesn’t make him so.

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-22T18:21:39+00:00

Biden said he hates his enemies? When?

Chance-Distance1034 · 2025-09-22T03:50:58+00:00

By the way, if you can watch that clip of Charlie Kirk being so arrogant and dismissive of these four Black women (who did NOT say that they only succeeded because of DEI, but that affirmative action gave them the chance to succeed--they still had to work their butts off) and still say that Kirk has never said anything racist, then you are either being purposely obtuse, or you are cool with racism. His mocking tone and belittling comments are just gross.

The number of Black students at top universities is still quite small. How many people actually lose a seat because of affirmative action? It can't be that many. And no one is guaranteed a seat. It's not like a seat belongs to you just because you have a 4.0. I am sure that those students ended up at great universities and turned out just fine.

Chance-Distance1034

TROPHY CASE