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Pope Leo XIV used a visit Saturday honoring St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint and patron saint of immigrants, to deliver his latest appeal on behalf of them, asking Catholics to look to her example at a time when migration remains one of the defining issues of his emerging papacy.
The remarks came as Leo continues to make migration a central focus of his public ministry, a position that has sparked months of public friction with President Donald Trump over immigration and foreign policy.
“What could be more relevant today than a missionary charism dedicated to serving migrants?” Leo said during an evening prayer service in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, the northern Italian town where Cabrini was born.
The American-born pope prayed at Cabrini’s tomb and urged young Catholics to learn from the saint’s life of serving immigrants, many of whom had left their homelands in search of better opportunities.
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Pope Leo XIV presides over a celebration at the parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, Saturday. The visit was part of his pastoral journey to nearby Pavia and marked the birthplace of Francesca Cabrini, the first U.S. saint and Patroness of Migrants. (Mario Tomassetti/Vatican Media)
But Leo also invoked his predecessor, Pope Francis, whose own papacy was defined in part 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 comments are the latest in a series of migration-focused appearances that have helped define Leo’s first year as pope.
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Pope Leo XIV greets faithful as he leaves the parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, Saturday. (Mario Tomassetti/Vatican Media)
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 and integrate 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 frequently drawn criticism from Trump, who has accused the pontiff of venturing into politics and sharply disagreed with some of 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.
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Pope Leo XIV presides over a celebration at the parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, Saturday, during his pastoral journey to nearby Pavia. (Mario Tomassetti/Vatican Media)
Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was expected to meet with Vatican officials and Italian leaders during a period of heightened tensions between the Holy See and the Trump administration.
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.
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Pope Leo XIV holds a private audience with Vice President J.D. Vance at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, May 19, 2025. (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media)
The Vatican has also announced that 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.
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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.
Digital’s Eric Mack and Robert McGreevy, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
