Pope Francis told reporters Monday that he is not familiar enough with the details of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to have an opinion on the matter. He added that no good could come from splitting up families.
It wasn’t quite a full-throated condemnation of the White House’s possible plans to reverse former President Barack Obama’s executive order allowing illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors to receive renewable two-year deportation deferments. However, from reading press accounts of the pope’s remarks, you’d think the Holy Father had staked out a much tougher position on the issue.
“Pope Francis says rescinding DACA is not ‘pro-life,'” said one CNN headline.
The Daily Beast said in a write-up of its own, “Pope Francis to Trump, DACA repeal is not ‘pro-life.'”
The same publication reported the following: “On the plane flight home Monday from his visit to Colombia, Pope Francis attacked President Trump’s plan to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and stressed the importance of keeping families together.”
“Pope Francis urged President Trump not to end DACA, saying it wouldn’t be ‘pro-life,'” read a New York Times headline.
The Washington Post went with this: “Pope Francis wants President Trump to expand his definition of ‘pro-life’ to include protecting DACA recipients.”
And so on.
As always, it’s worth taking a closer look at the full context of Pope Francis’ remarks. The press has a bad habit of using the poorly spoken pontiff as a cudgel against those with whom they disagree.
Francis’ remarks on DACA came specifically in response to a question from Noticieros Televisa’s Valentina Alazraki.
“[I]n the United States, they have abolished the law of the ‘dreamers.’ They speak of 800,000 youth: Mexicans, Colombians, from many countries. Do you think that with the abolition of this law the youth lose joy, hope and their future?” she asked, according to a transcript produced by the Catholic News Agency.
Hoo boy.
Francis responded: “I have heard of this law. I have not been able to read the articles, how the decision was made. I don’t know it well. Keeping young people away from family is not something that brings good fruit.”
“Every young person has their family. I think that this law, which I think comes not from parliament [sic], but from the executive, if this is the case, which I am not sure, I hope that it will be rethought a little, because I have heard the President of the United States speak as a pro-life man,” he added. “If he is a good pro-life man, he understands that the family is the cradle of life, and unity must be defended. This is what comes to me. That’s why I’m interested in studying the law well.”
Francis continued, explaining that youth lose hope when they feel exploited. He added that hope can be stolen from them through “drugs, other dependencies, suicide…youth suicide is very strong and comes when they are taken out from their roots.”
“Uprooted young people today ask for help, and this is why I insist so much on dialogue between the elderly and the youth,” he added. “But today’s youth need to rediscover their roots. Anything that goes against the root robs them of hope. I don’t know if I answered, more or less.”
Alazraki persisted with her question, saying, “They can be deported from the United States.”
The pope reiterated his unfamiliarity with DACA, and ended the line of questioning soon thereafter.
“Yes, they lose a root,” he said. He concluded [emphasis added], “But truthfully, on this law I don’t want to express myself, because I have not read it and I don’t like to talk about something I don’t understand.”
Now compare his closing comments to how the press has presented his remarks on DACA. Maybe it’s just me, but it doesn’t quite feel like he spoke as strongly against the White House as advertised. There was a lot of hedging and iterations of the Church’s long-held pro-life and pro-family positions, but nothing so strong as Francis saying “DACA repeal is not ‘pro-life,'” as the Daily Beast put it.
The media love to use the Holy Father as a club against specific political interests. It would be nice if the pope recognized this at some point and started choosing his words, and questions, more wisely.
