MarketPR
Pope Leo XIV used America's 250th anniversary to call on the United States to remain a nation open to immigrants, accepting the 2026 Liberty Medal in a virtual address Friday to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia before departing the Vatican for Lampedusa, the Italian island that has become Europe's most visible focal point for the migrant crisis.
The dual appearances extended a sustained pattern of public pressure on Western governments that has placed the Catholic Church's first American Pope in direct friction with the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has publicly called Leo "terrible for Foreign Policy" and "weak." Liberty Medal Address: Founding Principles as Immigration Argument Appearing remotely from the Vatican before the Philadelphia crowd, Leo cited the Declaration of Independence directly, invoking its language on inalienable rights — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — as the grounding for his argument.
Speaking as "a son of this great country," he framed the 250th anniversary as an occasion to measure present policy against the founding compact, crediting successive waves of immigrants with helping shape the nation's future.
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