(LifeSiteNews) — Left-wing U.S. Bishop Mark Seitz told America magazine last week that Pope Leo XIV supports him speaking out against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“You stand with me, and I stand with you,” Leo told the El Paso ordinary during a meeting he had with a U.S. delegation at the Vatican on October 8. “The church [sic] cannot remain silent.”
Pope Leo XIV on HOT MIC:
“The one place I wish US bishops had a stronger voice…”🤔 On abortion?
😠 On LGBT ideology?
😢 On contraception or impurity?Nope.
👉 Illegal immigrants, of course. https://t.co/F8ZVpQSwG8— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) October 12, 2025
Seitz serves as the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) committee on migration. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Seitz participated in a Black Lives Matter protest where he was photographed kneeling. He also said he was “encouraged by the Biden campaign’s promises to address climate change” and his plan to “create a path to citizenship for the undocumented.”
In September 2020, less than six weeks before the presidential election, Seitz claimed in an op-ed for America magazine that Catholics cannot be single-issue voters. “In an aggressively secular and hyper-competitive world, we should be grateful for the public respect for Pope Francis shown by the Democratic nominee, former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr., and the values of the working-class ethos that Mr. Biden aims to project,” Seitz wrote, despite Biden’s avowed support for abortion and pro-LGBT policies.
Seitz’s meeting with Leo was the third time the two have crossed paths. America reports that when he was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost invited Seitz to speak to newly consecrated bishops “about the ministry of bishops to immigrants.” They also met at the papal audience for the Jubilee for Missions and Migrants last month.
“The Holy Father did express his concern for the situation of immigrants in the United States. He is quite aware of the way they are being treated right now, so he expressed his unity with them and with all of those who are suffering difficulties in the United States,” Seitz told America. “Pope Leo said he would really like the [U.S.] bishops to speak together on this issue.”
READ: Pope Leo exhortation shows Vatican opposition to Trump on immigration, environment
Video footage of their conversation was leaked on the internet. Leo does not seem to be aware that he was being recorded. In his comments, Leo remarked that “even within the [USCCB] conference, there are challenges. That’s one place they should be … I wish they were stronger in their own voice.” The current head of the USCCB is Archbishop Timothy Broglio.
Seitz raised eyebrows last month during a panel discussion at Georgetown University. During the event, he blamed the media for not “getting our voice out” on immigration. Afterwards, he told Religion News Service (RNS) that Catholics might not be able to work for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
“ I’ve talked to some ICE agents and to some who are retired but thinking of going back to ICE who are approaching it from the standpoint that they hope that they can soften the approach just by their presence, and so that’s a moral argument of sorts,” he said. “The time may well come for many of them where they have to make that difficult moral choice to say in conscience, ‘I can no longer do this.’ I’m not sure that we’ve arrived at that moment yet.”
Seitz further said that Catholics must “never attempt to turn off your conscience” if they join ICE. “Continue to study, continue to learn, continue to seek advice, and make your best judgment about whether in the particular situation in which you find yourself, you can continue to do what they expect.”
The clash between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV was heightened with the publication of the pontiff’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te.
“Where the world sees threats, [the Church] sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges,” the document reads. “The deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet,” it adds.
During his speech at the United Nations last month, Trump declared climate change to be the biggest “con job ever perpetrated on the world,” dismissing it as a “hoax made up by people with evil intentions.” He proceeded to label it, alongside illegal immigration, as part of the “double-tailed monster” of the 21st century.
“Your countries are being ruined. It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders,” he exclaimed. “Every sovereign nation must have the right to control their own borders.”
