Vice President JD Vance – a self-proclaimed "devout Catholic" – cut through the noise this week with a stark reminder: The Catholic Church isn't waving the white flag for unrestricted migration. Speaking to Breitbart News on November 20, 2025, Vance hailed Pope Leo XIV's recent comments as the "core" of Church teaching on borders: "Every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter." The Pope, responding to U.S. bishops' pleas amid Trump's deportation push, added a humane caveat, no "open borders," but dignity in enforcement. Vance, channelling frustration over "300,000 missing children" lost to cartels under Biden, argued that true compassion demands control: "Border security is... the humanitarian thing to do." It's a potent rebuttal to the caricature of a "pro-migrant" Church peddling porous frontiers. But Vance is right, this isn't modern revisionism. From Scripture's sojourners to pre-Vatican II popes' unyielding defences of sovereignty, Catholic tradition has long balanced charity with the common good. Open borders? Never the doctrine. This post traces that thread, exposing how today's debates echo ancient wisdom, and why ignoring it empowers the very traffickers the Church abhors.
Catholic teaching on migration isn't a 20th-century invention; it's etched in the Bible's bedrock. The Old Testament mandates care for the "ger" (stranger or sojourner) – 36 times, no less – because "you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Lev 19:34). Deuteronomy echoes: Foreigners get justice, but not license to overrun (Deut 10:19; 27:19). The Holy Family's flight to Egypt? Pius XII called it the "archetype of every refugee family" in 1952's Exsul Familia, but even there, Pharaoh's borders were breached out of peril, not entitlement.
Jesus flips the script in the New Testament: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:35). Yet He honours Caesar's coin (Mt 22:21), implying ordered societies – no chaos for charity's sake. St. Paul, a Roman citizen, invokes legal protections (Acts 22:25-29), underscoring law's role in dignity. Early Church Fathers like St. Augustine reinforced: Love the sojourner, but "the city of God... lives by faith under grace" in structured polities, not borderless utopias. Tradition here draws a line: Welcome the needy, but not at the expense of the common good. As the U.S. bishops' 2003 pastoral Strangers No Longer affirms, echoing Scripture: Rights to migrate exist, but so do nations' duties to regulate.
Before the Council's globalist glow, Catholic popes were unequivocal: Borders are divinely ordained for order, not optional. Pope Leo XIII's 1891 Rerum Novarum – the Magna Carta of social teaching – roots worker rights in subsidiarity, the principle that higher powers intervene only when lower ones fail. Applied to nations? States exist to protect citizens' common good, including controlled entry. Pius XI's 1931 Quadragesimo Anno doubles down: Authority is "natural and necessary," not a suggestion, implying sovereign controls over influxes that could destabilise economies or cultures.
Pius XII's 1952 Exsul Familia – amid post-WWII refugee waves – is the gold standard. He decries "clandestine immigration" as exploitable by "traffickers," urging "prudent regulation" to prevent "disorder" while aiding the displaced. No blanket welcome; instead, "nations must consider... their own welfare" in admitting migrants, balancing charity with capacity. John XXIII's 1963 Pacem in Terris concedes a "right to emigrate" for survival, but tempers it: "Subject to various juridical conditions," respecting host nations' laws (Par. 106). These pre-Vatican II voices, amid colonialism's end and Iron Curtain exoduses, saw borders as bulwarks against chaos, not cruelty.
| Era/Pope | Key Document | Stance on Borders | Balance with Charity |
| Leo XIII (1891) | Rerum Novarum | Subsidiarity demands state protection of common good; regulate to prevent disorder. | Aid the poor, but not via unchecked flows that harm workers. |
| Pius XI (1931) | Quadragesimo Anno | Natural authority includes sovereignty over entry for stability. | Hospitality, but "prudence" in scale. |
| Pius XII (1952) | Exsul Familia | "Clandestine" migration empowers traffickers; nations must "regulate prudently." | Archetype of refugee aid, but capacity-limited. |
| John XXIII (1963) | Pacem in Terris | Right to migrate for survival, but "juridical conditions" respect hosts. | Universal destination of goods, not absolute entry. |
Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes (1965) universalises the common good but nods to states' roles in "economic and social life" – including migration flows (Par. 75). Paul VI's 1967 World Migration Day message affirms economic migration rights but insists on "integration" via laws. John Paul II's 1995 Evangelium Vitae ties dignity to ordered societies, decrying "structures of sin" like trafficking, but upholding enforcement as moral (Par. 10).
The Catechism (1992) crystallises it: "Political authorities... may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions" for the common good (CCC 2241). USCCB principles, from 2003's Strangers No Longer to 2025's Baltimore message, hammer the triad: Right to migrate (yes), right to regulate (yes), justice/mercy in enforcement (essential). No "open borders" – a phrase the bishops explicitly reject. Francis echoed in Fratelli Tutti (2020): Nations control entry, but "build bridges, not walls" via aid (Par. 129).
Leo XIV's November 2025 remarks fit seamlessly: Rebuking "disrespectful" deportations while affirming sovereignty, a direct heir to Pius XII's anti-trafficking prudence. Critics? Some see bishops as "partisan Democrats," but Vance counters: Church views are "clear" – humane control, not chaos.
Vance nails the frustration: Social media paints the Church as a bleeding-heart border-eraser, ignoring how open policies fuel "sex trafficked" kids and cartel mules. Pre-Vatican II, popes like Pius XII warned of "disorder" from unregulated flows; today, the Catechism echoes that duty. The myth persists via selective quotes – Francis's "bridges" without "walls" – but full texts demand balance. As ethicist Edward Feser notes, the Church rejects "open borders" outright. Europe's migrant crises? Pius XI's subsidiarity would prioritise root causes over unchecked influxes.
Vance's charge, prioritising citizens isn't "racist," aligns with Rerum Novarum's worker safeguards. Ignoring it? As Leo XIV implies, it dehumanises migrants via traffickers.
Vance's words – "my priority... is the people of the United States" – aren't heresy; they're subsidiarity incarnate. Leo XIV's rebuke of "pro-migration advocates" dreaming of no controls? A clarion call back to tradition. The Church's vision: Secure frontiers with mercy, legal pathways, anti-trafficking ops, root-cause aid via Catholic Relief Services. As Pacem in Terris urges, prudence over passion.
In the West this means humane enforcement: Prioritise deporting criminals, protect families, reform asylum. For Catholics? Form consciences per CCC 2241 – love the stranger in his own land, honour the sovereign. Open borders? A modern mirage. True tradition builds walls of justice, gates of grace. As Vance says, it's not ancillary, it's government's soul.