The Last Two Popes as “Popes of Immigration”: A Traditional Catholic Lament, By Peter West

There is an increasingly common sentiment among traditional Catholics: the papacies of Benedict XVI and especially Francis have felt less like continuations of the historic Church and more like a pivot toward open-border globalism. For many who cherish the Church's ancient liturgy, doctrinal clarity, and emphasis on ordered charity, this shift is genuinely depressing. It seems to subordinate the duty to preserve one's own culture, nation, and faith community to an expansive interpretation of "welcome the stranger."

Catholic Teaching: Charity vs. the Common Good

Catholic social doctrine has never been simplistic on migration. Scripture commands love of neighbour and care for the foreigner within a framework of justice and prudence. The Catechism (2241) is explicit:

"The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right [to immigrate] is respected… but they should also see to it that these rights are exercised with regard for the duties incumbent on individuals and on society."

Key qualifiers: "to the extent they are able," "with regard for the duties," and the broader principle of subsidiarity, that higher authorities should not undermine the legitimate good of smaller communities (families, local churches, nations).

Popes have long affirmed the right of nations to control borders for the sake of the common good. Pius XII, John XXIII, and others spoke of balanced immigration that does not overwhelm host societies. Yet under Francis, the tone and priority have shifted dramatically. Repeated calls for "welcoming all," criticism of border walls, and framing migration scepticism as un-Christian have dominated. Benedict was more nuanced but still operated within the post-Vatican II emphasis on global solidarity.

Traditional Catholics see this as a rupture: the Church appears to have adopted a de facto "no borders" theology that prioritises the universal over the particular — the global migrant over the local faithful trying to hand on their faith and culture intact.

Why This Feels Depressing for Traditionalists

1.Cultural and Demographic Reality. Mass, low-skilled immigration from incompatible cultures has strained Western societies — including historically Catholic ones in Europe. Crime spikes in places like Sweden, France, and parts of Italy; parallel societies; collapsing trust; and the rapid Islamisation of neighbourhoods are not abstract. Traditional Catholics, who already feel like a minority in their own Church (liturgical battles, synodality controversies), watch their countries transform demographically while being told resistance is uncharitable.

2.The "Pope of Immigration" Framing. Francis's rhetoric — "build bridges, not walls," repeated focus on Mediterranean migrants, and alignment with globalist NGOs — has made immigration a signature issue. For trads who value the Church's role as guardian of Western Christian civilisation, this feels like surrender. The Church survived barbarian invasions, the Reformation, and secular liberalism partly by maintaining a clear sense of identity. Importing millions who do not share (and often reject) that identity risks diluting the very soil in which the Faith has historically flourished.

3.Subsidiarity Undermined. True Catholic prudence recognizes that nations have a right — even a duty — to protect their own people's moral, spiritual, and material common good. Unlimited migration can undermine wages for the poor, overload welfare systems, erode social cohesion, and make evangelisation harder when host societies become fragmented. Many traditional Catholics respect borders not out of hatred, but out of love for ordered charity and realistic concern for their children's inheritance.

A Deeper Tension

This isn't just about Francis. It reflects a post-1960s shift in the Church toward horizontal social justice at the expense of vertical transcendence and particular loves (family, patria, tradition). Traditional Catholics, those attached to the Latin Mass, Thomistic reasoning, and the pre-conciliar worldview, experience this as a profound alienation. Their parishes empty while emphasis flows toward migrants. Their concerns about orthodoxy are sidelined while political migration activism is elevated.

Empirically, the data on rapid demographic change in Europe and parts of the U.S. supports caution: Putnam-style diversity effects, integration failures, and rising religious conflict are measurable. A Church that ignores these risks becoming complicit in civilisational decline rather than a light against it.

Respect for borders is not xenophobia, it is recognition of human nature, fallen and tribal as it is. Charity demands aid to the suffering, but prudence demands sustainable policies that preserve the host society's ability to remain charitable over generations.

Many traditional Catholics pray for a future pope who restores balance: vigorous defence of the Faith and prudent governance of the earthly city. Until then, the sense of mourning for a Church that once understood nations as natural societies, not mere waystations for global flows, will persist.

This image distils that grief well. It is shared by millions who love the Church enough to grieve when her shepherds seem to forget the full deposit of her wisdom on peoples, borders, and ordered love.

https://www.infowars.com/posts/the-popes-true-loyalty-is-to-globalism-not-christianity