US government rejects criticism from Pope Leo XIV

A spokeswoman for the US government has rejected Pope Leo XIV's criticism of the inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the USA. There had been such inhumane treatment under the previous administration, said Karoline Leavitt at a press conference on Wednesday (local time): "They were smuggled across the southern border of the United States, raped and in many cases killed."

The government spokeswoman called for inhumane treatment caused by migrants to be focussed on instead. She referred to a US citizen who had been killed by an illegal migrant. "This administration is trying to assert our nation's loss in the most humane way possible; we uphold the law, and we do it on behalf of the people of our country who live here," Leavitt said.

Leo XIV had told journalists in Castel Gandolfo on Tuesday: someone who says "I am against abortion" but "I am in favour of the death penalty" is not really "pro-life". And: "Someone who says 'I am against abortion' but 'I agree with the inhumane treatment of migrants in the USA' - I don't know if that is 'pro-life'." (KNA)