Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain put the spotlight on migration and the division it is causing within the Catholic church. Spain’s socialist-led government recently agreed to normalise the legal status of 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, in response to a citizen campaign backed by the country’s Catholic bishops. And yet voices on the right of Spanish politics, also from Catholics, have issues with the PSOE government’s, and the church’s, stance.
The National Catholic Reporter spoke with Bishop Joseba Segura Etxezarraga of Bilbao (pictured above) at Pope Leo’s prayer vigil for young people in Madrid June 6, about the issues this raises for the church. The following are extracts from Bishop Segura’s interview:
“The more conservative Catholic parties have split on migration, and there is a political current right now in some parties that, on the one hand, upholds a Christian identity, yet is against migration.
“That leads to many complicated situations, such as in Spain, where the church will defend migration — regulated migration, reasonable migration — but we see here today politicians seated in the front row of this celebration that don’t like this part of the church’s message. And they are Christians, or at least they claim to be and act as if they are believers. They lack an understanding that is fundamental to us: that all people have the same dignity and all people have the same right to find paths toward leading a dignified life. For us, that will always be a central element of the Gospel, but not everyone sees it that way, and, naturally in politics there is a deep division on this issue.
“Spanish bishops and Spanish Catholic organisations are going to work with migrants, but not because they have any financial interest in doing so. They will do so with or without money. They will do it because, truly, the Christian heart is a heart that is always open.”
Read the full interview here.
And the Guardian reported that Pope Leo used the final day of his Spanish tour to remind us that “all of us are migrants”. “Yesterday’s foreigner may be today’s brother and neighbour”, he said.
Read the Guardian article here.