OPINION:
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano just ran a front page headline decrying “that inhuman wire” — “quel filo disumano” — in reference to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border protection, above a photograph of illegal crossers caught among the concertina wire crosshairs. And Americans ought to go: Bite me.
Here’s the right way to look at that photo: Well, if you weren’t trying to break the law, you wouldn’t have been caught in the wire.
Here’s how the hypocrites at the Vatican want you to look at that photo: Oh! Those poor, poor people. Why is America being so cruel? Open your borders, America!
And here’s the right way to respond to the hypocrites at the Vatican: Take two middle fingers, and raise.
Vatican City is one of the most guarded, walled, protected, secured, selective, elitist geographical plots of land in the world. That makes their leader, Pope Francis, who has critically called out America, former President Donald Trump and conservatives who want to protect U.S. borders as inhumane, un-Christian and wicked — that makes Francis a hypocrite of the highest order.
The Vatican may have some pretty high border walls itself. But it certainly goes to great lengths to conceal that truth.
In 2016, Francis called out Trump’s plan to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall as “not Christian.” Trump campaign director of social media, Dan Scavino, then responded with a tweet: “Amazing comments from the pope — considering Vatican City is 100% surrounded by massive walls.” He included an aerial shot of the Vatican that showed the boundaries of the walls encircling the property. Then came the rush of Vatican’s defenders — one, the Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest and editor at-large for America magazine.
“The fortifications were built a very long time ago,” Martin said, in response to Scavino’s tweet, CNN reported. “This pope didn’t build them — and he certainly didn’t build them to keep out poor migrants.”
Well, who said he did? That’s called a distraction from the truth; a dodge of an uncomfortable question.
Then CNN itself added, in paraphrase of comments from Martin — this: “Yes, the Vatican does have walls, and some of them are quite large. But anyone can stroll through the pope’s front yard — St. Peter’s Square — at nearly any time. Only metal detectors stand between the iconic landmark and the millions of tourists who come to see the historical headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. In other words, Vatican City may have walls, but the front door is always open, said the Rev. James Martin.”
Well, isn’t that special.
But guess what? That’s spin. First off, not anyone can simply “stroll through the pope’s yard,” whenever one wishes. There are metal detectors. There are X-ray scanners. There are security checkpoints. And second off, America’s doors are always open, as well — for legal entry. Moreover, not just for tourists. For citizenship. Can the Vatican say the same?
No.
“As of 2020,” Vatican City Tours wrote, Vatican City “has a population of 801 people, according to the latest estimates from the UN’s World Population Prospects. This ranks it 235th in the world. Unlike other countries, citizenship is not based on birth but granted only to those who reside in the Vatican because of their work or office.”
There is no hospital within the walls of Vatican City. So, of course, there are no automatic birth rights to citizenship. That’s quite unlike in America. Anchor babies galore.
So who are these lucky 801, give or take?
“Cardinals who live in Vatican City or Rome, as well as diplomats of the Holy See, are also considered citizens,” Vatican City Tours wrote. “For those who wish to move to the Vatican [they] must have their citizenship approved by the pope or papal authority.”
The pope is the gate guard.
The pope gets to decide who lives within the Vatican City walls — the very high, very well-protected Vatican City walls — and who must leave.
So when the pope says this — as he did in his 2017 remarks that included denunciations of Trump’s border plans — “The universal right to a nationality should be recognized and duly certified for all children at birth,” he said — you know he’s blowing smoke. That’s easy for him to say. There are no births in Vatican City.
He’s holier than thou.
He’s hypocrisy personified.
“The suffering of the migrants who try to get through the barriers placed between Mexico and the United States,” read the caption beneath the L’Osservvatore Romano photo of the concertina wire captives — a woman and her child.
Maybe they should’ve gone to Vatican City.
Once upon a time, in 2016, the pope pretended to be gracious and opened Vatican City to three Syrian refugee families — 12 people, six of whom were children. But they were carefully selected. They were carefully vetted. They were carefully relocated, their whereabouts and their placements well known and their documentation and paperwork in order and approved.
That’s all Americans want.
America wants and deserves the same border protections the lucky 801 or so in Vatican City get. That is to say, America ought to be allowed to vet and select who gets to come, who gets to stay, who has to leave, without having to endure the chastisements of other nations, other nations’ leaders, other heads of state and religious institutions.
Even hypocrites like the pope and his political tools ought to recognize that as fair.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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