In his address to the Spanish parliament, the pontiff called for lawmakers to go “beyond the mere management of flows.”
Pope Leo XIV on Monday called for the greater defense and integration of migrants while delivering an address to the Spanish parliament.
The speech, delivered on the third day of Leo’s weeklong trip to Spain, puts him at odds with the country’s far-right Vox party, which has steadily risen in the polls while campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform, and the center-right People’s Party (PP).
“The situation of migrants and refugees calls for a response that focuses on people, addresses the root causes that force them to leave, and goes beyond the mere management of migration flows,” the pontiff told lawmakers in Madrid, adding that it was essential for countries to offer “safe and legal pathways, a respectful welcome, and real possibilities for integration.”
To obtain Vox’s support to form coalition governments in Extremadura and Castilla y León, PP-led regional administrations recently adopted the ultranationalist group’s prioridad nacional or “national priority” policy, which gives Spanish citizens preferential access to state benefits and services.
Although polling indicates Spanish Catholics gravitate toward the right of the ideological spectrum, the pope’s focus on the suffering of migrants places him in greater political proximity to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-leaning administration.
His coalition government, which comprises the center-left Socialist Party and the far-left Sumar group, is currently in the process of granting legal status to half a million unauthorized migrants.
Leo is due to travel to the Canary Islands on Thursday, where he and Sánchez are set to take part in a ceremony commemorating the lives of African migrants who have perished while attempting to sail to the Spanish archipelago. Thousands of migrants depart West African countries each year to make the dangerous Atlantic crossing, and more than 3,000 migrants died trying to reach Spanish shores last year, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
During his speech, the pope urged lawmakers to work “to ensure that no one has to leave their home due to a lack of peace, security or decent living conditions, including economic inequalities and the effects of the climate crisis.”
He also referred to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Like Sánchez, one of the most vocal critics of the operation, Leo has called the conflict “not a just war.”
The pope added that peace is a “moral imperative,” warning that “rearmament is once again being presented as an almost inevitable response to the fragility of the international situation.”
“True security,” he added, “stems from justice, patient dialogue, respect for international law, and a policy capable of placing the lives of peoples above the interests that profit from war.”