Pope Leo XIV skips July 4th to drop a massive reality check
Happy 250th birthday, America! While everyone else was busy burning hot dogs and lighting off sketchy fireworks, our very first American pope decided to spend his Fourth of July sending a spicy postcard from a tiny Italian island.
Instead of chilling at the White House or doing a flyover, Leo XIV spent his holiday on Lampedusa, a rocky Mediterranean island that has basically become the front line of Europe's migrant crisis. He skipped the parade to write a massive open letter to the United States for its semiquincentennial. And no, it wasn't just "thanks for the burgers."
The Pope basically looked at the current political vibe back home and reminded everyone that welcoming and protecting immigrants isn't just charity, it is literally what built the nation. He walked around the island, prayed over graves of migrants marked with crosses made from shipwrecked boats, and shook hands with refugees at a local Red Cross center. He even renamed a pier after his predecessor, Pope Francis, who did a similar reality-check trip back in 2013.
Oh, and the day before, they virtually handed him the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia. He accepted it on a screen, probably while packing his bags for the actual work.
Nothing says "American pride" quite like the country's most powerful religious export spending the nation's biggest birthday reminding everyone that almost every citizen's family started as tired immigrants on a boat.
Source: CNN
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