Pope Francis is urging U.S. Catholics and people of goodwill to not give in to “narratives” that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to migrants and refugees.

“I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights,” he said in a letter to the U.S. bishops published by the Vatican Feb. 11.

Pope Francis said he was writing because of “the major crisis that is taking place in the United States” with the start of President Donald Trump’s “program of mass deportations.”

Pope Francis said, “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”

He also applauded the efforts of the U.S. bishops’ to assist migrants and refugees and to counter the arguments of the Trump administration, saying that “God will richly reward all that you do for the protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important or less human!”

“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of goodwill, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” he wrote.

“With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave His for the salvation of all,” the Pope wrote.

Pope Francis also used the letter to respond to an assertion U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, made in a late January television interview about the Catholic concept of “ordo amoris” (the order of love or charity). 

The concept, Vance said, teaches that “you love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

However, the Pope said, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,” the Pope wrote.

While the Pope did not name specific U.S. policies, his letter emphasized the Catholic Church’s longstanding closeness to and support of migrants and refugees.