Pope Leo XIV spotlights migrants on visit to Cabrini’s birthplace
What’s next: Leo is due in Lampedusa on July 4, extending a migration-focused stretch that has sharpened tensions with Washington.
Pope Leo XIV used a visit Saturday to the birthplace of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in northern Italy to press his call for Catholics to care for migrants. Leo prayed at Cabrini’s tomb in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano and urged young people to study the life of the first American saint, whom he held up as a model for serving people who leave home in search of a better life. Cabrini, a naturalized U.S. citizen who died in Chicago in 1917, built schools, hospitals and orphanages for immigrants and the poor. Leo also invoked Pope Francis’ focus on migrants. The visit followed Leo’s trip to Spain’s Canary Islands last week and comes ahead of a planned July 4 stop in Lampedusa, a key arrival point for migrants crossing from North Africa.