Not so Pope Francis this week. It was not a spokesman, but the Pope himself, and his letter was drafted in the form customary for more solemn documents. It referred directly to the signature policy of the Trump administration as a “major crisis.” Vatican observers who called the letter “unprecedented” were not wrong.

In the letter, the pope said the criminalization of migrants and the mass deportations planned by the U.S. government are dangerous and called the country's current immigration policies a “major crisis.

Pope Francis sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in an unusual open letter sent to America's Catholic bishops on Tuesday. The pope, who earlier called Trump's plan to millions of migrants a "disgrace",