Pope Leo XIV greets migrants at the Favaloro Pier to bless a plaque dedicating the pier to late Pope Francis during his pastoral visit to the island of Lampedusa, Italy, Saturday. Photo by Ciro Fusco/EPA
July 4 (UPI) -- Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, spent his second Fourth of July as the pontiff at Lampedusa, Italy, an island at the forefront of the European migrant crisis, and appealed to Americans to treat immigrants with "compassion and generosity."
Leo visited Lampedusa, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea between Tunisia and Malta, instead of celebrating the day in the United States.
Soon after his arrival, he released a letter to Americans about the 250th Anniversary of the country's birth, reflecting on the principles that have shaped the United States for two and a half centuries, particularly religious freedom and human dignity.
In the letter Leo said that, "among the principles that have guided the development of this country is the God-given dignity of every human life, each person being endowed with an inherent worth that calls for reverence, protection and care ... and of building a society in which the vulnerable, the suffering and the forgotten are always met with compassion, solidarity and love.
