Vatican-supported group helps push pro-immigration agenda in America

World Meeting of Popular Movements coordinator Fr. Mattia Ferrari is visiting 21 US cities, where delegates aid at ICE court appearances and enroll immigrants in public healthcare.

(LifeSiteNews) — A priest who coordinates a Marxist-rooted movement founded as “an initiative of Pope Francis” is currently touring 21 U.S. cities with Vatican backing, where his delegation has joined teams to “accompany immigrants” at Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins and enroll in taxpayer-funded public healthcare, with the endorsement of Pope Leo XIV. Father Mattia Ferrari coordinates the World Meeting of Popular Movements (WMPM), a Vatican-affiliated initiative with roots in Latin American liberation theology.

He is currently midway through a 40-day tour of American cities, meeting with immigrant families, Catholic bishops, and left-wing community organizations. As reported by Religion News Service, Ferrari’s delegation has “joined diocesan-backed teams to accompany immigrants to court hearings and ICE check-ins” in San Diego, California, functioning as a buffer between illegal immigrants and federal immigration enforcement. In other California stops, the delegation toured farm-worker communities and took part in an effort to “enroll immigrants without legal status in public healthcare.”

The tour, coordinated by a coalition called Catholics in Communion, was organized explicitly to address what the group calls the “pastoral emergency” of mass deportations, according to trip coordinator Cecilia Flores. The WMPM describes itself on its website as an “initiative of Pope Francis.” Founded in 2014, its stated goal is to create a space for dialogue between the Church and the “grassroots communities” the late pontiff identified with: small lay groups that emerged in the 1960s and ‘70s as a response to a perceived distance between the Church and the poorest sectors of society.

These groups became a driving force behind liberation theology, a heterodox current within Catholicism that seeks to reconcile Marxism and the Gospel, interpreting Christianity as a form of liberation from economic, political, and social injustices. The WMPM reports directly to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Pope Leo XIV met personally with the movement on October 23, 2025, calling for “land, housing, and work” for all the poor.

“The Church must be with you: a Church of the poor for the poor, a Church that reaches out, a Church that takes risks, a Church that is courageous, prophetic, and joyful,” Leo said, echoing his immediate predecessor. It was following that meeting that Ferrari began organizing the U.S. tour, spanning California, Washington, Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan, Louisiana, Washington D.C., New Jersey, and New York – with the ultimate aim of raising public awareness in support of immigration. Ferrari is accompanied by Luca Casarini, founder of the migrant rescue group Mediterranea Saving Humans (where Ferrari serves as chaplain), who served as a non-voting “special guest” at the 2023 Synod on Synodality and was known for his close ties to Pope Francis.

Also present is César Piscoya, an adviser to the Center for Pastoral Action Programs and Networks of the Latin American Bishops’ Conference. He also worked closely with Leo XIV when the future pope led the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru. In nearly every city on the itinerary, the delegation meets directly with the local bishop or a senior member of his staff.

The tour gained national media attention after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston, Texas, on July 7, the same day Ferrari’s delegation was in the city meeting with immigrant families, with the killing significantly amplifying press coverage of Ferrari’s visit.