The Catholic News Agency portal (December 4, 2025) reports on Chilean “archbishop” Sergio Pérez de Arce’s criticism of presidential candidate José Antonio Kast’s proposal to expel illegal immigrants within 100 days. The “prelate” laments that such measures ignore migrants’ “family and emotional ties” while claiming expulsion forces them into “uncertainty” given neighboring countries’ closed borders. He declares this approach inhumane and contrary to the Gospel, demanding “other paths… more in line with human dignity.” This humanitarian rhetoric masks a fundamental betrayal of Catholic principles regarding the divine foundation of temporal authority and the subordination of immigration policy to the supernatural good.
Reduction of the Church’s Mission to Naturalistic Humanism
Pérez de Arce’s argument reduces Christian charity to sentimental humanitarianism divorced from the regnum sociale Christi (social kingship of Christ). His claim that expulsion is “not in keeping with the Gospel” deliberately ignores the Church’s perennial teaching that civil authorities possess the God-given right and duty to protect national borders as an extension of the natural law. Pius XII in Exsul Familia (1952) explicitly affirmed that states may “take necessary measures against the dangers that can arise from immigration” while cautioning against inhuman treatment – a balance Kast’s proposal maintains by granting a 100-day grace period. The “archbishop’s” one-sided emphasis on migrant “emotional ties” mirrors the modernist heresy condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), which rejects the notion that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error #55).
The Chilean prelate’s silence regarding illegal immigrants’ moral obligation to obey just immigration laws reveals his tacit endorsement of the condemned modernist error that “human reason… is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil” (Syllabus, Error #3). By framing the debate solely through emotional appeals about family separation while ignoring the bonum commune (common good) of Chilean citizens, he commits the very reductionism he falsely attributes to Kast – reducing policy to sentimentalism rather than rational governance ordered to divine law.
Betrayal of Catholic Social Doctrine
Nowhere does the “archbishop” reference the Fontes Iuris Naturalis (sources of natural law) that must govern immigration policy, including:
- The state’s potestas ordinans (ordering power) to regulate population flows for the common good (Leo XIII, Immortale Dei)
- The ius peregrinandi (right to migrate) being conditional upon migrants’ willingness to assimilate and respect host nations’ laws (Pius XII, radio message June 1, 1941)
- The primacy of citizens’ welfare over foreign claimants (Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno §26)
His claim that “there are other paths to explore” while offering no concrete alternatives except vague appeals to “human dignity” exposes the bankruptcy of post-conciliar “social doctrine” – a hollow shell stripped of its Thomistic framework and reduced to secular NGO talking points. This mirrors the modernist tactic condemned in Pius X’s Lamentabili (1907), which rejects the notion that “faith… is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (Proposition #25).
Linguistic Analysis Reveals Modernist Contamination
The “archbishop’s” vocabulary betrays his ideological alignment with conciliar revolutionaries:
- “Human dignity” invoked 3 times without reference to its source in Imago Dei (the image of God), reducing it to Enlightenment individualism
- “Emotional ties” prioritized over legal and moral obligations – a Freudian subversion of Catholic anthropology
- “Uncertainty” of deportees elevated above the certainty of lawbreaking – exalting subjectivism over objective justice
This linguistic pattern mirrors the “evolution of dogma” heresy condemned in Pius X’s Pascendi (1907), where theological concepts are emptied of their fixed meaning and redefined according to modern sensibilities. The repeated omission of terms like “justice,” “law,” and “common good” reveals a deliberate suppression of Catholic social principles in favor of humanitarian emotivism.
Silent Apostasy on Christ’s Social Kingship
Most damning is Pérez de Arce’s utter silence regarding the Regalità Sociale di Cristo (social reign of Christ) over nations – the central theme of Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925), which established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat secularizing trends like those exhibited in this immigration debate. The encyclical declares: “Nations will be happy and prosperous only in so far as they accept God’s teaching and obey His laws… Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ” (§19). By reducing the Church’s voice to that of a migration lobby group rather than prophetically demanding Chile’s submission to divine law, this “shepherd” betrays his consecrated duty to make nations “obedient to the Church’s teaching and authority” (Quas Primas §18).
The true Catholic solution to immigration crises lies not in lax borders or heartless expulsions, but in nations embracing their baptismal vocation as Regnum Christi (kingdoms of Christ). Until Chile’s leaders govern as lieutenants of the Divine King – welcoming migrants only under conditions ensuring their spiritual and temporal welfare within a Catholic social order – no “humane” policy will achieve lasting peace. Pérez de Arce’s failure to proclaim this truth exposes his complicity in the conciliar sect’s great apostasy from the Societas Perfecta (perfect society) Christ established to rule all nations.
Source:
‘You leave or we’ll kick you out’ can’t be only answer for migrants, Chilean archbishop says (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 04.12.2025