On July 4, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit a Mediterranean island recognized as a key point for migrant crossings into Europe.

This week, the Vatican revealed that the leader of the Catholic Church will travel to Lampedusa, a small Italian island serving as a gateway for migrants coming from Africa and the Middle East to Europe.

In a message sent to volunteers on the island last year, Pope Leo expressed his wish to visit, stating that they had demonstrated “the smile and the attention of a human face to people who have survived in a desperate journey of hope.”

In 2013, his predecessor, Pope Francis, held Mass on the island using an altar constructed from the wreckage of migrant boats and cast a wreath into the sea to commemorate those who perished while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

Earlier this month, the Vatican stated that Pope Leo will not visit the U.S., following an invitation delivered personally by Vice President J.D. Vance on behalf of President Donald Trump during his Vatican visit in May of the previous year.

Domestically, Trump is planning to provide the U.S. with “the most spectacular birthday party the world has ever seen” this year through a series of events titled “Freedom 250.” Rumored activities include a UFC match, an IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., and a four-day sports competition for high school athletes.

Pope Leo’s trip to Lampedusa occurs after a year of strained relations between the Vatican and the Trump Administration regarding the President’s extensive immigration enforcement in the U.S., an issue Pope Leo has publicly criticized multiple times.

Prior to his papacy, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost addressed Trump’s policies.

During his initial public speech, he affirmed his dedication to the dignity of migrants, noting that the topic was personal to him given his background as a “descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate.”

“In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope,” Pope Leo wrote last year on the occasion of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

By September, he offered a more explicit critique of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, questioning whether the mistreatment of immigrants aligned with Catholic Church teachings.

“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” he stated to journalists in September at his Castel Gandolfo residence.

He also voiced support for migrants when Illinois became the center of Trump’s enforcement efforts.

“You stand with me and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants,” Pope Leo declared in October following a meeting with American Bishops and Catholic leaders who had voiced concerns regarding the deportation campaign. 

In December, he appointed Bishop Ronald Hicks as the successor to New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a close ally of President Trump. The previous November, Hicks had issued a statement backing a declaration from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that opposed “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” in the U.S.

This decision arrives shortly after Pope Leo rejected an invitation to participate in Trump’s Board of Peace, a U.S. initiative launched by the president with the stated goal of rebuilding Gaza and resolving other conflicts.  

A Vatican statement cited “certain critical issues” as the basis for the refusal. “One concern,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin explained, “is that at the international level it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations.”