El avión que trajo de regreso a Roma al Papa tras su gira de 18.000 kilómetros por cuatro países africanos arribó al anochecer. El pontífice dio una conferencia de prensa informal a los 70 periodistas que lo acompañaron tres horas antes de aterrizar. Hizo un llamado a Estados Unidos e Irán a retomar las conversaciones de paz y también condenó la pena de muerte. Asimismo, afirmó que los países tienen derecho a controlar sus fronteras, pero no deben tratar a los migrantes «peor que a animales», y lamentó que la enseñanza moral de la Iglesia se reduzca a cuestiones sexuales.

Dijo que la cuestión no era si el régimen de Irán debería cambiar o no. «La cuestión debería ser cómo promover los valores en los que creemos sin la muerte de tantos inocentes», señaló. Además, pidió «una nueva cultura de paz» para reemplazar el recurso a la violencia cada vez que surgen conflictos. «Como pastor no puedo estar a favor de la guerra», dijo a los periodistas. «Me gustaría alentar a todos a encontrar respuestas que provengan de una cultura de paz y no de odio y división».

Afirmó que lleva consigo la foto de un niño musulmán libanés que murió en la guerra de Israel con el grupo armado Hezbollah. El niño fue fotografiado con un cartel de bienvenida al Papa cuando visitó el Líbano el año pasado.

El pontífice respondió que condenaba «todas las acciones que son injustas» e incluyó en ellas la pena de muerte, después de que le preguntaran su opinión sobre las recientes ejecuciones en Irán. «Condeno que se quite la vida a las personas. Condeno la pena de muerte. Creo que la vida humana debe ser respetada y que todas las personas, desde la concepción hasta la muerte natural, deben ser respetadas y protegidas en sus vidas».

Sobre si es necesario un cambio de régimen en Irán, el pontífice norteamericano abogó por «promover un nuevo comportamiento basado en la cultura de la paz», porque «se tiende a resolver todo con la violencia y con la guerra, y lo que hemos visto es que tantos inocentes mueren». Afirmó que, en el mundo actual, la cuestión «es cómo promover los valores en los que creemos sin la muerte de tantos inocentes». Dijo que «la vida debe ser protegida y respetada; por lo que, cuando un régimen o un país toma la decisión de quitar vidas injustamente, es algo que debe ser condenado».

Ante otra pregunta sobre las migraciones, respondió: «El tema es muy complejo. Me pregunto qué hace el Norte del globo para ayudar al Sur y a aquellos países donde hoy no encuentran un futuro. Viven ese sueño de que todos quieren ir al Norte, pero a veces el Norte no tiene respuestas que ofrecer». Criticó que, para muchas personas, África «es considerada un lugar donde pueden ir y llevarse los minerales y sus riquezas en favor de la riqueza de otras naciones» y que, por ello, «quizás a nivel mundial tenemos que trabajar para promover mayor justicia e igualdad en el desarrollo de estos países africanos, para que no haya necesidad de emigrar».

El Papa Prevost dijo también que la Iglesia no apoya la bendición formal de las parejas homosexuales o en situación irregular, pero subrayó que «todas las personas pueden recibir una bendición». Los periodistas le preguntaron por la reciente decisión del cardenal alemán Reinhard Marx, arzobispo de Múnich, de autorizar la bendición de parejas homosexuales en su diócesis. El pontífice destacó que, antes que nada, «cuando la Iglesia habla de moralidad, parece que el único tema es el sexual. En realidad, creo que hay cuestiones más importantes como la justicia, la igualdad, la libertad de hombres y mujeres y la libertad religiosa, que tienen prioridad sobre ese tema tan particular».

Afirmó que «la Santa Sede ya se ha dirigido a los obispos alemanes y ha dejado claro que no está de acuerdo con la bendición formal de parejas homosexuales», más allá de lo que el Papa Francisco dijo específicamente al afirmar que todas las personas reciben bendiciones.

Ante otra pregunta referida a los gobiernos africanos y sus encuentros con líderes autoritarios, afirmó que el Vaticano, al mantener la «neutralidad», puede abordar situaciones concretas para que las vidas de las personas «puedan mejorar». «La presencia de un Papa con cualquier jefe de Estado puede interpretarse de diferentes maneras. Algunos la consideran como algo extraño, como si el Papa y la Iglesia dieran su aprobación a esa forma de vida. No siempre hacemos proclamaciones criticando, juzgando o condenando, pero hay muchísimo trabajo que se realiza entre bambalinas para promover la justicia y las causas humanitarias; para buscar, a veces, situaciones donde pueda haber presos políticos y encontrar la manera de que sean liberados, o ante situaciones de hambre y enfermedad».

Amid charged exchanges between President Trump and Iran’s fragmented leadership over the regime’s insistence that it retain its nuclear enrichment system, top experts on Iran’s atomic weapons program support the commander in chief’s ironclad goal to dissolve it.

One of the main sticking points during the intense talks between Tehran and Washington centers on Iran’s claim that the rogue regime has a right to enrich and possess weapons-grade uranium, the material required to build an atomic bomb. 

The showdown over enriched uranium might be the core deal-breaker issue when and if the next round of talks to reach a nuclear agreement goes ahead in Pakistan.

GOP SENATORS: CONGRESS SHOULD VOTE ON TRUMP’S POTENTIAL IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, vehemently rejected Trump’s demand last week on state-controlled television. 

«Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere under any circumstances,» Baqaei declared.

Trump claimed Iran had agreed to «give us back the nuclear dust that’s way underground.» The President terms Iran’s 440 kilograms of enriched uranium as «nuclear dust» after sustained U.S. military strikes on Iranian sites that store the country’s stockpile of uranium.

«The United States should insist on a permanent ban of Iranian enrichment and its full dismantlement in negotiations. Iran retaining any enrichment infrastructure in anticipation of the end of a moratorium would allow it to cheat as soon as Trump leaves office and resume its path to nuclear weapons,» Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ nonproliferation program, told Fox News Digital.

Jonathan Ruhe, fellow for American strategy at JINSA, echoed Stricker on the importance of abolishing the Iranian enrichment program. He told Fox News Digital, «An acceptable deal would have to embody many of Trump’s stated redlines from his first administration, and from the run-up to last summer’s 12-Day War. 

«This means permanent bans on enrichment, reprocessing and weaponization capability and, equally importantly, full verification of Iran’s compliance with these strictures.»

IRANIAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR NEGOTIATION AND DIALOGUE AS NUCLEAR TALKS CONTINUE

Heavy weapons, including ballistic missiles, air defense systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, are displayed during the 44th anniversary of the eight-year war with Iraq, known as Holy Defense Week, at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 25, 2024. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

President Trump withdrew from President Obama’s widely criticized nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. 

«In theory, the so-called ‘Iran deal’ was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime,» Trump said at the time. «In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.»

Ruhe said, «The JCPOA failed to ensure IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspectors could monitor, and account for, the entirety of Iran’s program and its compliance with the deal. This problem has worsened significantly in the decade since, as Iran systematically stonewalled inspectors.

«Iran’s negotiators always drag out talks and avoid giving clear answers. They still think time is on their side, with their blockade hurting the global economy and their missile arsenals being dug out and prepared for renewed conflict. Trump should insist on a definitive response from Tehran and be ready for renewed operations.

IRAN SIGNALS NUCLEAR PROGRESS IN GENEVA AS TRUMP CALLS FOR FULL DISMANTLEMENT

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attends a demonstration marking Jerusalem Day in Tehran. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

«As a cautionary tale: The Obama team first entered nuclear talks with stringent redlines, but then they let Iran call their bluffs, ignore their deadlines and wear down their demands until we ended up with the JCPOA,» Ruhe said.

Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that obligates it not to enrich uranium for military purposes. However, U.S. and European intelligence reports have documented Iran’s illicit proliferation activities.

Ruhe said, «This regime cynically wants it both ways: They insist the NPT gives the ‘right’ to peaceful enrichment, yet they flout the treaty’s safeguards. By claiming this ‘right,’ they try to make certain core issues non-negotiable. By this logic, they should get to retain enrichment capacity. So, the questions then become how much and what the U.S. has to give in return for this supposed sacrifice by Iran.

«As the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s name indicates, it’s an agreement to prevent proliferation, not to promote nuclear development.»

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Stricker said Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, recently said, «It’s fiction that the NPT specifically mentions ‘enrichment’ in its peaceful uses clause. Moreover, the prevailing legal demand from the U.N. Security Council is that Iran stop enriching and come back into compliance with its nonproliferation obligations. 

For nearly 25 years, the IAEA has been unable to conclude that all of Iran’s nuclear material and activities are devoted to peaceful uses.»

She added that «Iran’s enrichment program began through illicit procurements and covert facilities, under a nuclear weapons program that planned to use enriched uranium as fuel. Iran was clearly stockpiling material for an apparent nuclear weapons breakout.»

House Republicans are sharply divided over a bipartisan immigration reform bill, with one GOP lawmaker calling on President Donald Trump to intervene. 

For months, GOP lawmakers have fiercely debated the Dignity Act, whose Republican sponsor, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., is pushing for the immigration proposal to be marked up in committee and receive a vote on the floor.

The Miami Republican has quickly run into opposition from a swath of conservatives in the GOP conference, who have ripped the proposal as «mass amnesty» and a wholesale rejection of the president’s immigration enforcement  agenda.

«The DIGNIDAD Act … is a betrayal of the values that we ran on last election cycle,» Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in an interview, referring to the bill’s original Spanish name. «We ran on mass deportations. We said we’re going to do that, so we should.»

LATINO VOTERS ARE ‘NO LONGER SLEEPING,’ UNIVISION PRESIDENT WARNS GOP, DEMS

But Salazar, whose heavily Latino district Trump narrowly won in 2024, is offering a starkly different approach. 

«Now that the border is secured … what are we going to do with those people who do not have a criminal record and have contributed to the economy,» Salazar said at a press conference on Wednesday. «The economy still needs them.»

The immigration standoff highlights the fissures in the coalition that elected a Republican trifecta in 2024. The Miami Republican is one of Democrats’ top targets in November’s midterm elections.

Salazar, who first introduced the legislation several years ago, said she has been in conversation with the White House, but did not specify whether she had talked directly with Trump. 

«It’s up to him, as an elected official, to determine when is the right timing,» Salazar said of Trump. «When does he want to do this within his presidency?»

«No other president has the political guts to do this, Republicans or Democrats in the last 40 years,» she added.

When reached for comment, a White House official told Fox News Digital the administration is happy to review legislation but is «focused on enforcing the current immigration laws and deporting the millions and millions of criminal illegal aliens that Joe Biden let in our country.»

Salazar’s Dignity Act does not provide a pathway to citizenship, but it would make millions of migrants who came into the United States prior to Biden’s presidency eligible for work without fear of deportation. 

The legislation would also increase funding for border security, require employers to use E-Verify to verify an individual’s legal status and create a pathway for DACA recipients to obtain permanent residency, among other provisions.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., is urging President Donald Trump to support the Dignity Act, while Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, has sharply criticized the legislation for breaking with the president’s mass deportation agenda. (Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Latino Wall Street; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

HOUSE DEMS CLASH OVER SCHUMER-TRUMP DEAL AS JEFFRIES BLASTS LACK OF ICE REFORMS

GOP supporters say the bill is attempting to appeal to the «mass middle» who want some legal protections for long-term migrants with no criminal records who are contributing to their communities — while also slamming the door shut on those who illegally entered the country beginning in 2021.

«I think, frankly, this is what America is looking for,» Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a Republican cosponsor of the bill, told Fox News Digital. «It covers a lot of concerns left and right.

«I think most people want some level of decency,» Bacon added. «You’ve been here for a while, you’ve got a family, you’re working, no criminal record.»

Conservative Republicans aren’t buying it. 

«It’s just amnesty. That’s all that is,» Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., an immigration hawk, told Fox News Digital. 

Gill said he remains vigorously opposed to the bill after meeting with Salazar for nearly an hour Wednesday to discuss the Dignity Act.

«This is one we’re just diametrically opposed to in irreconcilable ways,» the Texas Republican said, adding that he and Salazar agree on many other policy issues. «I do believe that it very clearly constitutes amnesty.»

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., is one of more than a dozen House Republicans who have cosponsored the Dignity Act. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

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Despite no clear path forward, Salazar has vowed to continue engaging skeptics about the immigration reform legislation. 

She has also shot down the idea of using a discharge petition to team up with Democrats and force a vote on the House floor.

«I’m going to do it the hard way,» Salazar told Fox News Digital.

«I am sure we’re going to be able to get to a yes, and we’re going to be able to solve immigration within the Trump administration,» she added. «I have no doubt about that. Only God the Father knows the time. I’m just waiting.»