Independence Hall is a mere 15-minute walk from St. Augustine’s Church, the first church run by the Augustinian order in the United States. One could no doubt see from Independence Hall the fire and smoke that night in 1844 when a mob of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic “Know-Nothings” burned the church to the ground. 

It is hard to know who would be more surprised, 182 years later—the Augustinian friars and their immigrant flock or the nativist mob—to find an Augustinian friar with dual American and Peruvian citizenship had not only become pope, but was addressing the nation on its 250th anniversary. Could any of them have pictured a man from Chicago, educated at Villanova, wearing the Liberty Medal’s red, white and blue around his pontifical garb? 

It might also have shocked them that the Roman pontiff is in many ways the leader best situated to summon Americans back to their deepest values. 

I asked Peter Donohue, O.S.A., the president of Villanova University, what he thought those Augustinian friars would think of Pope Leo speaking—even virtually—in the National Constitution Center, where the official award ceremony was held on July 3. Pointing to their ministry to migrants, he told me that they would “celebrate that one of their brothers was proclaiming acceptance, tolerance and peace only a few blocks away from where they confronted hatred and bigotry.” 

What about the nativist mob that burned St. Augustine’s? Their living successors will find little to celebrate either in the words of Leo or of the variety of other speakers at the event. 

As Pope Leo spoke from Rome, sitting on the dais in Philadelphia were the African American mayor of Philadelphia, the Jewish-American governor of Pennsylvania and representatives of 30 different religious traditions. They represented migrants from every corner of the world. Seeing them on stage as the pope spoke of an America that “has long championed the religious freedom necessary to follow responsibly the dictates of conscience” was like seeing the American Dream becoming just a little truer in real time. 

Further, hearing Leo state that religious freedom makes possible the “American tradition of allowing for interfaith dialogue and interreligious cooperation in promoting the public good” while also affirming the centrality of Jesus Christ and the universal church was a bit like seeing the promise of the Second Vatican Council enacted in the Constitution Center. 

But the event was not only celebratory: It was also challenging. The pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, Carolyn Cavaness, spoke to the history of her church, which was founded as a response to segregation in the Methodist church. The history she described of a segregated church in Philadelphia and the Augustinian history of a burnt church in Philadelphia are powerful and painful reminders that rarely have we lived up to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, and too rarely have we Christians lived up to our creed and to the loving paradigm of our Savior. 

Knowing we have much to celebrate and much to repent of should make us recognize that the American project is “one that must be taken up anew in each generation and in the face of ever new challenges,” to quote Pope Leo. Catholics, called to center their lives on the City of God first, live that prior commitment when we commit ourselves to the American “founding principles in the hope that America will remain ever true to the dream.”

Recalling that our first inalienable right is life, Pope Leo reminded us that “a country’s vitality is deeply tied to the value it affords to human life in every form and condition.” If we are to be the country we claim to be, then we will need to cultivate a reverence for life “that sways the hearts of individuals and inspires laws that recognize and safeguard this gift from the moment of conception to natural death.” For Leo—the founder at Villanova of the first college pro-life group in the country—there cannot be “moral greatness” in a country that does not center itself on “the most vulnerable and those whose worth is questioned.” Roe v. Wade may be gone, but Leo reminds us that abortion, euthanasia, war and other violations of human life most certainly are not. 

But defending human life extends beyond what we often call “life issues.” As Leo wrote in his “Letter on the 250th Anniversary of America’s Founding,” defending human life includes “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants.” For Leo, this defense is not only a universal vocation but a particularly American one. For it is immigrants “whose hopes, sacrifices and contributions have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning.” 

Those nativists burning down St Augustine’s were only a couple of generations away from their own migrant forebears. So too are many seeking to chase out Haitians, Venezuelans and others from the United States today. In so doing, they deny liberty to the stranger while claiming it only for themselves. But for Leo, liberty is what migrants to America have always revered as they have “sought within this nation’s borders a new beginning.” Far too many Americans, including far too many Catholics, have committed themselves to preventing such new beginnings. 

Walking a few blocks north from the Constitution Center to see the beautiful spire of St. Augustine’s Church, I was reminded of the possibility of new beginnings. Those friars in 1844 sought reparations for the damage to their church and were initially denied because they were Catholic. They sued and won, and thereby helped in the process of achieving recognition of the civil rights of Catholics. They also rebuilt that church into what it is today, a place that welcomes new life and foreigners from many shores. 

As Father Donohue told me, “From the beginning, immigrants have come here seeking freedom and opportunities to live their faith and pursue a life grounded in the pursuit of happiness.” In other words, we are a nation that has and should continue to be a place of new beginnings. 

Pope Leo speaks to our country at a critical juncture in our history. In some ways we are becoming a nation closer to those nativist rioters than to the Augustinian friars in 1844 or the one who is now pope. While many talk about American greatness these days, Leo reminds us that “moral greatness” is the only kind that really matters. 

Such moral greatness does not drive out the foreigner and does not allow the taking of life on boats in the Caribbean or at Planned Parenthood. Real moral greatness does what the Augustinians in 1844 did. It creates a new beginning—not just for some but for all. It sees the birthright of the migrant and the unborn. It holds to a conviction that there are certain inalienable rights for citizens and non-citizens alike. Pope Leo is calling on us to see that this anniversary is a chance for the “solemn recommitment to these ideals.” 

It may be that to salvage this great country and her moral greatness, we are going to have to reject nativists again and be more like those Augustinians friars of old and this Augustinian pope today. 

Terence Sweeney is a professor in the Honors Program at Villanova University.