FOUND: U s cardinals reveal the real reason why the pope rejected trump s invitation to join the united states 250th birthday celebrations | Mind Blowing Facts

Instead, Leo is set to spend July 4 on Lampedusa, the small Italian island that has become one of Europe's most potent symbols of migration, shipwreck, and human displacement.

In a 60 Minutes interview with the leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church aired Sunday, Cardinal Blase Cupich said the choice was deliberate. "He's sending a message that his top priority right now is to be with those who are downcast and marginalized," Cupich said, framing the pope's refusal not as a snub for its own sake, but as a moral choice about where he thinks a pope should stand in this moment.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin pushed the symbolism further.

Asked whether it was a coincidence that Leo would be on Lampedusa rather than in the United States for the semiquincentennial, Tobin answered with a wry reference to the Statue of Liberty. "I know at least one member of my archdiocese who would be happy," he said. "She's green. She's on a little island that belongs to New Jersey. She's holding up a torch and reading from a scroll that says, "Welcome." The line turned the pope's absence into an argument, suggesting that Leo sees the migrant question not as separate from American identity but as central to it.

During the interview, the cardinals also explained how the U.S. catholic church was suffering directly from the White House's hard stance against immigration, as participation in mass has dropped 30% for the services in Spanish.

"Immigrant Catholics live under fear in this country," added Cardinal McElroy.

"When they have to hide their identities to terrify people, when they can actually violate other guarantees of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, well, I think somebody's got to call that out," added Tobin.

Pope Leo was an immigrant himself. The first U.S.-born pope lived in Peru for almost three decades. There, he was also outspoken about what he saw as injustice, including attacks against Venezuelan immigrants in that country.

However, his defiance against some of Trump's stances on immigration and the Iran war has been open and unapologetic.

The refusal to assist the U.S. 250th birthday celebration is part of the worsening rupture between Trump and the Vatican over war and immigration.

After the 60 Minutes interview aired, Trump posted the strongest attack to date against the Pope. Trump lashed out at the Pope in a lengthy social media message, calling him "WEAK on Crime" and "terrible for foreign policy," demanding that Leo "get his act together as Pope."

Hours later, after returning to Washington from Florida, Trump took the criticism from the screen to the tarmac, telling reporters he was not a "big fan" of Pope Leo and questioning the pontiff's performance.

"I don't think he's doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess. We don't like a pope who says it's ok to have a nuclear weapon. We don't want a pope that says crime is ok," said the president.

Then Trump posted a religious-like image in which he is portrayed as healing the sick, provoking a strong reaction online, including from friends turned foes like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who described it as "more than blasphemy. " It's Antichrist Spirit.