Pope Leo XIV gestures as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has intervened for the first time in an abortion dispute roiling the U.S. Catholic Church by raising the seeming contradiction over what it really means to be “pro-life.”

Leo, a Chicago native, was asked late Tuesday about plans by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich to give a lifetime achievement award to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for his work helping immigrants. The plans drew objection from some conservative U.S. bishops given the powerful Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights.

Leo called first of all for respect for both sides, but he also pointed out the seeming contradiction in such debates.

“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo said. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Leo, whose words echoed a common Catholic argument often made in discussions about abortion, spoke hours before Cupich announced that Durbin had declined the award.

Church teaching forbids abortion but it also opposes capital punishment as “inadmissible” under all circumstances. U.S. bishops and the Vatican have strongly called for humane treatment of migrants, citing the Biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”

In his comments about the Illinois dispute, Leo made no mention of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has carried out a surge of immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.

Still, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt weighed in and disputed concerns raised by Pope Leo about the treatment of immigrants, saying that she “would reject there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration.”

The administration, Leavitt said, “is trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible.”

Leo said he wasn’t familiar with the details of the dispute over the Durbin award, but said it was nevertheless important to look at the senator’s overall record and noted Durbin’s four-decade tenure. Responding to a question in English from the U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN News, he said there were many ethical issues that constitute the teaching of the Catholic Church.