With open eyes and an open heart I joined the Catholic Church just a few years ago at the ripe old age of 43. I love my Church and I love Pope Francis and my trip to the Vatican last year was a highlight of my life. Being blessed by Francis in St. Peter’s Square is something I will never forget.

I should also add that one of the things I love about the Catholic Church is our disagreements. The last thing I want to do is sit in a Church that doesn’t spiritually or politically challenge me.

Nevertheless, until I learned this morning that Francis visited with the Little Sisters of the Poor, the nuns suing the Obama administration for relief from the persecution of a law (ObamaCare) that forces Catholics to violate their conscience, I was beyond frustrated with this Pope.

As our own government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, an organization that butchers millions of innocent babies and sells off their body parts, the Pope ignoring that issue (and I hope the Holy Father will eventually address it) in favor of the unicorn of Global Warming is an abomination.

And when I live in a country where the poor have air conditioning and cable bills and iPhones and an obesity problem, with all due respect, the Pope’s attacks on capitalism are anti-science. Nothing has done more to lift the poor out of true poverty than free enterprise. If you want to see where true poverty still exists, visit a socialist country — any country where the government has “solved” wealth inequality.

And then there’s the issue of immigration.

Pope Francis urged Catholic bishops in the United States to open their doors to immigrants, asserting that “these people will enrich America and its Church.” As a Latin American, the Pope apologized for “pleading my own case,” when speaking about the influx of Hispanic immigrants into the United States. He also thanked the bishops for the work they have done for immigrants in this country. … “Perhaps you will be challenged by their diversity,” he said. “But know that they also possess resources meant to be shared. So do not be afraid to welcome them.” The Pope also urged the bishops to offer immigrants “the warmth of the love of Christ.”

Again, I mean no disrespect but this is coming from a man who lives in a city-state completely surrounded, literally, by giant walls. Vatican City is a literal fortress.

What would happen to Vatican City if it was to do what Francis is asking America to do?

I’m assuming Pope Francis could order such a thing tomorrow, and after the walls came down he could also choose to greet the wave of “pilgrims” with the “warmth of the love of Christ.”

Of course Pope Francis would never do such a thing because he knows what would happen: Vatican City would be no more, everyone’s security and well-being would be compromised, and the standard of living for close to a thousand residents would be destroyed. Chaos would completely destroy the home of St. Peter.

Just as the loss of Vatican City would be detrimental to the world, so too will the loss of an America as we know it if our culture and free enterprise system is exploded into a giant welfare state by waves of immigrants embraced by mercenary, power-hungry Democrats desperate to use them to increase the power of the State.

Vatican City’s walls allow the Vatican to save itself in order to hold tight to an invaluable culture that exports its generosity and charity and missionary work. Vatican City cannot take everyone in and survive. And it must remain Vatican City or be destroyed at the expense of all the incalculable good it does.

By all means, Pope Francis should push and prod and even shame America and Americans to give and give and give and give. We should do whatever we can to help the refugees in the Middle East and do whatever we can to influence and help Mexico and its people.

But we cannot do that if we’re no longer America.

And all I’m asking is that for the good of the world Pope Francis allow America the same border security the home of no less than St. Peter enjoys.

My Church challenges me. It’s something I invite. With love in my heart this is me, a faithful follower, gently pushing back.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC