Cardinal Raymond Burke said Western leaders should exercise responsibility in determining who to let into the country, which means resisting “large-scale Muslim immigration.”

“To be opposed to large-scale Muslim immigration is a responsible exercise of one’s patriotism,” the cardinal said. Distinguishing “true refugees” from other migrants, he said that allowing mass migration, especially of those who do not share the foundational beliefs of one’s culture, is irresponsible.

“To resist large-scale Muslim immigration in my judgment is to be responsible,” he said, speaking at an annual pro-life, pro-family meeting in Rome last Friday.

Those coming from Muslim counties present a particular problem for the West, because Islam “believes it is destined to rule the world,” said Burke, the former head of the Vatican’s highest court.

In his address, the cardinal elaborated on the Christian virtue of patriotism or love of one’s country, lamenting that this virtue is being “called into question in our time.”

“Before the challenges of our time, there are those who propose and work for a single global government, that is, for the elimination of individual national governments, so that all of humanity would be under the control of a single political authority,” Burke said.

For globalists who are convinced that the only way to achieve the common good is by setting up a world government, “loyalty to one’s homeland or patriotism has become an evil,” he said.

“It is often called nationalism, a term which evokes the evils of a misguided or corrupt national identity, obscuring the truth of our natural identity with a certain land and its culture,” he said.

Citing Saint Thomas Aquinas, the cardinal said that venerating one’s parents and one’s native land is second only to God.

Patriotism, he said, “teaches us to recognize our natural condition as members of a family and citizens of a homeland. Our personal identity comes principally from the family but also, and indeed because the family thrives only in wider society, from our homeland.”

The pursuit of a single global government, on the other hand, springs from “sinful pride,” he said.

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