“The Church Is Not a Policy Machine”

Cardinal Michael Czerny explores the Church’s response to the refugee crisis, political responsibility and the moral demands of defending the vulnerable.

Cardinal Michael Czerny speaks from experience—formed by his family’s flight from Europe and decades of work in global crises—to explain how the Church understands migration today.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• His family background and personal ties to a statue in St. Peter’s Square

• Why the Church avoids political framing on migration

• Whether arguments about culture and identity hold up

• Why social issues have become front-and-center in the modern Church

This is a serious exchange about one of the defining tensions of our time: the necessity of politics—and the refusal of the Church to be reduced to it.