LAMPEDUSA, July 4 -- The waves keep coming. They always have. It is at the tip of Lampedusa, where the land drops to jagged rocks and gives way to nothing but the Mediterranean, that Pope Leo XIV chose to stand on Saturday, walking to the water's edge in white vestments embroidered with wave imagery, as if dressed for this particular coastline.

The first American-born pope spent the United States' Independence Day not in Rome but on this Sicilian island 80 miles from Tunisia, Italy's primary landing point for migrants crossing North Africa's most lethal sea routes. It was a deliberate day to be here. In a letter released to Americans Saturday morning, Leo told them that defending human life means "welcoming, protecting and assisting immi...