Pope Francis just returned to the Vatican from his trip to Greece with twelve extra passengers in tow.

They’re Syrian refugees selected from the Moria encampment on the Greek island of Lesbos, where the Pontiff was visiting, and are composed of three family units, including six children. All are Muslim, and all had their homes bombed in the Syrian civil war. Once the families arrive in Italy, a Catholic charitable organization will care for them and help find them jobs.

Liberal mouthpieces were quick to praise the Pontiff and call ‘shame’ upon the rest of Europe, which is reeling from having taken in vast numbers of Middle East refugees.

Pope Francis just shamed Europe by saving 12 refugees: https://t.co/vmUV1ajdJZ pic.twitter.com/8SF8qqz3xr

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 16, 2016

Pope Francis' acts of love should inspire us as Americans and we should heed his call to welcome refugees with open arms.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 16, 2016

If you think that these families were selected from all the refugees at the camp in the same way a child would pick out a rescue kitty from a shelter, you’d be incorrect. Francis himself told reporters on the flight back to Italy that the process involved planning and paperwork by the governments of the Vatican, Italy, and Greece. In other words, they were screened and vetted by three separate nations.

Not to be outdone by the Pontiff, the U.S. State Department is now urging the government to pick up speed on bringing Syrian refugees to our shores. They’re hoping to resettle 1500 refugees per month in order to meet President Obama’s goal of 10,000 refugees settled in the U.S. by September. At this time only 1300 have been settled since Obama committed to the goal of 10,000 back in September, 2015.

Understandably, not everyone in Congress is thrilled.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said of the prospect of speeding up refugee resettlement: “The administration — whether it’s Homeland Security or the FBI, cannot tell us that they can adequately screen people. There isn’t really a Syrian to talk to on that end of the equation to vet people, so it is a problem.” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who co-authored a bill aimed at bolstering the refugee screening process, called the surge operation “unsecure,” and warned that “this will inevitably put our nation and our citizens at risk for future terrorist attacks.”

I certainly understand that people want to flee the terror of war. The refugee experience is part of my family’s legacy too; extended members of my mother’s family were East Prussian Germans who fled the invading Russians at the end of World War II. They sought refuge in parts of Germany that were held by American or British forces. One cousin eventually emigrated to the U.S., where she married a patent attorney, raised a family, and still lives in a Chicago suburb.

What makes all the difference between those earlier refugees and the Syrian refugees is this: the German refugees were seeking asylum among others with whom they shared a common language, religion, and culture. Now our President and his state department want us to trust them to rapidly and accurately vet thousands of refugees who do not share our culture, as well as having origins in the most dangerous part of the world. What could possibly go wrong?

Pope Francis is trying to set an example of compassion for his fellow Europeans by taking in the Syrian families as “guests of the Vatican.” As a non-European and a non-Catholic, I will not pass judgment on his motivations, although I certainly question the wisdom of his actions. But I firmly believe that speeding up the settlement of any refugees from the Middle East into this country just to satisfy a President’s lame-duck wishes is reckless at best and dangerous at worst.