Pope Francis offered President Trump his congratulations on returning to the White House, but called his plan to deport millions of immigrants from the U.S. a "disgrace." Why it matters: American Catholics strongly supported Trump in the 2024 election.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis said Donald Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a “disgrace,” as he weighed in on the incoming U.S. president’s pledges nearly a decade after calling him “not Christian” for wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

It’s also a topic which resonates personally with Francis. In his new autobiography, the Pope recalled how his paternal grandparents and father had planned to sail in 1927 on the Principessa Mafalda from Italy to Argentina, which sank with the loss of many lives, but ended up making a later crossing.

Pope Francis slammed Trump’s planned mass deportation plan as 'a disgrace' while promoting his memoir on TV, and also made his TikTok debut.

This is not the first time the pope has rebuked the president-elect’s position on illegal immigrants. In September 2024, Francis criticized then-candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump when asked a question about the U.S. presidential election. The pope blasted Harris’s position on abortion and Trump’s immigration stance.

If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian TV.

This comes after Francis appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy to be the next Archbishop of Washington, D.C. McElroy is a staunch opponent of mass deportations, calling them “inconsistent with Catholic doctrine,” CNN reports.

Pope Francis called President-elect Donald Trump's plans for the deportation of illegal immigrants a "disgrace."

The comments provided the latest indication of a potential renewal of friction between the Vatican and the next Trump White House.