The pope has made welcoming migrants a key theme of his nearly 12-year papacy, and he has previously criticized Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric. During the 2016 election, he said Trump was "not Christian" in his view.

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.

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

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 criticized Donald Trump's plans for the deportation of immigrants from the United States, calling them a "disgrace." He also emphasized that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a two-state formula.

Francis' prayer for the 47th president followed a Sunday interview with Italian media in which he called Trump's proposed immigration policy 'a disgrace.'

The pope's message comes a day after Francis said Trump's reported plan to intensify immigration enforcement actions across the U.S. would be a "disgrace"