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.

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.

Pope Francis on Sunday criticized President-elect Donald Trump's reported plan to sharply intensify immigration enforcement actions across the U.S. in the days after his inauguration.

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

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

Francis took aim at Trump’s hardline immigration stance in 2016, saying anyone who builds a wall to shut out immigrants was ‘not Christian.’

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.

The pontiff, who frequently expresses sympathy for migrants and refugees, criticises raids which are set to begin this week

Francis previously said that Trump cannot be a Christian if he plans to build a wall to keep migrants from Mexico out.

Trump took a similar hard line on immigration during his previous term in office ― and the pope was critical then as well. When asked about Trump’s promise to build a border w