Pope Francis said Donald Trump's plans to deport illegal immigrants from the US would be a “disgrace” if they came true.
Speaking to an Italian television program from his residence in the Vatican, Francis said that if the plans went ahead, Trump would make “the poor miserable people who have nothing foot the bill.”
“This is not true. This is not the way you solve problems,” he said.
Trump promised to begin the largest expulsion of illegal immigrants in United States history shortly after taking office.
In a letter to Trump released Monday, Pope Francis extended his “cordial greetings” and urged him to lead a society in which “there is no room for hatred, discrimination or exclusion” and to promote “peace and reconciliation among peoples.”
It is known that the Pope pays great attention to the issue of immigrants. During a public meeting last August, he said that “working systematically by all means to deport migrants” was a “grave sin.”
In 2016, before the first presidential election won by Trump, Pope Francis said: “The person who only thinks about building walls… and not about building bridges, is not a Christian.”
Referring to Trump's promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to prevent migrants from traveling to the United States, Francis said: “I'm just saying that this man is not a Christian if he says things like that. We should see if he said things in this regard.” This way I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Francis and Trump later met when Trump and his family visited Rome in 2017.
Before the US presidential election in 2024, the Pope refused to specify whether people should vote for Trump or his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, and merely urged people to choose the “lesser evil” according to their conscience.
During the interview on Sunday evening, Pope Francis also touched on the issue of migration to Europe, saying that there is “a lot of cruelty” and that every person has “the right to remain in their homeland and the right to emigrate.”
The Pope also added that some of the southern European countries receiving the largest number of incoming migrants “don't have any children and need the workforce.”
“In some of these countries, there are entire villages that are empty. A good and thoughtful migration policy will help countries like Italy and Spain as well,” he said.
In another part of the interview, Francis was asked about the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and he said he did not know why peace was so difficult to achieve.
“I don’t know why,” the Pope said. “It seems as if there is an international trend toward self-destruction.”
Francis (88 years old) has held this position since 2013, when he was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.
