By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – 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.
In an Italian television interview, the pontiff said it would be a “disgrace” if Trump went forward with the plan, in unusually forceful language for the leader of the global Catholic Church.
“It would make the migrants, who have nothing, pay the unpaid bill,” said the pope. “It doesn’t work. You don’t resolve problems this way.”
The pope’s remarks were made during a video link from his Vatican residence with the “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Italy’s Channel 9.
Francis, leader of the 1.4 billion member church, is usually careful about weighing in on political issues.
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.
Incoming Trump administration officials said on Saturday that the president-elect was reconsidering plans for immigration raids in Chicago next week, following reports about the plans.
Earlier on Sunday, Chicago’s Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich, also criticized the planned raids. “This would be an affront to the dignity of all people and communities,” the cardinal said in a statement.
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