Vatican's top cardinal speaks on Donald Trump's second presidential victory

The Vatican has spoken on President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 triumph over Vice President Kamala Harris, which will make him the first U.S. president to return to office non-consecutively in more than 130 years.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, told reporters Thursday morning he hopes the president-elect will effect authentic protection of human dignity in the context of various social issues.

“We wish [Trump] well,” the Italian cardinal noted, following an event at the Pontifical Gregorian University this week. “At the beginning of his mandate, we wish him much wisdom, because that is the principal virtue of leaders according to the Bible.”

In his comments on Trump, Parolin discussed a number of key matters for the Church that have also been highlighted by Catholic voters and others on both sides of the political aisle.

On war and migration, the cardinal contrasted the Republican victor's campaign promises—peace on the one hand, and deportations on the other—with the realities of diplomacy and human dignity.

“I don’t think he has a magic wand,” Parolin said of Trump’s war policy, adding that he has not provided any specific action plan for achieving ceasefires in the Russo-Ukrainian or Israel-Hamas wars.

On illegal immigration, the president-elect has promised mass deportations beginning as soon as he takes office, a pledge he reiterated at most of his campaign rallies. He has included in this threat the community of documented Haitian immigrants in Ohio who became a major GOP focus in the final months of his campaign alongside Vice President-elect JD Vance, who is Catholic.

This week, Cardinal Parolin echoed the position of Pope Francis in describing such promises as radical and inhumane.

“It seems to me that the position of the Pope and the Holy See is very clear in this regard,” he said. “We are for a wise policy towards immigrants and therefore one that does not go to these extremes.”

In September, roughly six weeks before Election Day, Pope Francis described the decision between Trump and Harris as a matter of choosing the “lesser evil,” though the Holy Father did not describe either as the obvious pick. He did, however, note of Trump’s anti-migrant position and Harris’ pro-choice policies.

Trump’s recent shift in favor of abortion, which he said in his 2024 campaign should have limits but be available, did not sway Parolin from describing him as closer to the Holy See on the “defense of life.”

“I believe this should be common policy; it should try to gather consensus around this issue and not become a policy once again of polarization and division.”

Overall, the cardinal says a second Trump administration will not constitute a major turning point in U.S. relations with the Holy See, which have been regularized only since 1984. The repeat Trump White House will feature the second Catholic vice president in history, following Joe Biden; Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, was raised Catholic.

“We maintained relations with President Trump even during his previous term in office, so more or less we will continue,” said Parolin.

“This will be the occasion to exercise dialogue and try to find more points of consensus together, always for the benefit of the common good and of peace in the world.”

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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