At Pope Francis funeral, Donald Trump gets his ‘build bridges, not walls’ message

Both Trump and the Pope had been critical of each other for the past decade, ever since the Republican first ran for office in 2016.

Updated on: Apr 26, 2025, 17:00:20 IST

By HT News Desk

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Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re called for care for migrants, an end to wars, and action on global climate change in front of hundreds of world leaders attending the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, including US President Donald Trump.

Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Re looks at Youssef Absi, Patriarch of Antioch and All the Orient, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, and head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, blessing with myrrh the coffin of late Pope Francis during the funeral ceremony at St Peter's Square at the Vatican (AFP)

Giovanni Battista Re also repeated one of the pope's strongest criticisms of Trump, calling to "build bridges, not walls", Reuters reported.

Both Donald Trump and the Pope Francis had been critical of each other for the past decade, ever since the Republican first ran for office in 2016. It has been mostly related to the Pontiff’s plea for compassion for migrants, a plank Trump has been running against. While the US President has repeatedly sought to deport migrants from the country, the Pontiff's message has been to embrace them.

"Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today's challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings, and hopes of this time," Re was quoted by Reuters as saying.

He touched people's hearts "in a direct and immediate way,” the Cardinal added.

Re's sermon contained a strong political message, echoing that of Pope Francis himself. It is also being seen as a strong internal message to the world's Catholic cardinals, who will soon be tasked to elect the Pope's successor.

Pope Francis passed away on Monday at age 88 from a heart stroke. His funeral was held on Saturday, where Cardinal Re gave the message to Trump and more than 50 other world leaders, apart from the millions of people watching around the world. According to the Vatican estimates, 250,000 people joined the funeral at St Peter's Square in the Vatican.

What was Pope Francis’ message to Donald Trump that Cardinal Re repeated?

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re invoked a criticism Pope Francis levied against Donald Trump in 2016, when the real estate mogul was making his first run for US President. The Pope had said at the time that Trump was "not Christian" because of his views on immigration.

"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel," the Pope had said at the time.

Trump responded then, "For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful."

More recently, the pope had called Trump's immigration crackdown in his second term a “disgrace”.

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