ROME (AP) — Pope Francis said Donald Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a “disgrace,” as he weighed in on the incoming U.S. president’s pledges nearly a decade after calling him “not Christian” for wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Pope Francis has criticized US President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport immigrants as a “disgrace.” The pontiff, speaking during an Italian television interview, was asked about the incoming Trump administration’s plans to expel undocumented immigrants through an aggressive slate of immigration executive orders by the incoming president,

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.

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.

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

In a recent interview with an Italian television station, the Pope criticized Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants, calling it a "disaster." He warned that such action