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

It’s also a topic which resonates personally with Francis. In his new autobiography, the Pope recalled how his paternal grandparents and father had planned to sail in 1927 on the Principessa Mafalda from Italy to Argentina, which sank with the loss of many lives, but ended up making a later crossing.

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 said Sunday US President-elect Donald Trump's promised large-scale deportation operation of undocumented migrants would be "a calamity." Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday, has pledged to take a hardline stance against an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

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