--- title: Trump Inauguration: Pope Francis Sends a Formal Message description: Pope Francis sent Donald Trump a message on the day of his inauguration as the 45th President of the United States canonical: https://time.com/4641201/pope-francis-donald-trump-inauguration-message/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-20T18:13:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:50:28.370Z article:section: Politics og:title: Pope Francis Has an Inauguration Day Message for President Donald Trump og:description: America will be judged "by its concern for the poor" og:url: https://time.com/4641201/pope-francis-donald-trump-inauguration-message/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade5e9b2c03e2ec6/6988b663656a3f3ae1bce761/pope-francis-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pope Attends His Weekly Audience og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pope Francis Has an Inauguration Day Message for President Donald Trump twitter:description: America will be judged "by its concern for the poor" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade5e9b2c03e2ec6/6988b663656a3f3ae1bce761/pope-francis-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pope Francis Has an Inauguration Day Message for President Donald Trump by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jan 20, 2017 6:13 PM UTC  Pope Francis attends his weekly audience at the Paul VI Hall on January 11, 2017 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis attends his weekly audience at the Paul VI Hall on January 11, 2017 in Vatican City, Vatican.Franco Origlia—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jan 20, 2017 6:13 PM UTC [Pope Francis](http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/person-of-the-year-pope-francis-the-peoples-pope/) sent [Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/) a message on the day of his [inauguration](http://time.com/4640703/donald-trump-inauguration-day-2017/?xid=homepage) as the 45th President of the United States. The Pope said he hopes that under Trump’s leadership, “America’s stature \[will\] continue to be measured above all by its concern for the poor.” “At a time when our human family is beset by grave humanitarian crises demanding far-sighted and united political responses, I pray that our decisions will be guided by the rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people and your nation’s commitment to the advancement of human dignity and freedom worldwide,” he wrote. The message was issued by the Vatican shortly after Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Friday. Read it in full below. > [](https://twitter.com/maryshovlain/status/822496017350279168) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4641201/pope-francis-donald-trump-inauguration-message/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4641201/pope-francis-donald-trump-inauguration-message/"},"headline":"Pope Francis Has an Inauguration Day Message for President Donald Trump","datePublished":"2017-01-20T18:13:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:50:28.370Z","description":"America will be judged \"by its concern for the poor\"","url":"https://time.com/4641201/pope-francis-donald-trump-inauguration-message/","keywords":["faith","Donald Trump","onetime","trump inauguration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade5e9b2c03e2ec6/6988b663656a3f3ae1bce761/pope-francis-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade5e9b2c03e2ec6/6988b663656a3f3ae1bce761/pope-francis-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Attends His Weekly Audience","caption":"Pope Attends His Weekly Audience","creditText":"Franco Origlia—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4641201/pope-francis-donald-trump-inauguration-message/","name":"Pope Francis Has an Inauguration Day Message for President Donald Trump"}}]}] ```