Donald Trump's trip to Pope Francis' funeral puts a sharper focus...

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

70% : Ivanka Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and President Donald Trump stand with Pope Francis during a meeting, Wednesday, May 24, 2017, at the Vatican.
55% : " Trump, too, met once with Francis, in a largely cordial meeting at the Vatican in 2017.
55% : Francis also staunchly opposed the death penalty, something Trump supports.
51% : John Fea, a professor of history at Messiah University in Pennsylvania, said many conservative Catholics, even if they respect the office of the pope, "don´t like his progressive views" on immigrants and his authorizing of blessings for same-sex couples.
49% : In October, when he addressed the Al Smith charity dinner in New York, which raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities, Trump said: "You gotta get out and vote.
47% : In the 2024 election, Trump won the Catholic vote, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters.
46% : Trump, who has identified himself as a "non-denominational Christian," has long counted Christians, especially evangelical Christians, among his key blocs of support.
43% : "The views of many conservative American Catholics line-up with Trump´s brand of populism: strong borders, pro-life on abortion, concern about critical race theory in schools, etc.," Fea, author of "Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump," said via email.
42% : " Some of the fundamental differences between the U.S. president and the late pope - not only their divergent styles but their positions on migration, the environment and poverty - will come into sharper focus as Trump travels to Rome on Friday for Francis´ funeral, to be held Saturday morning in St. Peter´s Square.
40% : " Things weren't great between Trump and the pope during Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2021.
40% : Trump and Francis did share some policy goals on issues such as abortion and religious freedom, and U.S.-Vatican relations involve more than two people, said Steven Millies, director of the Bernadin Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
34% : In addition to migration, Francis also differed with Trump on the environment, writing an encyclical calling for climate action, in contrast to the president´s push to bring back fossil fuels.
33% : In 2020, the Catholic vote was evenly split between Joe Biden, but in 2024, 54% of Catholic voters supported Trump and 44% supported Kamala Harris.
33% : But while Trump may have won the Catholic vote, he never won over Francis.
27% : In contrast, he speculated that many progressive Catholics who do share Pope Francis´ social justice concerns probably did not vote for Trump.
15% : Trump called the comment "disgraceful.

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