Cardinal Dolan's prayer at Trump inauguration comes after Pope's rebuke of immigration policies

New York's top Catholic leader prayed for President Donald Trump on the national stage Monday before the swearing-in of the 47th president, but just a day earlier, Pope Francis had rebuked Trump, calling his plan to deport millions of immigrants a "disgrace."

President Donald Trump has vowed to begin mass deportations of immigrants, with major policy changes anticipated through executive orders he is to sign within hours of being inaugurated.

Pope Francis weighed in on the issue on Sunday evening, telling Italian media, according to The Associated Press, about the deportations: "If true, this will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing [to] pay the bill" for the problem, Francis said. "This won’t do! This is not the way to solve things."

Monday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, delivered a prayer during Trump's inauguration in Washington D.C., quoting from Psalm 46 and the Book of Wisdom and recalling the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s observed birthday, according to the Good Newsroom, a digital news outlet of the Archdiocese of New York. 

"He prayed for the president and he prayed for the country ... He would have just as graciously accepted an invitation should Vice President Harris have won ... and offered an opportunity to come," Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, said in a brief interview.

During his two-minute invocation, Dolan said in part, "Give our leader wisdom for he is your servant, aware of his own weakness and brevity of life. If wisdom, which comes from you, be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem."

While Dolan’s message was not an endorsement of Trump’s policies, the optics could send mixed messages, experts said.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior analyst at Religion News Service, an independent news agency, said the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops aligns with the pope's position on immigration

"So you might ask questions of, why did Cardinal Dolan do the opening prayer? On the other hand, unlike the other people who prayed in a very partisan way, Dolan said a real prayer, rather than a campaign speech," Reese said.

Dolan also led the opening prayer for Trump's 2017 presidential inauguration. 

"Cardinal Dolan did not make an endorsement in the election, and his participation in the inauguration ceremony appears to have been intended as a spiritual rather than a political message," Meena Bose, Hofstra’s executive dean of the university's Public Policy and Public Service programs, said in an email.

But given the pope’s recent criticism of Trump’s stance on immigration, "efforts to separate spiritual and political messages may not be persuasive," added Bose.

On Monday, Pope Francis released an official message sending Trump blessings and congratulations. "The American people will prosper and always strive to build a more just society, where there is no room for hatred, discrimination or exclusion," reads part of the statement released by the Holy See Press Office.

Julie Byrne, Hofstra University Professor in the Department of Religion, added in an email that Dolan has not been a strong critic of Trump, despite his support of immigrants. 

"Cardinal Dolan has been a voice of compassion for immigrants to the U.S., but also has not been willing to speak up in the face of President Trump’s policies, or risk alienating Catholics who voted for President Trump," Byrne said in an email.