Mexicans who help build a border wall between the United States and Mexico are traitors. That is according to an editorial published last Sunday in Desde la Fe, a weekly publication of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Mexico City. A spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the editorial represents the views of the diocese.

“[U.S. President Donald Trump] allocated a budget of $2 billion for the construction of a wall, which should have solid infrastructure and soft aesthetic characteristics to hide, under paint and lights, hatred, mutilation and division,” reads this editorial (Trumpet translation). “What is regrettable is that, on this side of the border, Mexicans are ready to collaborate with a fanatical project that annihilates the good relationship in the concert of two nations that share a common border. … Any company intent on investing in the wall of the Trump fanatic would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered as traitors to the motherland.”

Mexican cement maker Cemex, along with over 500 other Mexican companies, have expressed willingness to work with the U.S. on the construction of a border wall spanning the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In an editorial published last month, the archdiocese of Mexico City condemned President Trump’s immigration policies as an “act of terror” and accused Mexican officials of being too submissive toward the U.S. Thus far, the Vatican has remained silent concerning these editorials.

But last year, Pope Francis weighed in on the illegal immigration debate by attempting to influence the results of the U.S. presidential election. When journalists asked his opinion of then candidate Donald Trump’s proposals to halt illegal immigration, the pope replied: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”

The pope may not have explicitly told Catholics which name to put on their ballot, but he said nothing about one candidate while rejecting the other as un-Christian. He also revealed his preferred policy for the American border: Keep it open. Vatican watcher Austen Ivereigh wrote in Crux magazine on November 15, “The Florida Strait and the U.S.-Mexican border are to Francis what the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall were to John Paul ii.”

Since the number of Catholics in the U.S. is declining, the Vatican has a vested interest in encouraging illegal immigration into the U.S. from Mexico, which has one of the largest Roman Catholic populations in the world. San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy recently stated that mass deportations of illegal immigrants could remove 10 percent of Catholic parishioners from American churches. This figure is likely based on the hypothetical situation that every one of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country will be deported, instead of the 2 to 3 million Mr. Trump has pledged to deport. But it shows how important the influx of Catholic migrants is to the future of the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Pew research data shows that 67 million people identify as Catholics in the U.S., roughly 21 percent of the population. But for every new Catholic convert, six Catholics leave the church. About half of these former Catholics give up on religion altogether, while the other half join a Protestant denomination. The reason the percentage of Catholics in America isn’t plummeting is because native-born Catholics are being replaced by immigrating foreign-born Catholics.

Without illegal immigration, the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. would be a shrinking, aging organization with diminishing influence. Immigrants moving into the country give Catholic leaders enormous influence that they would not otherwise have. According to a paper by the Vienna Institute of Demography, if immigration into America doubled, Catholicism would overtake Protestantism to become the largest religion in the United States by the middle of the century.

In many ways, President Trump and Pope Francis are emerging as leaders of rival power blocs. For an examination of how these blocs will clash, request a free copy of The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.