Pope Francis has said an “epidemic of animosity” toward religious and ethnic minorities is hurting the weakest in society, in a thinly veiled assessment of the rise of populist nationalism.

Little more than a week after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, which has buoyed anti-immigration parties in Europe, the pope said people should not be seen as enemies because they were different.

The 79-year-old Argentinian pontiff has repeatedly voiced support for immigrants, and last year made an impassioned speech on cultural diversity in Philadelphia.

Trump branded Pope Francis “disgraceful” in February after he suggested the billionaire tycoon was “not a Christian” because of his plan to build a wall along the US border with Mexico.

“We see, for example, how quickly those among us with the status of a stranger, an immigrant or a refugee become a threat; take on the status of an enemy,” Francis said at a Vatican ceremony on Saturday, during which new cardinals were inducted.

“An enemy because they come from a distant country or have different customs. An enemy because of the colour of their skin, their language or their social class.

“An enemy because they think differently or even have a different faith.”

The pope followed the US election campaign carefully, and four days before the vote cautioned against “social walls” and “false prophets”.

Between 9 November (the day after the election) and 14 November, there were 437 reports of hateful intimidation and harassment in the US, including 225 that were either anti-immigration or anti-black, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The pope’s candid warning follows the booing of the US vice-president elect, Mike Pence, at the musical Hamilton in New York on Friday night.

“How many wounds grow deeper due to this epidemic of animosity and violence, which leaves its mark on the flesh of many of the defenceless, because their voice is weak and silenced by this pathology of indifference,” he said.

He also said the Catholic church was not immune to “a virus of polarisation and animosity” after four conservative cardinals accused him of sowing confusion on important moral issues.

At the ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica, Francis appointed 17 new cardinals, including 13 under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to succeed him – three from the US, one each from Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, the Central African Republic, Italy, Mauritius, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Spain and Venezuela.

Among the new US cardinals is the archbishop of Indianapolis, Joseph Tobin, who defied Mike Pence as governor of Indiana by welcoming Syrian refugees. In January Tobin will become archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, while Pence will be installed as US vice-president.

It was the third cardinal election since Francis’ inauguration in 2013 as the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years.



• This article was amended on 21 November 2016. An editing error resulted in an earlier version saying the cardinals were ordained at the ceremony on Saturday.