text: Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, congratulated Trump the day after the election, noting that the election “was characterized by a large turnout at the polls.” (See “Voter turnout at 20-year low in 2016.”) He praised Trump: “[T]he future leader has already spoken like a leader.” Parolin said the first issue on which the Vatican would “collaborate” with Trump was peace. The second was “the internal [i.e. domestic] issues” of the US Church such as “religious freedom,” i.e. the Church's ability to discriminate against women and LGBTQ persons while receiving taxpayer funding. “Asked about the polemics that arose earlier in the year between Trump and Pope Francis over the question of immigration, Parolin responded, ‘Let’s see how the president acts’ …. Normally, they say it is one thing to be a candidate and another to be president, to have that responsibility. It seems premature to make judgments,” Parolin concluded.