The world is waiting to see how much of the new US President’s rhetoric will be turned into action. There is concern in Catholic social justice circles about his stance on immigration, health care and climate change. Here, Tablet writers consider the prospects for the American economy, relations with Russia, and Donald Trump’s pledge to tighten the abortion laws. Firstly, how is the Church squaring up to the challenges ahead?

As Donald Trump takes his seat in the Oval Office, no one in Catholic advocacy circles knows exactly what to expect. Will he try and deliver on his promise to build a wall along the US border with Mexico? He pledged mass deportations, but has since walked back from that position. Will he cede control of the budget to Congress and what will that mean for anti-poverty programmes and health care? Will the man who tweeted that Pope Francis was “disgraceful” demonstrate any respect for the role of religion in society?

No issue looms larger for US Catholics than immigration. Sixty-one per cent of Catholics under the age of 18 here are Latino and no presidential candidate has been more consistently hostile to immigrants since the nineteenth century. At a packed service at the Cathedral of St Patrick in El Paso, Texas, last week, religious and civic leaders, led by Bishop Mark Seitz, mixed with so-called “Dreamers” – those brought to the US without documentation as children and previously shielded from deportation by Barack Obama’s administration – to witness to the dignity of immigrants.