Donald Trump will uphold Christian values as President of the United States, according to a prominent US Catholic.

Cardinal Raymond Burke said the Republican's election was due to a long-running crisis in America and hoped the country could find "the right path to follow". The conservative prelate said Trump understood Catholic values and would do everything possible to stop abortion.

"I am convinced as he said he will hold the defence of human life from conception... and put in place every action possible to fight abortion," Burke told Italian newspaper Il Giornale.

"Prudence" was needed when it came to immigration, he said, and "an awareness about whom immigrants are, the reasons that force them to emigrate and the capacity of communities to accept them.

"I don't think the new president will be inspired by hatred in his handling of the immigration issue," Burke said.

The cardinal has openly opposed Pope Francis' more reconciliatory approach to LGBT people and whether to offer communion to Catholics who remarry after divorce. In 2014 he was demoted from his role as head of the Vatican's highest judicial body and made patron of the Knights of Malta.

Weeks later Burke caused outrage when he said the Church under Pope Francis was like "a ship without a rudder".

Burke was formerly Archbishop for the Archbdiocese of St Louis, Missouri until 2008.

A majority of Catholics (52 per cent) voted for Trump in the US election this week, with 45 per cent backing Clinton.

White evangelical Christians backed Trump by four-one.