The Vatican insisted Friday that Pope Francis’ comments questioning the Christianity of those who support border walls were in no way targeted at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
“The pope said clearly that he wasn’t stepping into voting issues in the electoral campaign in the United States,” Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said Friday in an interview on Vatican Radio.
Lombardi iterated that the pope was “in no way” specifically condemning Trump.
“He has always said this, continuously. And he has said it also about migration issues in Europe, very many times. Thus, it’s not at all a specific question, limited to this case,” Lombardi said.
Francis was specifically asked about Trump on Thursday, however.
A reporter asked him on board his flight from Mexico back to Vatican City, “Trump said that if he’s elected, he wants to build 2,500 kilometers of wall along the border. He wants to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, separating families, et cetera. I would like to ask you, what do you think of these accusations against you and if a North American Catholic can vote for a person like this?”
Francis didn’t mention Trump by name, but stated, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that.”
