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Vatican: Pope’s ‘don’t build walls’ not singling out Trump Vatican: Pope was not singling out Trump with his remarks
(35 minutes later)
VATICAN CITY — The papal spokesman is stressing that Pope Francis often says build bridges, not walls, and that his remark while flying back from Mexico wasn’t targeting U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. VATICAN CITY — A spokesman for Pope Francis insisted Friday the pontiff was “in no way” launching an attack on Donald Trump, a U.S. presidential candidate, nor was he trying to sway voters by declaring someone who advocates building walls isn’t Christian.
Francis said Thursday that a person who advocates building walls for solutions is “not Christian.” Trump, who has repeatedly called for a wall to divide the United States and Mexico, retorted it was “disgraceful” to question a person’s faith. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, in an interview on Vatican Radio, stressed that Francis often speaks about building bridges, not walls, and that his remark on Thursday wasn’t “a personal attack” on the business mogul.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi sought to clarify the issue Friday, telling Vatican Radio that Francis’ comments were “in no way a personal attack nor an indication on how to vote.” Flying back to Rome from a pilgrimage that included Mass at the Mexican side of the border with the United States, Francis, answering a reporter’s question, had said that a person who advocates building walls is “not Christian.”
Lombardi noted Francis often has advocated “building not walls, but bridges,” especially regarding Europe, as it struggles to handle the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty. Trump, who has repeatedly called for a wall to divide the U.S. and Mexico while campaigning for November’s election, quickly retorted it was “disgraceful” to question a person’s faith.
On Friday, Lombardi sought to put the pope’s comments in context, saying they were “in no way a personal attack or an indication on how to vote.” The radio interviewer told Lombardi that many have seen the comment as a kind of “excommunication, if we can call it that,” of Trump.
“But the pope said what we well know, when we follow his teaching and his positions: that one mustn’t build walls, but bridges,” Lombardi said.
“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,” the spokesman said.
Some European countries have erected or raised the possibility of erecting fences and other barriers on their borders after hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers reached the continent by sea and land, fleeing war or poverty.
“The pope said clearly that he wasn’t stepping into voting issues in the electoral campaign in the United States,” Lombardi added. He said the pope was also “giving the benefit of the doubt” on what Trump had said.
Trump alluded to this context as he softened his rhetoric about the pope, saying at a town hall event on CNN that he believes Francis’ remarks were “probably a little bit nicer” than first reported.
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Frances D’Emilio is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.