Vatican: Pope was not singling out Trump with his remarks

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.

In that sense, the Pope’s remarks on Trump’s proposal to deport undocumented immigrants and build a big wall between the United States and Mexico weren’t terribly surprising. Francis said this wasn’t Christian.

On Friday, a Vatican spokesman said that, although the reporter at the papal press conference asked Francis specifically about Trump, the Pope’s answer should be interpreted more generally.

But he said: “I’d just say that this man is not Christian if he said it this way”.

Trump retorted it was “disgraceful” to question a person’s faith.

“Being a Catholic myself – and I’ve earned that identity going to Catholic high school and college – my whole training is learning in Catholicism – I am very disappointed in the pope coming out against Donald Trump”, said actor Jon Voight in a text to Fox News Thursday. “I am proud to be a Christian and as president I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now”, Mr Trump retorted in a Facebook post.

As the South Carolina Republican primary will take place Saturday, evangelical author Johnnie Moore hypothesized in an interview with Newsmax that the Pope’s comments will only help Trump win over the support of evangelicals. We must see if he said things that way, and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I don’t think this is a fight”, Trump said.

Trump said he believes the pope has only heard one side of the story, as told by the Mexican government, and isn’t aware of the problems Trump claims are caused by a porous border.

Addressing a crowd of the faithful who were gathered in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, Pope Francis said, “All Christians and people of good will are called today to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also in order to improve prison conditions, in respect for human dignity of persons deprived of liberty”.

The Pope also made waves Wednesday when he announced that contraception could be a viable defense against the Zika virus, saying that “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil“, in the face of the crisis.

“Amazing comments from the Pope- considering Vatican City is 100% surrounded by massive walls”, Scavino tweeted.

Trump’s rivals at Thursday night’s town hall largely stayed away from the brouhaha.

“First off, I’m pro-pope – put me down in the pro-pope column”, said Ohio Gov. John Kasich.