Vatican says pope’s remarks on Trump were not a ‘personal attack’

The pope suggested that Trump is not Christian, stating that anyone who focuses on building walls instead of bridges doesn’t hold Christian values. Religious leaders of all faiths have at one time or another used their prestige to comment on the political/social issues of the day.

Trump quickly responded while campaigning at a golf course resort in SC.

The Hill reports that in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren to be aired Friday, Trump said: “I think he’s a terrific person, frankly”.

On Friday, The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte released a statement, which says in part, “Regarding the Holy Father’s statement about the immigration wall that has been proposed by Mr. Trump”.

As for the comments that sparked the war of words between Francis and Trump, the Vatican spokesman said they were not “in any way a personal attack nor an indication of voting”.

“Had [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein lived-he was a bad guy, but he killed terrorists”, Trump said, adding that if former President George W. Bush “went to the beach and gone swimming [instead of engaging with Iraq], we’d be better off”.

“In effect, modern societies have the possibility to efficiently repress crime without taking away definitely the possibility to redeem oneself from those who committed” the crime, Francis said. In addition to the pope addressing Trump’s main talking point – immigration, there are only a few hundred thousand Catholic voters in SC, where evangelicals dominate. “We must see if he said things in that way and I will give him the benefit of the doubt”, the Pope continued. I’ll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people.

BBC notes that two of Mr Trump’s Republican rivals, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, both Catholics, said they look to the Pope for spiritual guidance, but not political direction. We have a tremendous trade deficit – $58 billion trade deficit – with Mexico.

“My opinion as a Christian isn’t spouting your mouth off and then apologizing for it. Think before you speak and say something that’s Christian”, Laurel Hertz said.

“I think that’s a relationship they have with their Lord and savior and themselves”.

Trump also warned that “if and when” ISIS attacks the Vatican, which “as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy”, the Pope would have only “wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened”.