Less than 24 hours after Pope Francis blew up the hotly contested Republican Primary race, the Vatican attempted to clarify what was widely interpreted as a personal attack on Donald Trump’s faith. “This wasn’t, in any way, a personal attack or an indication on who to vote for,” a spokesperson for the pope clarified, and added, “The Pope has clearly said he didn’t want to get involved in the electoral campaign in the US and also said that he said what he said on the basis of what he was told [about Trump], hence giving him the benefit of the doubt.”
Thursday afternoon, when asked specifically about Trump’s border proposal, that includes a wall, Pope Francis said:
A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not 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. I say only that this is man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
Trump initially called the questioning of his faith “disgraceful,” but later said that the actual Pope quote was not as harsh against him as the first reports suggested.
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