Pope Francis wears a traditional Mexican sombrero hat he received as a gift by a Mexican journalist aboard the plane during the flight from Rome to Habana, Cuba, on his way to a week-long trip to Mexico, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.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.
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.
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 “notChristian.”
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.