Pope Francis launched a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump's policies at the weekend while speaking at the World Meeting of Popular Movements at the Vatican on Saturday.
Even though some surveys have shown that white Catholics prefer Trump over Hillary Clinton, Francis appeared to have made his own preference known.
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He focused on a criticism of “false prophets that exploit fear and hopelessness to sell physical or social walls as well as false prophets…
“The citizens who still have some rights are tempted by the false security of walls, physical or social—walls that close some in and banish others.
“No tyranny can be sustained without exploiting our fears. This is clear. All tyranny is terrorist.
“Is this the life that our father God wants for us?”
It sure sounds like Pope Francis doesn’t think Americans should vote for Trump. https://t.co/f3IT5lJDUo pic.twitter.com/BnIbCe4CEY
— Slate (@Slate) November 6, 2016
It was not the first time Pope Francis has taken on the Republican contender. In February, after visiting Mexico and saying mass on the border, Francis stated that Donald Trump, who has taken a hard line on immigration, “is not a Christian” for vowing to have mass deportations if he becomes president and saying that he will force Mexico to build a wall along the southern border,” the New York Times reported.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
Trump fired back: "No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith," he said.
As a Latin American pope Francis is very aware of the Hispanic immigration issue and differs deeply with Trump on it. He is enormously popular with Hispanics as a result.
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