Why the Pope Didn't Diss Donald Trump

ell, there's been a great to-do about the current business of Pope Francis's comments on Donald Trump. If you have read the Pope's remarks on Mr Trump in context, you have my full permission to keep reading. If not, you might want to do that. Sadly, instead most will rely on the slanted, biased and self-interested articles of the media, and others who follow their siren-call. It is just business as usual. It seems that only in a by-gone age did reporters once actually report the unvarnished, raw news, whereas today it's all about click-bait and furthering the liberal narrative. The immediate context of the Pope's comments made on the plane-ride back from Mexico to the Vatican this weekend (part of a much larger interview) was a question asked by a Reuters reporter:

Phil Pullella, Reuters: Today, you spoke very eloquently about the problems of immigration. On the other side of the border, there is a very tough electoral battle. One of the candidates for the White House, Republican, Donald Trump, in an interview recently said that you are a political man and he even said that you are a pawn, an instrument of the Mexican government for migration politics. Trump said that if he’s elected, he wants to build 2,500 kilometers of wall along the border. He wants to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, separating families, et cetera. I would like to ask you, what do you think of these accusations against you and if a North American Catholic can vote for a person like this?

Pope Francis: Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as animal politicus. At least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I don't know. I'll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people. And then, a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in 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 man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.

The reporter misrepresented Trump when he said Trump wants to separate families. Trump has never been in favor of separating families. "We're going to keep the families together, but they have to go," Trump told NBC's Chuck Todd in a "Meet the Press" interview that aired August 16, 2015. He has advocated deporting Mexican families together if they have broken American immigration law.  Furthermore, Trump has not only spoken about building walls. He has been tirelessly promoting the creation of jobs for Americans, rebuilding American infrastructure, and yes--building bridges. Yes, of course the Holy Father was speaking metaphorically, both about bridges and walls, but those who have been repeating the Pope's words appear to want to take him literally, to condemn anyone who wants to build a wall for any reason. As has been pointed out, since the Vatican itself is entirely surrounded by enormous walls, that could not have been the Pope's meaning. Hopefully Americans will be intelligent enough to see through this disgraceful attempt by the international media to wag the dog by giving the Pope false information, asking him to comment based on that false information, then failing to publicize the full question the Pope was asked.

We should not put too much faith in human politics in any case, though. It is a passing thing. Our hope is in a God robed in majesty, who firmly established the Earth as His throne. Only He is from eternity, and we cannot be moved if we make Him our foundation. All other hopes and assurances are shifting sand.

"Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell, and great was the fall of it." -Matthew 7:24-27