Whispers in the loggia: Pope On The Plane: "A Person Who Thinks Only of Walls, And Not Bridges, Is Not Christian"

Keeping with custom for the traveling press pool – whose outlets pay for the entire flight – the Pope delivered an hourlong, 12-question extravaganza en route home from Mexico...

...but even if the session included some notable exchanges on his upcoming last word on the Synod ("perhaps before Easter," he confirms), last week's Havana Summit and his "dream" to go to one place above all – "China" – given the piece that's dominating the news-cycle, for purposes of clarity, here's an English translation of what set it off:

Phil Pullella, Reuters: Good evening, Your Holiness. You spoke very eloquently of the problems of immigrants. On the other side of the border, meanwhile, there’s an already rough election campaign. One of the candidates for the White House, the Republican Donald Trump, in a recent interview said that you are a political man and added that maybe you’re a pawn, a tool of the Mexican government on the political issue of immigration. He has said that, if elected, he wants to build a 2,500km wall along the border; he wants to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, thus separating families, etc. I’d like to ask, then, above all what you think of these accusations against you and if an American Catholic can vote for a person of this kind.

Pope Francis: Well, thank God he said I’m political, because Aristotle defines the human person as “animal politicus” (“political animal”): at least I’m human! And that I’m a pawn… meh, maybe, I don’t know – I leave that to your judgment, that of the people. And then, a person who thinks only of making walls, wherever they might be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel. Then, what you told me, what I would advise, to vote for or not: I’m not getting into that. I only say: if he says these things, this man is not Christian. It needs to be seen that he has said these things. And for this I give the benefit of the doubt.

As ever, more to come.

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by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia