Pope Francis Warns Against Building Walls, Politics of Fear

Just days before the U.S. presidential election, Pope Francis gave a forceful rebuke of the politics of fear and the construction of walls. The pontiff did not explicitly mention Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but he took aim at one of his top initiatives: building a wall on the southern border with Mexico. “Walls that enclose some and banish others. Walled citizens, terrified on one side, excluded, exiled, and still more terrified on the other,” the pope said Saturday at the World Meeting of Popular Movements. “Is that the life that our Father God wants for their children? Dear brothers and sisters—all walls fall. All of them. Do not be fooled.” In February, Pope Francis criticized Trump more directly, saying in part: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel.”