Pope’s border wall around Vatican
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
BY OLAF EKBERG
While Pope Francis is in the United States effectively advocating for a borderless America, many people are amused by the irony of the giant wall surrounding his own Vatican City.
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Villi Wilson @Conservative_VW
Obviously the Pope doesn't want any illegal immigrants either��
L��ky~ wall around the Vatican
TEAR DOWN THAT WALL‼️
11:00 AM - 24 Sep 2015
Take the lead, Holy Father: Tear down that wall!
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Adam Graham @adamcraiggraham
@oldjimmymac @realDonaldTrump maybe you missed the giant wall around Vatican City. Here's a pic for you. pic.twitter.com/px2mkKTkOn
9:09 AM - 24 Sep 2015
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The Worst Lady @MEEchelleO
Can #PopeFrancis have a huge wall for protection?
YES HE CAN!!!
-mao#SyrianRefugees #SyriaCrisis #vatican #fail
2:52 PM - 23 Sep 2015
During his speech before Congress, Pope Francis implored U.S. politicians to embrace migrants seeking to come into America.
“Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the second World War,” the pope said, according to USA Today, including “thousands of persons (who) are led to travel north in search of a better life.
“We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”
“To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome.”
The wall in these photos is something more impressive than anything even Donald Trump could build.
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/pho...round-vatican/
POPE ON TRUMP: ANYONE WHO WANTS BORDER WALLS ISN'T CHRISTIAN
BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Francis said Thursday that Donald Trump is "not Christian" if he wants to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump immediately fired back, saying it is disgraceful for a religious leader to question a person's faith.
The rare back-and-forth between pontiff and presidential candidate was the latest astonishing development in a U.S. presidential race that has been roiled by Trump's freewheeling rhetoric and controversial policy proposals, particularly on immigration.
The front-runner for the Republican nomination, Trump has said that if elected, he will build a wall along the Mexican border from Texas to California and expel 11 million people who are in the country illegally. The Pope's comments en route home from Mexico came hours after he prayed at the Mexican border for people who died trying to reach the United States.
Asked what he thought of Trump's pledge, Francis said: "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."
Not having heard about Trump's border plans independently, Francis said he'd "give the benefit of the doubt." But he added: "I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that."
Trump, a Presbyterian, shot back within minutes.
"For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful," he said at a campaign stop in South Carolina, which holds a key primary on Saturday. "I am proud to be a Christian and as president I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened."
He also said the Mexican government has disparaged him to the Pope and separately invoked the Islamic State group, saying that if it attacks the Vatican, "I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened."
While Trump has made his plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a centerpiece of his campaign, other candidates have similar positions. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are among those who have explicitly called for construction of a wall.
Other Republican candidates, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, have called for enhanced border security and fencing but stopped short of backing a wall or other structure along the entire length of the border.
The U.S. government has built some 650 miles of wall along the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico boundary.
Marco Rubio, a Catholic seeking the GOP nomination, said in response to Francis' comments that Vatican City has a right to control its borders, and so does the United States.
Rubio said he has "tremendous respect and admiration" for the Pope, but added, "There's no nation on earth that's more compassion on immigration than we are."
Trump has been critical of the pope's visit to Mexico. He said last week that Francis' plans to pray at the border showed he is a political figure being exploited by the Mexican government.
Asked Thursday if he felt he was being used as a pawn of Mexico, Francis said he didn't know.
"I'll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people," he said.
He seemed pleased to hear that Trump had called him a "political" figure, noting that Aristotle had described the human being as a "political animal."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT
Mr. Pope, Tear Down This Wall
Pope Francis sure opened a can of worms criticizing border walls.
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by BEN SHAPIRO
18 Feb 2016
2,031 comments
Mr. Pope, tear down this wall.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis traveled to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, where he stood across the border from the United States and paid homage to “migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone’s throw away,” according to Reuters. He then blessed crosses next to which “shoes of migrants who died” were laid, and added, “No more death! No more exploitation!”
Not content to rabblerouse on behalf of an inundation of the world’s great economic superpower – a free and open superpower with an extraordinarily beneficent immigration policy – Pope Francis then attempted to shame Donald Trump and other Republicans who favor a border wall. He told reporters, “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.”
To which Trump responded, “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.”
The Pope obviously has his priorities well in order: he says he can’t judge homosexuals who consider themselves Catholic, but he’s happy to judge anyone in favor of border control. He’ll rip capitalism – the very economic system acting as a magnet from the Marxist countries of Latin America – and jabber about global warming, but say little to nothing about the Christians and Jews being slaughtered in the Middle East by Muslims. That’s because the Pope is a devotee of a less radical version of liberation theology, a philosophy that mashes up Marxism with Catholicism and was ripped by Pope John Paul II (“does not tally with the church’s catechism”) and Pope Benedict XVI (“singular heresy”). Pope Francis has introduced liberation theologists back into the Vatican. As The Guardian (UK) reported last year:
J Matthew Ashley, chair of the theology department at the University of Notre Dame, where Gutiérrez is also professor, says the pope has been greatly influenced by the Argentinian variety of liberation theology, which is called the theology of the people… “There are many points of similarity between Gutiérrez’s theology and Pope Francis’s thought, addresses and actions. Both have emphasised that opting for the poor requires getting to know the poor, becoming friends with the poor… both have a great respect for the spirituality of the poor, particularly in everyday life,” Ashley says.
But it seems that the Pope’s distaste for borders runs only one way: away from the Vatican. The Vatican, like many ancient cities, is surrounded by massive walls. Those walls were built over a thousand years ago. Its immigration policy is incredibly strict: while 800 people live within Vatican City, just 450 or so are citizens. The security at Vatican City is second-to-none: the Gendarmerie Corps of Vatican City State has 130 members, armed with guns. Virtually the only crime in Vatican City is pickpocketing in St. Peter’s Square. St. Peter’s Square is typically policed not by the Swiss Guard but by Italian police.
Meanwhile, according to CNN, the Vatican Bank holds $8 billion in assets; the Vatican has over $1.2 billion in assets off the books; it holds countless priceless assets, of course. How about spreading the wealth around? Why not build bridges? Why not welcome thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees or Latin Americans seeking to enter the United States illegally into Vatican City? Thus far, the Pope’s big move in favor of open immigration has been to accept two families into Vatican parishes.
That, by the Pope’s own lights, is insufficient.
It’s time for the wall to come down, Pope Francis. Gorbachev didn’t build the Berlin Wall, but he tore it down when the time came. Pope Francis can be just as historic. He can offer free, unchecked and permanent entrance not merely into St. Peter’s Square but into the Vatican itself; he can redistribute the wealth of Vatican City to help migrant families. After all, a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be – even the Vatican — is not Christian, we’ve recently heard. Such exclusivity isn’t in the Gospel.
How about it, Pope Francis? Why not open this gate? Why not tear down this wall?
Unless, perhaps, there’s often an excellent reason for gates and walls.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...own-this-wall/
