Last Wednesday, at a meeting on the U.S.-Mexico border, Pope Francis suggested that Donald Trump may not exhibit true Christian attitudes the way that many Christians believe he does. This, of course, was controversial for a number of reasons: The Pope is Catholic, and while Catholics are Christians, not all Christians are Catholics. Many Christians have a different opinion on what the Pope had to say about Trump. Some agreed; some, on the other hand, felt that the Pope should not have spoken on an individual person’s faith.

Trump disapproved of the Pope visiting the border between the U.S. and Mexico, saying that Pope Francis was a "political person". Trump also suggested that this meeting at the border meant the Pope was at the beck and call of the Mexican government. At the border, when asked about Trump, Pope Francis said, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.” He said this in reference to Trump’s continuously emphasized policy proposition to “build a wall” to keep out immigrants from Mexico, and to make Mexico pay for the wall themselves. While the Pope did not directly address Trump when making his statement, it’s pretty clear that he was alluding to Trump’s outspoken ideas.

However, later in the report, he gave a clarifying statement: “I say only that [Trump] is not Christian if he has said things like that…in this I give the benefit of the doubt.” Pope Francis also said that he “was not going to get involved” in the U.S. presidential election, so this could have been his reason for deciding to tone down his statement about Trump. Trump’s response to the Pope’s statement about him was, of course, very negative. Trump stated that it was “disgraceful” for a religious leader such as the Pope to question someone’s faith, and others agreed with him that the Pope had stepped out of line.

Even though the Pope is a Catholic rather than an evangelical Christian, it’s probably to the Pope’s surprise that “the Donald” is currently in the lead among evangelical Christians. Personally, I find this pretty surprising too, considering recent events. In January, Trump spoke in front of a large group of students at Liberty University, a private Christian college in Virginia. Multiple students laughed when Trump referred to the second book of Corinthians in the Bible as “Two Corinthians,” instead of the widely accepted “Second Corinthians.” (From what I could tell, this passage in Second Corinthians didn’t have much to do with what Trump was saying; it simply had the word “liberty” in it, and I suppose he figured that since he was at Liberty University, this was the best verse to go with.) Trump didn’t speak heavily at all on Christianity in the speech. Instead, he mentioned it casually, saying things like, “You’re going to see ‘Merry Christmas’ in department stores.” Despite his demonstrated lack of Biblical knowledge, it seems that 31 percent of evangelical Christians still support Trump.

Catholics may have different views than people of other Christian denominations, but Christians generally share the same core values, and it’s interesting to see where Trump polls among them. It is currently unclear, however, where Trump polls among Catholic voters. Catholics currently make up about 22 percent of the U.S. population. The Pope, then, is known in the U.S. and globally not only as the leader of the Catholic Church, but also as an influential speaker on good will and humanity. While I believe that faith is a strictly personal matter, I feel that the Pope was right to express that Trump’s ideology regarding other nations is less than peaceful. Whether or not Trump is a Christian is, of course, for Trump himself to decide. Still, the Pope and I agree on this, we should strive to build bridges rather than walls, and maybe our politicians should, too.