Pope attacks Trump saying he is 'not Christian' for wanting to build a wall with Mexico - then Donald hits back calling Catholic leader 'disgraceful'
Pope spoke on Papal plane after trip to Mexico which took him to US border where he celebrated mass
Condemned Trump's plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico saying: 'This is not in the Gospel.'
Trump, campaigning in South Carolina, hit back furiously, calling the Pope 'disgraceful' and accused him of being a 'pawn' of the Mexican government
Trump is a Presbyterian who has highlighted his religion repeatedly and is battling Ted Cruz in South Carolina for evangelicals
Pope had held right on the border at Ciudad Juarez, with celebration simulcast to stadium on American side of Rio Grande
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is 'not Christian' because of his views on immigration, Pope Francis said on his way back to Rome from Mexico.
The Pope said, however, he did not want to advise American Catholics on whether or not to vote for Trump.
Trump fired back immediately, telling a packed room at a coastal South Carolina country club: 'For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful.'
The Pope's dramatic intervention came in a freewheeling conversation with reporters on his flight back from a visit to Mexico.
Francis was asked about Trump and some of his statements, such as vowing to build a wall between the United States and Mexico if he becomes president.
'A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,' Francis saidin answer to a specific question about Trump's views. 'This is not in the gospel.'
Asked if American Catholics should vote for someone with Trump's views, Francis said: '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,' he said.
Trump issued a furious response, reading a lengthy statement from the podium on a campaign stop.
He reflected on the seismic impact of crossing swords with the leader of the world's largest religious denomination, and shrugged it off.
'Now it's probably going to be all over the world. Who the hell cares? I don't care!' he said. 'We have to stop illegal immigration ... and crime.'
Trump blasted the Vatican for what he said was a naive outlook on the ISIS terror army, saying in a statement released to reporters that '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.'
'ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.'
On his last day in Mexico, Pope Francis said a Mass on the U.S. border, where he railed against immigration policies that force many underground and into the hands of drug gangs and human smugglers.
Trump has also said he would deport millions of illegal migrants if he wins the November U.S. election. Last week he told Fox Business television that Pope Francis did not understand the Mexican border issues.
'The pope is a very political person. I think he doesn't understand the problems our country has. I don't think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico,' he said.
Asked if he felt he was being used as a pawn of Mexico, Francis said he didn't know.
'I leave that judgment to you, the people.'
But he seemed quite pleased to hear that Trump had called him a 'political' figure, noting that Aristotle had described the human being as a 'political animal.'
'Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as 'animal politicus'. So at least I am a human person.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3453193/Pope-says-Trump-not-Christian-views-plans-immigration.html
