Pope Francis has questioned US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's Christianity over his call to build a border wall with Mexico.
Pope Francis said "a person who thinks only about building walls... and not of building bridges, is not Christian".
The New York businessman supports deporting nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants.
He has alleged that Mexico sends "rapists" and criminals to the US.
"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 I will give him the benefit of the doubt," the Pope said.
"I don't think he understands the danger of the open border we have with Mexico," Mr Trump said earlier this month. "And I think Mexico got him to do it because Mexico wants to keep the border just the way it is, because they're making a fortune and we're losing."
Mr. Trump responded immediately at a campaign rally in Kiawah Island, S.C. Discussing the Islamic State, “their primary goal is to get to the Vatican.”
“If and when the Vatican is attacked,” he said, “the pope would only wish and have prayed that Donald Trump would have been elected president.”
Earlier in his remarks, he said, “I like the pope.”
Have you ever been to the Vatican?
You can just walk into the city, the walls are there for protection, not to keep anyone out. Otherwise they wouldn't have built big ****ing doors everywhere.
