“A person who thinks only about building walls — wherever they may be — and not building bridges, is not Christian.” That’s a translation from the Associated Press of a comment by Pope Francis last week after he was asked about presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for the U.S. to build a huge wall across its border with Mexico to help stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

“I say only this man is not Christian if he says things like that,” Pope Francis was also quoted as saying.

Predictably there’s been uproar in the news, that the pope said Donald Trump isn’t a good Christian or that other Republicans who support some sort of wall or reducing the flow of immigrants aren’t Christian.

Soon after the pope’s comments got such wide play in the media for calling Trump “not Christian,” came reports of the how Vatican where the pope lives is surrounded by huge walls, how it has guards that limit people’s access, that it has a strict immigration policy that limits residence to cardinals, diplomats and a small number of employees and their families.

Clearly these reports would have you think the pope is disingenuous in chastising Trump or others for calling for a wall to block out immigrants when the Vatican does the same thing.

There’s plenty of room for interpretation of the pope’s remarks.

If you look closely at the pope’s comment, about a person who “only” thinks about building walls and “not building bridges,” you can easily interpret that he was making this comments in a broader sense. Too many in the national media are reporting he was talking about Trump specifically, and other Republicans who support immigration reform.

Common sense says many who seek to immigrate to the United States are trying to escape harsh or dangerous living conditions in their home countries. Who can argue it could seem unchristian to not try to find ways to help these people improve their lives, to try to “build bridges” as the pope suggests.

However, it’s unfair to suggest that those who support controlling our borders and stopping the flow of illegal immigrants lack compassion for the dangers or harsh conditions many of those immigrants are fleeing. Certainly the United States could build a wall or take other steps to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country, yet could continue to support projects and efforts to make things better in their countries of origin.

If a ship were to sink those lucky enough to have a lifeboat would be expected to do what they could to save others from the water. Would it be unchristian to not allow so many to climb aboard the lifeboat that it would capsize, and threaten everyone’s life?

The pope didn’t say building a wall was unchristian. What is a problem is only thinking about the wall to stop the immigrants and not doing something to address the problems that the immigrants seek to leave behind.

There’s no reason we can’t have both walls and bridges related to immigration and still be in the pope’s good graces.

WILL CHAPMAN

PUBLISHER