Pope Francis has made a thinly veiled criticism of the policies of Donald Trump, saying societies should build bridges not walls to encourage good relations among people.

The pontiff did not directly refer to the US president or his plan to build a fence along his country’s border with Mexico.



But his statement at his weekly general audience at the Vatican that it was a Christian calling “to not raise walls but bridges, to not respond to evil with evil, to overcome evil with good” will be seen as an allusion to Trump’s plans and policies.



In improvised remarks, the pope appeared to further refer to Trump by saying: “A Christian can never say: ‘I’ll make you pay for that.’ Never! That is not a Christian gesture. An offense is overcome with forgiveness, by living in peace with everyone.”



Within days of his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order on the “immediate construction of a border wall” claiming the move would save “thousands of lives, millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars”.



Trump has insisted that the Mexican government should be made to pay the estimated $15bn cost of a 1,000-mile long border fence – flatly rejected by Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto.



Francis may also have been alluding to Trump’s ban on Syrian refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, which was overturned by a federal judge last week.



The pope has made compassion towards refugees and those on the margins of society a hallmark of his papacy, and has repeatedly urged world leaders to reject nationalism and xenophobia.



A year ago – when Trump was thought to have little chance of winning the US presidential election – Francis made similar comments about walls and bridges. He told reporters when returning to Rome from Mexico: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”



Trump responded robustly, saying: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”



The pope repeated his “bridges not walls” message a few days before November’s election, when he told social justice activists at the Vatican that the “best antidote to fear is mercy” which is “much more effective than walls, iron bars, alarms and weapons. And it is free.”



Most Trump critics can expect a lashing from the president on Twitter, but such a move against Pope Francis could alienate millions of Catholics and other fans of the pope.

