Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders met with Pope Francis this past Saturday, April 16, for what The Guardian reports as a short five-minute interaction. According to a recent report from BBC News, Pope Francis has explained that there was "no political meddling" involved in the aforementioned meeting.
"This morning when I was leaving, Senator Sanders was there, he had come to the convention. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics," explained Pope Francis. "If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist."
According to Pope Francis, they were both staying in the same guest house and that Senator Sanders was aware that the Pope was preparing to leave and decided to simply greet him on the way out. Pope Francis politely greeted Sanders, his wife, and a second couple that were also staying in the guest house out of sheer courtesy.
Sanders later addressed that he commended the Pope for his role in promoting the concept of an economy built on morality instead of greed, alluding to the concept of toppling an economy built on capitalism by replacing it with a socialist political structure.
It is pointed out in the report that back in February, Pope Francis explained that a person who comes up with plans of building walls is "not Christian," which The Guardian reports as a nudge towards Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and his plans of building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
CBS News later reported that Trump did get to fire back during a guest appearance on Fox News. Trump responded that the five-minute meeting between the Pope and Sanders was meaningless, given that the time frame given to them was not enough for them to talk about anything substantial.
Trump later explained that the Pope's statements were disgraceful, particularly for Pope Francis to question his faith and that he was surprised to see Pope Francis make such remarks.
