Fact Check

Pope Francis Has Lost All Faith in American Christians?

An uncorroborated source reported that Pope Francis said he had lost all faith in American Christians after the election of Donald Trump.

Published Nov. 14, 2016

 (Wikipedia)
Image Via Wikipedia
Claim:
After Donald Trump was elected president, Pope Francis said he had lost all faith in American Christians.

On 9 November 2016, a small Sri Lankan blog published an article reporting that Pope Francis stated he had lost all faith in American Christians due to the election of Donald Trump as President on 8 November 2016:

However, during a mass [on 9 November 2016], Pope Francis said that, he is simply shocked to see how Americans elected their president despite the significant differences of Christian values both candidates possess. Jesus never looked at race, religion, creed or cast when healing people, reached out to everyone with the same love and care. Anyone could reach out to Jesus or the god for forgiveness and guidance.

"True Christians do not treat anyone differently, talk bad about them or look down on them. God help poor Mexicans, Africans and Cubans who wanted to realize American dream" he said.

"I am not sure whether we still can vouch for the faith of American Christians, as they need more wisdom looking at the leader they finally elected", said Pope Francis.

Last time when pope made the controversial statement Trump responded promptly saying that its ""disgraceful" for a religious leader to question anyone's faith.

He added, "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 the president,". Ironically he is now the president and he has another statement by Pope Francis to deal forthwith.

The article appeared to be the sort that would attract attention in the tense aftermath of the 2016 election, but no other sources we could find reported any similar about the Pontiff and his take on the election. Early on in the 2016 election cycle, Pope Francis asserted he would make no effort to influence the Catholic vote, although His Holiness was inaccurately claimed to have endorsed Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders, by fake news purveyors.

Although the web site on which the article was hosted did not feature a disclaimer marking it as fake news, it did assert:

The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information provided by "Religious Mind" are news content which we try to keep up to date and correct, yet we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own consent and accord.

Pope Francis made several appearances and statements in the days following the 8 November 2016 U.S. election, but none appeared to pertain to the outcome of that event. No credible sources reported anything resembling the claim which circulated, much less any commentary the Pope had lost "all faith" in American Christians (and neither did he make such remarks on Twitter).

Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes.

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