Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly questioned the late Pope Francis’ stance on immigration, saying he would have asked the pontiff if he understood that “if you don’t have a wall, you don’t have a law, that the country will be overrun and many more people will get hurt under the banner of being kind and good.”
O’Reilly, during an interview Monday on NewsNation’s “On Balance,” criticized the pope’s approach to U.S. border security, referring to when Francis told the Trump administration, “don’t build walls, build acceptance.”
“There’s where Pope Francis went wrong,” he continued. “It’s not the capitalistic system that oppresses the poor, it’s the oligarchs and the corrupt people.”
O’Reilly added that, “I never got a chance to interview the Pope, but my first question would have been, ‘Your Holiness, I understand as a Catholic the theology of helping the marginalized… But do you not understand that if you don’t have a wall, you don’t have a law?'”
Despite his criticism of the pope’s immigration message, O’Reilly praised Francis personally, calling the late Catholic leader “an extraordinary human being” and saying that “if every human being on Earth were like Pope Francis, there would be peace on earth.”
The veteran news host reflected on meeting the pontiff eight years ago.
“I was in his presence for about two hours … It was very instructive for me as a journalist to watch how patient and kind the man was,” he told NewsNation host Leland Vittert.
Despite disagreeing with some of Francis’ political stances, O’Reilly emphasized the Pope’s theological consistency.
“On theological dogmatic questions like abortion, he was quite clear. He wasn’t backing away or trying to curry favor with the left,” he said.
O’Reilly also drew distinctions between Francis and Jesus, describing Christ as “much more pragmatic” in dealing with political authorities of his time.
The author of “Killing Jesus” said that the pope’s moral example transcends religious affiliation.
“The Catholic religion, if you understand what Jesus put out there, is flawless in its dogma, in its theology,” O’Reilly said.
“Those who don’t engage in spirituality, in right and wrong, are abdicating their humanness,” he added.