Here's The Reason Walls Were Built Around The Vatican

 

 

Posted Friday, February 19th 2016 @ 11am  by Hannity.com Staff

Controversy continues to swirl around the apparent conflict between Pope Francis and Donald Trump, after the Pontiff implied that the billionaire's focus on building a wall on the Mexican border puts him at odds with the tenets of Christianity.

In Trump's defense, some have pointed to the fact that the Vatican City, the seat of papal authority, is itself surrounded by walls. However, this defense is being criticized by some on the left, who claim that the walls surrounding the Vatican are not analogous to those proposed to secure American borders.

In an article entitled "In Defense of Trump, Some Point (Wrongly) to Vatican Walls", write Liam Stack writes that Pope Leo IV built the walls around the Vatican "in an attempt to protect it from attacks by pirates and other marauders."

Indeed, the early walls that surrounded the Vatican became known as the Leonine wall in honor of the Pope responsible for their construction. Some of the Leonine wall still stands and makes up a portion of the structure that surrounds the Vatican to this day. But those walls were built with a far more specific enemy in mind than Stack lets on.

Leo built the walls in order to protect the city against the encroachment of "Saracens", an early term for the Arab Muslims who were hell bent on the conquest of Christian Europe. In 846, a year before the start of Pope Leo IV’s reign, the Saracens attacked the outskirts of Rome. The Muslim raiders targeted the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, which were located outside of the massive walls that defended Rome itself. The Saracens looted the two churches, robbing them of their relics and desecrating the tombs of two of Christendom’s most revered saints.

The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia says that shortly after the raid, "[Pope Leo IV] began to take precautions against a repetition of the Saracen raid of 846. He put the walls of the city into a thorough state of repair, entirely rebuilding fifteen of the great towers. He was the first to enclose the hill by a wall." The walls that Pope Leo built, which were completed in 852, were nearly 40 feet high, twelve feet thick, and defended by dozens of towers that turned the site into a fortified city.

In response to Francis' criticism, Donald Trump, fittingly, noted that the Vatican remains a prime target for ISIS. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the rampaging zealots of the Islamic State are the modern day successor of the conquest-minded Saracens of the 9th century.

Donald seems to have softened his tone with the Pope. At Thursday's CNN's townhall, Trump called Pope Francis "a wonderful guy".

Read more: http://www.hannity.com/articles/hanpr-war-on-terror-487284/trump-was-right-heres-the-reason-14400553/#ixzz42DLY4PeV