Pope: Both presidential candidates anti-life

Asked what a U.S. Catholic given a choice between voting for a person who supports abortion or one who supports closing borders and deporting migrants, Pope Francis said one must choose “the lesser evil.”

“Who is the ‘lesser evil,’ that woman or that man?” the pope asked, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. “I do not know. Each person must think and decide in his or her conscience.”

Pope Francis spent 45 minutes answering questions from 10 journalists on his flight Sept. 13 from Singapore to Rome at the end of a 12-day trip. He was asked about the four countries he visited, about sexual abuse, about his future travel plans, about the war in the Holy Land and the Vatican’s relations with China.

A U.S. television reporter asked him about the choice Catholic voters face between Harris, who supports legalized abortion, and Trump, who wants to severely restrict immigration and has said he wants to deport millions of migrants.

Both attitudes “are against life: the one who wants to throw out the migrants and the one who kills children,” the pope said. “Both are against life.”

In the Old Testament, he said, God’s people are repeatedly reminded to care for “‘widows, orphans and the stranger,’ that is, the migrant. They are the three that the People of Israel must protect. The one who does not care for migrants is lacking; it is a sin.”

And “to have an abortion is to kill a human being. Whether or not you like the word, it is killing,” the pope said. “The Catholic Church does not allow abortion because it is killing. It is assassination. And we must be clear about that.”

Pope Francis was asked if there were situations when a Catholic could vote for a candidate who was in favor of abortion.

“In political morality, generally, they say not voting is wrong; one must vote, and one must choose the lesser evil” in accordance with one’s conscience, he said.

Abortion and care for migrants are both issues the U.S. bishops urge Catholics to consider when voting. In their document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” however, they say, “The threat of abortion remains our pre-eminent priority because it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone.”

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service is a news agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that reports on Vatican news. Global and national news is provided by OSV News.

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