Pope Francis on Friday slammed bother US presidential candidates – Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. The Vatican chief said that voters must choose the 'lesser of two evils'. He further called the former president's anti-migrant and the Democratic nominee's support of abortion rights 'against life'.
“One must choose the lesser of two evils. Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know,” Francis said during a press conference. “Everyone with a conscience should think on this and do it." He further accused the two candidates of being 'against life'.
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"Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who (supports) killing babies,” Francis said. “Both are against life.” Neither the Republican candidate Trump nor the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was mentioned by name.
But Francis nevertheless expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the U.S. election — abortion and migration — that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.
Francis has made the plight of migrants a priority of his pontificate and speaks out emphatically and frequently about it. While strongly upholding church teaching forbidding abortion, Francis hasn’t emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.
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Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture, and that anyone who doesn’t follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a “grave sin.”
He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. “To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”
Asked though what to do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.
“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” he said. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.
“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.
It’s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a U.S. election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “is not Christian.”
In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and “there were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.”
The U.S. bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the “preeminent priority” for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights.
(AP Inputs)