Pope Francis issues extraordinary attack on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in warning to U.S. voters

•  Pope Francis tells American Catholics to choose ‘lesser evil’ in 2024 election

Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration and advised American Catholics to choose the ‘lesser evil’ in the upcoming U.S. elections.

‘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.’

The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne press conference en route back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia.

Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.

Pope Francis attends an interreligious meeting with young people at the Catholic Junior College in Singapore, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. Pope Francis made his remarks about the U.S. election during a press conference en route back to Rome

Neither the Republican nominee Donald 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 has not emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.

Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture, and that anyone who does not 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.’

Pope Francis named neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris by name when discussing the 2024 presidential election

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,’ he said. ‘Everyone in their conscience should think and do it.’

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.

Francis expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on the candidates’ positions on two hot-button issues in the U.S. election

Harris has called for restoring the protections for abortion under Roe v Wade and vowed to sign legislation if it passes in Congress.

On immigration, she has called for the bipartisan immigration deal that provides additional border security measures. She has also expressed support for a pathway to citizenship.

As for Trump, he has called for the mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally as one of his top priorities if elected to a second term.

On the issue of abortion, he has touted nominating three of the six Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade and return the issue of abortion rights to the states. However, he refused to say at the presidential debate whether he would sign a national abortion ban.

Pope Francis meeting with then-President Donald Trump and his family during their visit to the Vatican in May 2017

Pope Francis has also met with President Joe Biden while he has been president both in 2021 and earlier this years. Biden is a the first Catholic president since President Kennedy

When asked about the pope’s comments on Friday, the White House had no comment.

‘The pope speaks for himself,’ said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. ‘I don’t have any more comments from here. I haven’t spoken to the president.’

This is not the first time that Pope Francis has weighed in on a U.S. presidential election. When asked leading up to the 2016 election about Trump’s plan to build a border wall, Francis called anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out ‘is not Christian.’

The ex-president responded at the time by calling the pontiff ‘disgraceful’ for doubting his faith.

The two later met with Pope Francis at the Vatican during Trump’s first term in office.

With the looming election, about half of Catholic registered voters in the U.S. identify with or lean toward the Republican party while 44 percent identify or lean toward the Democratic party, Pew Research found.

While the Catholic Church opposes abortion, it found six in ten Catholics in the U.S. believe abortion should be legal.