Pope Urges Catholics to Pick ‘Lesser Evil’ Between Trump and Harris

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Pope Francis has described the two major presidential candidates in the United States, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as “against life” and advised Catholic voters to choose the “lesser evil” when casting their ballots in the November presidential election.
BBC reported that the pontiff said not welcoming migrants – seemingly referring to Trump – is a “grave” sin, and also compared Kamala Harris’s stance on abortion to an “assassination”.

“Both are against life –  be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ the Pope said, in rare political comments at a Friday news conference as he wrapped up a 12-day tour through South-east Asia.

Stances on abortion and immigration were featured prominently in Tuesday’s presidential debate.
Harris went after Trump when it came to his abortion policy, saying if Congress passed a bill to codify Roe v. Wade, she would sign it.
“Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because their health care providers are afraid, they might go to jail, and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot – she didn’t want that. Her husband didn’t want that,” Harris said.
Immigration was also a major battleground in the debate, with Trump criticising the Biden administration’s handling of the border.

Trump also made reference in the debate to an untrue allegation about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets.
“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country – and look at what’s happening to the towns in the United States; a lot of towns don’t want to talk. Not going to be Aurora (or) Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they are so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs.”

The Pope, who did not refer to Harris or Trump by name in his comments, urged American Catholics to pick a presidential candidate who represents a “lesser evil” to them.
American Catholics make up 52 million of the 1.4 billion Catholics globally.
Pope Francis, who was asked to counsel Catholic voters during the in-flight news conference, noted in his remarks that he was not an American and would not be voting in the election.

But he encouraged Americans to vote, saying: “Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote.”
“You must choose the lesser evil. Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don’t know. Everyone, in conscience, (has to) think and do this.”
The Pope has frequently criticised abortion, which is forbidden by Catholic teaching, in sharp terms.
“Forcing a child from the mother’s womb is an assassination because there is life there,” Francis said.
And this is not his first time making critical comments about Trump.

During the 2016 election, he described Trump as “not Christian” because of the presidential contender’s anti-immigrant language.
“Expelling migrants, not letting them develop, not letting them have a life is an ugly thing, it’s mean,” he said on Friday night.
Trump had repeatedly promised to crack down on illegal immigration and as recently as Friday afternoon, saying he would deport millions of immigrants if re-elected.
Harris has promised to expand nationwide protections for access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Pope Francis’s remarks came days after Trump and Harris debated one another for the first time.
The pair was expected to take the debate stage one more time before election day, but Trump has said he would not debate Harris again.