Pope Francis said that American voters face the choice between “the lesser evil” in the U.S. presidential election during an in-flight press conference Friday on his return from his nearly two-week tour of Southeast Asia.
Speaking aboard the papal plane, a chartered Singapore Airlines flight, on Sept. 13, the pope encouraged Catholics to vote with their conscience.
“In political morality, in general they say that if you don’t vote, it’s not good, it’s bad. You have to vote, and you have to choose the lesser evil,” he said.
“What is the lesser evil? That woman, or that man?” he continued, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump. “I don’t know. Each one, in his or her conscience, must think and do this.”
In the first press conference that Pope Francis has had to face in nearly a year, the pope expressed his satisfaction with the Vatican’s controversial diplomatic accord with communist China, and he firmly ruled out the possibility of attending the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The pope was asked no questions about the alleged abuses and artwork of Father Marko Rupnik and he again underlined that abortion is “murder.”
CBS News reporter Anna Matranga asked Francis what advice he would give to an American voter who has to decide between a candidate “who is in favor of abortion and another who wants to deport millions of migrants.”
Pope Francis replied: “Both are anti-life — both the one who throws out migrants and the one who kills babies — both of them are against life.”
Harris, a Democrat who has made abortion without legal restrictions the centerpiece of her presidential campaign, and Trump, who has called for the deportations of perhaps millions of immigrants who have entered the U.S. illegally in recent years, are locked in a tight contest with just 52 days to go before the Nov. 5 election.
The Holy Father’s remarks about “the lesser evil” refers to the Church’s long-standing teaching that when faced with a choice between candidates who aren’t wholly aligned with the Church’s position on fundamental “nonnegotiable” issues — such as the sanctity of life, marriage, and religious freedom — it is permissible to cast a vote against the candidate who would do the most harm.
Abortion is ‘murder’
The pope went on to say that the science supports that life begins at conception, adding that although people may not like to use the word “kill” when discussing the topic, abortion is “murder.”
“To have an abortion is to kill a human being,” Francis said.