On Friday, Pope Francis offered a searing indictment of each of the two major-party candidates in the United States presidential election, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
A reporter from CBS News asked the supreme pontiff what a Catholic voter should do when faced with one candidate who supports abortion rights and the other who advocates deporting millions of migrants. “They are both against life,” the pope responded, “the one who throws away migrants and the one who kills children.”
The pope touched on two issues that took center stage at Tuesday’s presidential debate.
“It should be clear that sending migrants away, denying migrants the capacity to work, to not welcome migrants, it is a sin. It is grave,” the pope added.
He also emphasized the Catholic Church’s perennial stance that abortion is murder.
“Whether you like the word or not, it is a killing,” he said. “It is an assassination, and on this we should be clear.”
Despite his disapproval of the two candidates, the pope made it clear that he wasn’t trying to deter his followers from going to the polls. “One must vote,” he said.
“One must choose the lesser of two evils,” he added. “Who is the lesser of two evils, that lady or that gentleman, I do not know.”
The pope concluded that Catholics in America must consult their conscience before casting a vote one way or the other.
This isn’t the first time the pope has weighed in on a presidential election. In 2016, he slammed Trump again for his stance on immigration. Anyone who intends to expel migrants en masse, the pope said at the time, “is not Christian.”
Read More: Pope Gives Verdict on ‘Lesser of Two Evils’ Election
