Topline
Pope Francis criticized former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday over immigration and abortion policies he characterized as anti-life, according to multiple outlets, urging voters to consider and choose “the lesser of two evils” ahead of the election.
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day … [+]
Key Facts
The pope told reporters onboard the papal plane both presidential candidates are “against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who (supports) killing babies,” according to the Associated Press.
Francis, maintaining the stance of the Catholic Church, said “abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” and also condemned anti-immigration policies, saying to abandon migrants is “something terrible, there’s evil there,” CNN reported.
The pope said voters “must choose the lesser of two evils,” but noted he does not have a preference in the election between the “woman or the man.”
Trump and Harris were not mentioned by name.
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Big Number
75%. That is the share of U.S. Catholics who view Pope Francis favorably, according to a Pew Research Center report released earlier this year, marking an 8% decrease since 2021. About nine out of 10 Democratic Catholics or those who lean toward the Democratic Party have a positive view of the pope, according to the report, which noted 63% of Catholics who are Republicans or lean Republican have a positive view of him.
Key Background
Francis previously made comments about the presidential election in 2016, criticizing Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico and saying anyone who builds walls to shut out migrants “is not Christian.” The pope also warned against using fear as a political tool just days before the 2016 election, saying in addition to “being a good deal for the merchants of arms and death,” it “also numbs us to the suffering of others.” Francis has also repeatedly condemned abortion, calling it “murder” and saying “those who carry out abortions kill,” regardless of how close an abortion is carried out to conception, Reuters reported in 2021. Francis, who approved blessings for same-sex couples last year, has developed a rocky relationship with conservatives in the Catholic Church, telling CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in May that conservative church leaders in the U.S. were “closed up inside a dogmatic box.”
Further Reading
Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’ (AP)
Pope Francis Criticizes Conservative US Bishops: ‘Closed Up Inside A Dogmatic Box’ (Forbes)
