Pope Francis delivered a searing indictment of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Friday as he unexpectedly intervened in the presidential election.
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.
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“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.”
The Pope met Trump and his wife Melania at the Vatican in 2017. At the time the White House said the then first lady was Catholic, although she has been seen subsequently attending an Anglican church near Mar-a-Lago.
Maurix/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesAn estimated 52 million Americans—one in five—identify as Catholic, according to Pew Research, of whom 28 per cent attend Mass weekly. The proportion of people who are Catholic has fallen throughout the last two decades, but still represents the biggest single denomination in the country.
The Catholic community’s political power is less clear; traditionally a solidly Democratic constituency, it now reflects a divided nation. Pew reported that in the 2022 midterm elections, 56% voted for Republicans and 43% for Democrats while in 2020 49% supported Donald Trump and 50% for Joe Biden.
The two candidates will succeed only the second Catholic to ever hold the White House. Trump has spoken about being saved by God from the bullet aimed at him by would-be assassin Thomas Crooks in Butler, PA, in July. He has also said that he felt closer to God as a result. He has also relied heavily on Evangelical voters for support, despite being twice divorced.
Trum was raised Presbyterian, thanks to his mother being born in the austere Free Presbyterian Church in the islands of Scotland. His father, whose parents were German, was Lutheran. In recent years Trump has described himself as non-denominational Christian and been seen at an Anglican church near Mar-a-Lago. His wife Melania was said to be Catholic when the couple met the Pope in Rome in 2017, but her father was a member of the Yugoslavian Communist Party, which would have meant declaring he was an atheist.
His running mate, JD Vance, has converted to Catholicism while his wife is a Hindu.
Meanwhile Harris is a Baptist. Her mother, a Hindu, sent her to church when she was a child, while her husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish and has said he attends Christmas and Easter services with her. Her running mate Tim Walz is a Lutheran, he has said.
Pres. Biden is only the second Catholic commander-in-chief, after Pres. John F. Kennedy.
