(ZENIT News / Rome, 15.09.2024).- One of the questions that Pope Francis answered, during the press conference with journalists on the return flight from Singapore to Rome, focused on the presidential elections this coming November in the United States. The question had nothing to do with the Pope’s pastoral journey, but the Pontiff agreed to answer it.
CBS News journalist Anna Matranga asked the Pope:
You have always spoken in defense of the dignity of life. In East Timor, which is a country with a high birth rate, you said you felt life was beating and exploding due to the large number of children. In Singapore you spoke in defense of immigrant workers. Given the forthcoming elections in the United States, I would like to ask you: what advice can you give a Catholic voter who has to decide between a candidate that is in favour of abortion and another who would like to deport 11 million migrants?
The Holy Father was clear and answered: “Both are against life, both the one that expels emigrants as well as the one that kills children. Both are against life.” Then the Pope stressed that he “can’t say; I’m not from the United States, I’m not going to vote there. But let’s be clear: both not giving migrants the possibility to work as well as not providing them with protection is a sin, it’s grave.”
The Pontiff then reflected on the topic of migration from what he recalled the Bible states: “In the Old Testament there is a refrain: the orphan, the widow and the stranger, namely, the migrant: these three are the ones the people of Israel must protect. One who doesn’t take care of a migrant commits a fault, it’s a sin, also a sin against the life of those people. I celebrated Mass on the border, close to the diocese of El Paso. There were many migrants’ shoes there; they ended badly there. Today there is a migration current in Central America; they are often treated as slaves because they take advantage of them. Migration is a right that was already in Sacred Scripture and in the Old Testament. Do not forget the stranger, the orphan and the widow. This is what I think about migrants.”
But the Pope also took up the topic of abortion, recalling that “science says that in the month of conception all the organs of a human being are there — all. To abort is to kill a human being. Whether you like the word or not, it’s to kill. The Church doesn’t close because she doesn’t permit abortion; the Church doesn’t permit abortion because it kills. It’s a murder, it’s a murder!”
Pope Francis specified, saying “we must be clear about this: to alienate migrants, not to allow them to develop, not to allow them to have life is something bad, it’s evil. To remove a child from its mother’s womb is murder, because there is life there. And we must speak clearly about these things. “No, but however . . . “ No “buts,” both things are clear. The orphan, the stranger and the widow: don’t forget that.”
The CBS News journalist spoke again, and asked another question related to the above: “Can circumstances exist in which it is morally admissible to vote for a candidate who favours the interruption of life?” And to this the Pope said that “In political morality in general it’s usually said that it’s bad not to vote, it’s not good. One must vote and choose the lesser evil. Who is the lesser evil? That lady or that man? I don’t know, let each one in conscience think and do accordingly.”
Ultimately, the Pope encourages to vote choosing the lesser evil. The polls reveal that Latin Catholics are more in favour of Kamala Harris (the women more than the men), whereas the Catholic white population is more in favour of Trump.
