American voters must choose “the lesser evil” in the US presidential election, Pope Francis said during an in-flight press conference Friday on his return from his nearly two-week tour of Southeast Asia. Source: CNA.
Speaking aboard the papal plane on Friday, 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 faced in nearly a year, he expressed his satisfaction with the Vatican’s controversial diplomatic accord with China, and he ruled out the possibility of attending the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
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 favour 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.”
Ms Harris, a Democrat who has made abortion without legal restrictions the centrepiece of her presidential campaign, and Mr Trump, who has called for the deportations of perhaps millions of immigrants who have entered the US illegally in recent years, are locked in a tight contest with just 52 days to go before the November 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.
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Pope Francis: U.S. presidential election a choice between ‘the lesser evil’ (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
