{"id":25717,"date":"2024-09-13T15:36:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pope-slams-harris-and-trump-on-anti-life-stances\/"},"modified":"2024-09-13T21:36:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:36:26","slug":"pope-slams-harris-and-trump-on-anti-life-stances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pope-slams-harris-and-trump-on-anti-life-stances\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Pope
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE \u2013 Pope Francis<\/a> on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the \u201clesser evil\u201d in the upcoming U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,\u2033 Francis said.<\/p>\n

The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne news conference while he flew back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia<\/a>. Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.<\/p>\n

Neither Republican candidate Donald Trump nor the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was mentioned by name.<\/p>\n

But Francis nevertheless expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the U.S. election \u2013 abortion and migration \u2013 that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Francis has made the plight of migrants a priority of his pontificate and speaks out emphatically and frequently about it. While strongly upholding church teaching forbidding abortion, Francis has not emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.<\/p>\n

Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture and that anyone who does not follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a \u201cgrave sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. \u201cTo have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it\u2019s killing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to see this clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what voters should do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne should vote, and choose the lesser evil,\u201d he said. \u201cWho is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in their conscience should think and do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a U.S. election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump\u2019s plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants \u201cis not Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and \u201cthere were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump pledges massive deportations, just as he did in his first White House<\/a> bid, when there was a vast gulf between his ambitions and the legal, financial and political realities of such an undertaking.<\/p>\n

The U.S. bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the \u201cpreeminent priority\u201d for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights and has emphasized support<\/a> for reinstating a federal right to abortion.<\/p>\n

In his comments, the pope added: \u201cOn abortion, science says that a month from conception, all the organs of a human being are already there, all of them. Performing an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can\u2019t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it\u2019s killing. It is murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, cells are only beginning the process of developing organs in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that by 13 weeks, all major organs have formed. For example, cardiac tissue starts to form in the first two months \u2013 initially a tube that only later evolves into the four chambers that define a heart.<\/p>\n

In other comments, Francis:<\/p>\n

Denied a French media report that he would travel to Paris for the December inauguration of the restored Notre Dame Cathedral, saying flat-out he would not be there. But he confirmed he would like to go to the Canary Islands to highlight the plight of migrants.Tamped down renewed speculation that he might finally return to Argentina later this year, saying he wants to go but that nothing had been decided. He added: \u201cThere are various things to resolve first.\u201d Francis has not been home since before the 2013 conclave that elected him pope.Declared that China was \u201ca promise and a hope\u201d<\/a> for the Catholic Church and hoped to one day visit.<\/div>\n

Called sexual abuse \u201cdemonic\u201d<\/a> and weighed on the latest revelations of assault against a legendary French priest, Abbe Pierre.<\/p>\n

\"Pope
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pope
Pope Francis listens to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pope
Pope Francis attends a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pope
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pope
Pope Francis attends a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pope
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Francis urges Catholics to vote for \u2018lesser evil\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25717"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}