ON BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis during his in-flight press conference returning from Singapore to Rome said American Catholics torn on how to vote in the upcoming presidential election due to the church’s pro-life policy and its social doctrine teaching on migration much choose between the “lesser of two evils.”
He also touched on key geopolitical issues such as China and the war in Gaza, as well as the clerical abuse crisis.
Referring to pro-choice candidates and anti-migrant candidates, the pope said, “Both of them are against life, both the one who throws out migrants and the one who kills children.”
To not welcome migrants “is a sin,” he said, speaking on his Sept. 13 Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Rome, saying, the Old Testament of the bible offers a clear model of who should be welcomed: “the orphan, the widow, and the stranger.”
“They are the ones that the people of Israel had to protect. Those who don’t protect the migrant are lacking, it’s a sin. It’s also a sin against the life of those people,” he said, recalling how during his visit to the United States in 2015 he celebrated Mass in El Paso, near the US-Mexico border.
Francis said he saw the shoes of many migrants who attempted to cross into the United States, but whose journey “ended badly there.”
“Today there is a migration flow inside Central America who at times is treated like slaves, because they are profited from. Immigration is a right, a right that is in sacred scripture,” he said.
On abortion, the pope said science proves that within a month after conception, a fetus has all of the organs contained in the human body.
“To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You like the word, or you don’t like it, but it is to kill,” he said, saying the church’s position against abortion does not mean that it is “closed,” but rather, “The church does not allow an abortion because it is to kill, it’s an assassination, it’s an assassination, and we must have things clear on this.”
To send migrants away, he said, is “something terrible, there is evil there. To send away a child from the womb of the mother is an assassination, because there is life.”
“We must speak about these things clearly,” he said, saying there are no “buts” involved.
On whether it can ever be morally licit for a Catholic to vote for a pro-choice candidate, Pope Francis urged Catholics to vote no matter what.
“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. What is the lesser evil? That woman, or that man? I don’t know. Each one, in their conscience, must think,” he said.
Pope Francis’s remarks come after the very first debate between U.S. presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump on Sept. 10 in an election cycle in which both migration and abortion are poised to be key factors for voters.
This year’s presidential election is the first to occur since the overturing of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling two years ago, opening the door for 22 states to restrict access.
In the run up to the elections, Democrats have pledged to expand abortion rights, while Republicans have sought to frame the issue as best left to individual states, as Trump’s own position on the matter has shifted throughout his campaign.
Trump, who in the past has pledged to build a border wall between the US and Mexico to prevent entry for incoming migrants from South and Central America, has also announced plans to send millions of undocumented migrants back to their countries of origin should he reelected.
Pope Francis has returned to Rome after completing a Sept. 2-13 trip to Asia and Oceania that took him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore – a sprawling 12-day odyssey that marked the longest and farthest international trip of his 11-year papacy.
During his in-flight press conference, Pope Francis was also asked about China’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, particularly with Beijing Declaration signed in the Chinese capital in July, as well as collaboration between the Vatican and China and whether he is satisfied with the results of a controversial 2018 agreement between the two on the appointment of bishops.
In response, the pope said, “I am happy with the dialogue with China, the results are good, also on the appointment of bishops we are working with goodwill.”
“China for me is a dream in the sense that I would like to visit China, it’s a great country,” he said, saying, “I admire China, I respect China.”
“It is a country that is thousands of years old, with an ability to dialogue, to understand among themselves that goes beyond the different democratic systems that it’s had,” he said, calling China “a promise and a hope for the church.”
Pope Francis has gone to great lengths to engage China in recent years, and the Vatican and Chinese authorities are currently negotiating the renewal of the 2018 deal for the third time.
His special peace envoy to Ukraine, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, last summer visited Beijing in an attempt to promote humanitarian and peace efforts amid the war in Ukraine.
In terms of what role China can play in helping broker an end to global conflicts, the pope said, “Collaboration can be done, certainly in conflicts. Right now, Cardinal Zuppi is working on this, and he also has relations with China.”
Pope Francis also touched on the church’s clerical sexual abuse crisis, specifically the case of the former Bishop of Dili in East Timor, Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel laureate who was sanctioned by the Vatican after being accused of abusing and raping teenage boys, as well as the French “Abbe Pierre,” a now-deceased priest whose birth name is Henri Grouès and who is known for his advocacy on behalf of the poor and homeless.
Pierre has been accused by at least 24 women of sexual abuse and harassment, including non-consensual kissing, rape, and sexual contact with children. The allegations go back decades, and new accusations have come out as recently as July.
On the abuse issue, Pope Francis called it “a very painful and very delicate” topic, noting that there are many people, such as Abbe Pierre, “who do good…and then, with so much good done, one sees that this person is a bad sinner. And this is our human condition.”
“The public sins are public, and are to be condemned,” he said, saying, “We must speak clearly about these things and not hide them.”
Francis said the fight against clerical abuse is something that involves everyone, and called abuse “something demonic, because every type of abuse destroys the dignity of the person. Every type of abuse seeks to destroy that which all of us are, the image of God.”
On the Gaza war, the pope condemned the killing of children and the bombing of civilian targets, saying, “when you presume that there are fighters and you bomb a school, all this is horrible, it’s horrible.”
“Sometimes you hear that it’s a defensive war,” he said, and repeated his frequent statement that “war is always a defeat.”
In terms of peace efforts, the pope said, “I am sorry to say that, but I don’t think there are steps forward towards peace,” and thanked King Abdullah II of Jordan for his efforts, saying, “he is a man of peace, and he is trying to make peace. He is a good and nice man.”
In terms of future travel plans, Pope Francis said he will not attend the inauguration Mass for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, after a fire destroyed large portions of the beloved ecclesial and cultural landmark in 2019.
He said a potential return visit to Argentina is “still being decided” and that he would like to go, but “there are a number of things to resolve first.”
Francis also said he is considering a visit to the Canary Islands given the significant presence of migrants crossing the sea in the area, and that “I would like to show my closeness to the government and the people of the Canary Islands,” but he offered no timeline.
Other topics the pope addressed were highlights from each country he visited, the current situation in Venezuela, the need to take climate change seriously, calling global meetings on the issue “indecisive,” and the death penalty, which is legal in Singapore and which he said must slowly be eliminated.
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