Pope Francis recently ripped into Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, saying American voters were stuck with choosing “the lesser evil.”
He condemned Harris’ support for abortion rights as being an “assassination,” and he condemned Trump for his position on illegal immigration, saying “not welcoming the migrant is a sin.”
The Catholic Church regards certain acts to be “intrinsically evil.” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, wrote that “Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia.”
He gave by way of example issues such as war and capital punishment. He said it was acceptable for a Catholic to disagree with the pope on these matters, adding that “he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion.” But that was not true of abortion or euthanasia.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has also addressed what qualifies as “intrinsically evil.” They, too, single out abortion and euthanasia as being among the most non-negotiable issues. “Other direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as genocide, torture, racism, and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified.”
Stopping migrants from entering a country illegally was not mentioned by either Pope Benedict XVI nor the U.S. bishops.
Kamala Harris justifies abortion in every instance, allowing no exceptions. Her position is identical to that of President Joe Biden. Yet after Biden met with the pope in 2021, he told the press, “We just talked about the fact he was happy I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving communion.” Many bishops said the president’s rabid support for abortion disqualified him from receiving the Eucharist.
Catholics will have to sort all of this out in November.
