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Pope Francis<\/strong> weighed in on Americans\u2019 upcoming choice between Vice President Kamala Harris<\/strong> and former president Donald Trump<\/strong> on Friday, critiquing<\/a> both candidates as \u201cagainst life\u201d and urging Catholic voters to choose the \u201clesser of two evils.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne must choose the lesser of two evils. Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don\u2019t know,\u201d Francis told reporters while on the papal plane.<\/p>\n Francis, who has been more openly political<\/a> on some topics than his predecessors, criticized Trump\u2019s handling of immigration and Harris\u2019s support for accessing abortion services.<\/p>\n \u201cTo send migrants away, to leave them wherever you want, to leave them \u2026 it\u2019s 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time the pope has opined on issues like these during his 11-year tenure.<\/p>\n Back in 2016, when Trump was running his first presidential campaign on building a wall at the southwestern border,<\/a> Francis said of the GOP-front runner, \u201cA person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, Trump immediately bit back, saying, \u201cIf and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which, as everyone knows, is ISIS\u2019s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2021, in a rare public rift between the Vatican and American bishops, the pope, via the institution, warned conservative American bishops to \u201chit the brakes on their push to deny communion to politicians supportive of abortion rights,\u201d the New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a>. The Vatican\u2019s response came as some leading American bishops were questioning whether President Joe Biden<\/strong> ought to be served communion because he endorses some reproductive freedom measures. Biden is the first Roman Catholic to occupy the Oval Office in 60 years\u2014since John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n Francis, who has called<\/a> abortion a \u201cplague\u201d and a \u201ccrime\u201d akin to \u201cmafia\u201d behavior, said at the time that communion is \u201cnot the reward of saints, but the bread of sinners.\u201d<\/p>\n The pope has also critiqued<\/a> couples who choose to have pets instead of children\u2014echoing Republican vice presidential candidate and new<\/a> Catholic JD Vance<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cchildless cat ladies\u201d remarks<\/a>\u2014saying<\/a> that \u201cdenial\u201d of fatherhood or motherhood \u201ctakes away our humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n In October of 2023, hundreds of delegates from around the world flocked to the Vatican, beginning a monthlong meeting as part of Pope Francis\u2019 \u201cSynod on Synodality\u201d\u2014a gathering to discuss the church\u2019s global aims and plans. For the first time ever, women delegates were allowed to join in.<\/p>\n A couple of months later, in December of last year, Francis released new guidance<\/a> on same-sex couples who are Catholic, saying that their unions can receive formal blessings\u2014so long as they aren\u2019t mistaken for marriages. Queer couples, the letter made clear, cannot invoke \u201cany clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the pope\u2019s positions on women and queerness\u2014while far from revolutionary\u2014have upset a growing movement of a new kind of right-wing American Catholic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Milo Yiannopoulos<\/strong>, the former Breitbart editor who incited<\/a> a racist campaign against the comedian Leslie Jones<\/strong> and was banned from Twitter for it in 2016, has called<\/a> to \u201cmake the Vatican straight again\u201d and \u201cmake America homophobic again.\u201d (This is the same guy who says he set up the meeting between Trump and white nationalist<\/a> Nick Fuentes<\/strong> in 2022.)<\/p>\n According to Pew<\/a>, 20% of US adults describe themselves as Catholics and are generally older than the American average\u2014and three-quarters of this group reportedly view Francis favorably. About six in ten Catholics say abortion should be legal, with 39% saying it should be legal in most cases and only 11% holding that it should be illegal in all cases.<\/p>\n In the 2020 election, 52% of Catholic voters chose Biden, to Trump\u2019s 47%.<\/p>\n Despite criticizing the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, the leader of the Holy See said Catholics should vote.<\/p>\n