Pope Francis issues extraordinary attack on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in warning to US voters

Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration and advised American Catholics to choose the ‘lesser evil’ in the upcoming U.S. elections.

‘Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who (supports) killing babies,’ Francis said. ‘Both are against life.’

According to Daily Mail of UK, the Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne press conference en route back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia.

Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.

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 – abortion and migration – that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.

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.

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 ‘grave sin.’

He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. ‘To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,’ he said. ‘We have to see this clearly.’

Asked though what to do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.

‘One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,’ he said. ‘Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don´t know,’ he said. ‘Everyone in their conscience should think and do it.’

It´s 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´s plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants ‘is not Christian.’

In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and ‘there were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.’

The U.S. bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the ‘preeminent priority’ for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights.

Trump has called for the mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally as one of his top priorities if elected to a second term.

On the issue of abortion, he has touted nominating three of the six Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade and return the issue of abortion rights to the states. However, he refused to say at the presidential debate whether he would sign a national abortion ban.

Harris has called for restoring the protections for abortion under Roe v Wade and vowed to sign legislation if it passes in Congress.

On immigration, she has called for the bipartisan immigration deal that provides additional border security measures. She has also expressed support for a pathway to citizenship.

This is not the first time that Pope Francis has weighed in on a U.S. presidential election. When asked leading up to the 2016 election about Trump’s plan to build a border wall, Francis called anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out ‘is not Christian.’

The ex-president responded at the time by calling the pontiff ‘disgraceful’ for doubting his faith.

The two later met with Pope Francis at the Vatican during Trump’s first term in office.

With the looming election, about half of Catholic registered voters in the U.S. identify with or lean toward the Republican party while 44 percent identify or lean toward the Democratic party, Pew Research found.

While the Catholic Church opposes abortion, it found six in ten Catholics in the U.S. believe abortion should be legal.