Choose the lesser evil, Pope advises US Catholic voters

Pope Francis has waded into US politics in a rare intervention, criticising both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris as being “against life” and urging American voters to pick “the lesser evil” between the two.

- NICOLE WINFIELD, SHWETA SHARMA

Francis criticised Mr Trump’s policies towards migrants and Ms Harris’s stance on abortion, as he spoke to reporters on board his return flight after a historic Asia-Pacific tour.

While stressing that he was not an American and would not be voting. he expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the US election that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church. America has some 72 million Catholics and the Pope was asked to provide guidance to them on who they should vote for on Tuesday 5 November.

The pontiff appeared to hit out first at Mr Trump for his xenophobic remarks, saying not welcoming migrants is a “grave” sin. Mr Trump has repeatedly made headlines in recent days for claiming without evidence that Haitian migrants are eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio.