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Pope Francis Equates Opposition to Illegal Immigration to Abortion
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, when advising Catholics to “choose the lesser evil” between Vice President Kamala Harris, who supports unrestricted abortion, and former President Donald Trump, who supports the deportation of illegal aliens and stronger border control, effectively equated the killing of unborn babies with the deportation of illegal aliens. The pope said that he did not know which is the greater evil, and advised American Catholics to consult their “conscience” when making their choice. This is a far cry from Pope John Paul II’s words in Evangelium Vitae where he recognized and affirmed that “the right to life” is that “upon which all other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.” George Weigel noted that John Paul II understood that the right to live is the “first human right.” Pope Francis has therefore downgraded the first human right.
When Pope Francis described these two “evils,” he rightly called abortion an “assassination,” while characterizing not giving welcome to migrants a grave sin. The greater evil here (though in most instances deporting illegal aliens is not evil) is clear, yet Pope Francis refused to say that abortion was the greater evil. The deportation of illegal aliens does not deprive those aliens of their life. It means that those persons must return to the country of their origin, which may mean a harder life and a poorer life — but it does not kill them. Abortion deprives an unborn baby of its life. John Paul II equated abortion with genocide. The teaching of the Church is clear and has been affirmed throughout centuries — abortion is a crime against humanity; it is the slaughter of innocents. To equate abortion with the legal deportation of illegal aliens is to effectively undermine that teaching.
Perhaps Pope Francis is merely continuing his verbal attacks on conservative American Catholics. In the recent past, Pope Francis criticized the “backwardness” of conservatives in the American church. He called conservative Catholics in America “reactionary,” accusing them of replacing faith with ideology. But based on his equation of deportation of illegal aliens with abortion, it is the pope who has replaced faith with ideology. It is the pope who is downgrading the church’s faith-based teaching on abortion in support of the ideology of “social justice” in the form of the uncontrolled migration of peoples.
In his past criticism of conservative Catholics, the pope urged them to “understand that there’s a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals.” This is the same pope who not long ago stated that people are “fundamentally good,” a position that is at odds with the church’s teaching of original sin and humanity’s need for a Savior. This is also the same pope who said when he sees the Gospels in a “sociological way,” he is a “communist” and “so too is Jesus.” That is not faith; it is ideology.
The pope’s ideological foray into U.S. politics will undoubtedly cheer the pro-abortion movement in this country. And it will cheer the Democratic Party, which has made abortion its religion. Why should any American Catholic make such a big deal about a candidate’s support for abortion when, according to the pope, it is no different and no more serious than being opposed to illegal immigration.
Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 warned Catholic politicians that they risked excommunication from the church if they supported abortion. Pope Francis tells the faithful that abortion is no graver sin than opposing illegal immigration. Which makes one wonder: Is the pope Catholic?
The post Pope Francis Equates Opposition to Illegal Immigration to Abortion appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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