Children, Adoption and Fr. George Clements
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The headline read: ”Pope slams both Harris and Trump as 'against life' and urges Catholics to vote for 'lesser evil'.”
Francis was quoted as saying “Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies″.
The characters are easy to identify so we need to analyze the ‘evils’. Trump is obviously the evildoer who kicks out migrants. And Francis has 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.” This is true, the Bible does say to do unto others and in Leviticus 24:22, “You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.”
But another Biblical principle needs to be mentioned in regard to governing. The Bible says that a good ruler acts like a good shepherd, delivering his flock from the lion and bear (1 Samuel 17:34-35). And if necessary, he even “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The Bible also mentions the importance of law and order (Romans 13:1-7). The question then is whether Trump is against illegal immigration out of spite and lack of compassion rather than trying to maintain the integrity of the country. In Romans we are told that immigrants must enter a country lawfully; this is not what is happening. And the situation does not entail any meanness toward immigrants but more so a concern for the citizens and the laws of the country. The pope considering this a ‘grave sin’ on the part of Trump is certainly tempered and mitigated by circumstances and circumspection.
Then there is the candidate that Francis describes as “the one who kills babies,″. This would be Kamala. There are no mitigating Scriptures for the sin of abortion. In his comments, the pope added: “On abortion, science says that a month from conception, all the organs of a human being are already there, all of them. Performing an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can’t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it’s killing. It is murder.”
So then we have a sort of ‘Murder v. Migration’ scenario. And the pope says to weigh the evidence and choose the lesser evil and in doing so Francis essentially endorses Donald Trump. That is, the lesser evil is quite obvious. The requirement of a safe border and regulated immigration to some extent works a hardship on immigrants but at the same time untrammeled immigration is contrary to the duty of a governor. You cannot call this sort of transgression to the killing of a child – as Francis himself describes abortion.
You may say that the Pope said stated that he doesn’t know who represents the lesser evil. The pope could have maintained neutrality in regard to the election. Instead he advises Catholics to vote for the lesser evil, and in that they have an obvious choice as there is no comparison between a lack of hospitality as contrasted against what Francis himself calls an assassination.
Glenn
email: gcmitan@aol.com
