Last week the Pope made his way back from a trip to Oceania and during an in-flight press conference, gave some comments that have been interpreted as bolstering his pro life credentials. However, the whole quote in context is genuinely disgraceful: the Pope equated the great crime of abortion, that sin which cries to heaven for vengeance with the wholly legitimate activity of ejecting illegal immigrants.

As reported by Vatican News, Pope Francis responded to a journalist’s questions about the upcoming US presidential election:

Anna Matranga (CBS News)

Your Holiness, you have always spoken in defence of the dignity of life. In Timor-Leste, which has a high birth rate, you said you felt life pulsing and exploding with so many children. In Singapore, you defended migrant workers. With the US elections coming up, what advice would you give a Catholic voter faced with a candidate who supports ending a pregnancy and another who wants to deport 11 million migrants?

Both are against life: the one that throws out migrants and the one that kills children. Both are against life. I can’t decide; I’m not American and won’t go to vote there. But let it be clear: denying migrants the ability to work and receive hospitality is a sin, a grave sin. The Old Testament speaks repeatedly of the orphan, the widow, and the stranger—migrants. These are the three that Israel must care for. Failing to care for migrants is a sin, a sin against life and humanity.

I celebrated Mass at the border, near the diocese of El Paso. There were many shoes from migrants, who ended poorly there. Today, there is a flow of migration within Central America, and many times they are treated like slaves because people take advantage of the situation. Migration is a right, and it was already present in Sacred Scripture and in the Old Testament. The stranger, the orphan, and the widow—do not forget this.

Obviously the primary error here is that the Pope is equating ILLEGAL immigration with LEGAL immigration. It is true that migration was common in Old Testament days and it is still common today: nations should gladly accept a sensible number of immigrants who commit to assimilating and contributing to the common good.

But when Moses took the Israelites to the Promised Land, they were doing the Will of God. They were bringing with them what was, at that time, the true religion, unlike today’s illegals who are anything from Marxist infiltrators to child sex traffickers to practitioners of Voodoo and Santeria. The Israelites weren’t given debit cards and free housing and we can be fairly sure they didn’t resort to eating the locals’ pets. So the Pope is creating a false equivalence here and ignoring the multiple ways mass illegal migration is tearing at the fabric of western societies.

Then, abortion. Science says that at one month after conception, all the organs of a human being are present. Everything. Having an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, it’s murder. The Church is not closed-minded because it forbids abortion; the Church forbids abortion because it kills. It is murder; it is murder!

And we need to be clear about this: sending migrants away, not allowing them to grow, not letting them have life is something wrong, it is cruelty. Sending a child away from the womb of the mother is murder because there is life. And we must speak clearly about these things. “No, but however…” No “but however.” Both things are clear. The orphan, the stranger, and the widow—do not forget this.

The first thing to note here is that, in mentioning two of the sins that cry to heaven – the cry of the ‘orphan, stranger and widow’ and abortion – the Pope omits two other very relevant ones: sodomy and the failure to pay a just wage. Both of these are widely known to be rampant with the Vatican’s walls under hhis pontificate.

Secondly, not content with saying imported thugs should be given the same treatment as genuine migrants in his first response, the Pope now says imported thugs as just as important as unborn babies.

So the tuberculosis-carrying murderers, rapists, and drug-pushers deserve the same protections as vulnerable babies in the womb? What a regrettable comment from a Successor of St. Peter who is basically saying that both actions are mortally sinful. (If he believes in mortal sin, which is doubtful.)

In your opinion, Your Holiness, are there circumstances in which it is morally permissible to vote for a candidate who is in favor of abortion?

In political morality, it is generally said that not voting is ugly, it’s not good. One must vote. And one must choose the lesser evil. Which is the lesser evil? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know; each person must think and decide according to their own conscience.

Wrong again, Holy Father. While Catholics MAY deem it prudent to vote for the pro-abortionTrump under the current circumstances, they MAY NOT vote for a pro-abortion candidate of the magnitude of Kamala Harris under any circumstances. (Here is Fr. Ripperger’s opinion on voting for the lesser evil.) And there always remains an option to vote third party as matter of principle.

So what at first glance appears to be a strong defence of life, is in reality merely an excuse for the Pope to bang on about one of his his favourite causes: the mass migration that globalists are using as a tool to smash national identity.

This is yet another pawn being moved on the global chessboard to create a New World Order, with Pope Francis cheerfully playing his part. The Introit from today’s Mass in memory of the martyrs, Sts Cornelius and Cyprian seems particularly apt:

“…O God , the heathens are come into Thine inheritance; they have defiled Thy holy temple…” Psalm 78.