Pope Francis strongly criticises both Harris and Trump in rare political intervention

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.

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

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.

But he then also came down hard on Ms Harris’s stance on abortion, calling it a form of “assassination”. Though his references were clear, he did not name either directly.

“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.”

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

The Pope expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the US 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 hasn’t emphasised church doctrine as much as his predecessors.

The pontiff said migration is a right described in scripture, and that anyone who doesn’t