In a video interview to close the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis pulled no punches in his condemnation of abortion, calling it a “very grave sin” and a “horrendous crime.” Asked to recall especially memorable moments from the Year of Mercy, the Pope spoke of two: the visit to a neonatal ward and a meeting with survivors of sex trafficking. “I was thinking about the custom of doing away with babies before they’re born, this horrendous crime. They do away with them because it’s easier like that, because it’s more comfortable. It’s a great responsibility—a very grave sin,” Francis said, in reference to his visit to the San Giovanni Hospital on September 16. The Pope’s interview was broadcast on Sunday evening after the official closing of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica. Francis said he was especially moved by the disconsolate weeping of a mother who had been pregnant with triplets, one of whom died at birth—an occasion that gave rise to his reflections on the evil of abortion. “There was this woman who was weeping, weeping, weeping in front of her twins… very small, but very beautiful: the third had died,”