(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Gerhard Müller has said that abortion “cannot be put on the same level as the death penalty” in response to controversial statements on the matter by Pope Leo XIV.

In a recent interview with Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Müller was asked about Leo’s statements regarding pro-life politics in the U.S.

On September 30, a journalist from EWTN asked Leo for his thoughts about Illinois pro-abortion Sen. Dick Durbin being set at the time to receive an award from Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, despite Durbin’s support for abortion.

“I think that it is very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during … 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” he replied. “I understand the difficulty and the tensions but I think, as I myself have spoken to in the past, it is important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the Church.”

“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion’ but says, ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” the Pope said. “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion’ but, ‘I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

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Offering a defense of Leo, Müller said that the Pope’s statements had been misunderstood.

“The Pope did not compare and relativize these situations, which are objectively different, but spoke only of the subjective coherence that is required in all the different cases of protection of life,” the German cardinal suggested.

However, Müller went on to rebuke the moral equation of abortion and the death penalty.

“Abortion means killing an innocent person, and the Church has always said it is a brutal crime,” he stated. “But it cannot be put on the same level as the death penalty for a criminal who has killed other men.”

“Even in the Old Testament, there is talk of the death penalty for anyone who has killed another man,” he continued. “I am personally against this punishment, but let us remember that among the teachings of the Church it was accepted, within certain limits and in extreme cases, that the civil authority could apply it.”

Addressing the issue of migration policy, Müller said: “Another thing is the question of migrants: we must always treat others as brothers, but states have every right to make a regulation for the illegal immigration and protect its population perhaps from criminals arriving from other countries.”