For Catholics in New York, it is exciting news but the visit also presents a major challenge for the city’s police department, as it gets ready for its first papal visit since 2008. Francis arrives Tuesday and departs Sunday.
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Francis’ visit comes three months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, putting USA bishops on the defensive and sharply dividing Americans over how much they should accommodate religious objectors. In an article published on the website Townhall.com, Gosar wrote, “When the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one“. “It’s our hope that the visit of Pope Francis will change this narrative”.
Among the 15,000 people attending the event on the South Lawn, there will be several guests who are at odds with the Vatican’s positions on abortion, gay clergy and same-sex marriage.
For all the attention likely to be paid to Francis’ speeches, including the first address from a pope to Congress, his more personal gestures – visiting with immigrants, prisoners and the homeless – could yield some of the most memorable images of the trip. He encouraged them to dream big about what their life could be like, and not be “boxed in” by ideologies or preconceptions about others.
That point referred to a major disagreement over mandatory contraceptive coverage under Obama’s health care law.
The pope has drawn widespread praise in Cuba for his behind-the-scenes role in supporting negotiations previous year that led to a historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba.
However, the Holy Father warned against those cultures in which the space for the family is shrinking – where families are disappearing and home life is becoming more and more separated.
Pope Francis met with 89-year old Fidel Castro, who holds no office in Cuba, but not with any members of the dissident community – in or outside of prison. Raul Castro has accelerated a warming with the church that began under his brother, and has spoken admiringly of Francis and his critiques of global capitalism.
“Generation after generation, day after day, we are asked to renew our faith”, the pope said Tuesday.
The Pope continued, saying families are the antidote to two modern-day problems: fragmentation and uniformity. He says that in both cases, “people turn into isolated individuals, easy to manipulate and to rule”. This time it was to celebrate Mass – and, unlike his predecessors who celebrated in downtown Santiago, this liturgy took place inside the Sanctuary church, a church that was filled to beyond anything its original architects who built it in 1927 could have possibly imagined.
Francis called the recent reconciliation between Castro’s Communist government and the United States a model for the world.
Tweets with the hashtag “PopeInUS” render an icon of a smiling, white-capped pontiff in front of a USA flag.
Users can tweet the following four hashtags to view the emojis: #PopeinUS, #PopeinDC, #PopeinNYC, #PopeinPhilly.
Kay-Ann Chambers-DeShields was on duty when the Pope contacted Bermuda to transmit a prayer for blessings as he flew over the Island en route to Cuba on Saturday.
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Pope Francis also blessed the city of Holguin from a hill that is topped by a wooden cross.
