Pope Francis visits the statue of California missionary Junipero Serra, whom he canonized yesterday.
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“Poverty, environmental degradation, immigration, the death penalty, the need to do everything we can to create a peaceful world”, the senator said, listing the subjects the Pope raised in what he said was very “non partisan” and “wonderful” way. Pope Francis may have a hard time changing that. His singling out of Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Selma as television cameras fixed their gaze on Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement, was especially poignant.
Pope Francis’s speech inspired a rare moment of harmony in the US Congress.
Father Jean-Claude Atusameso, a Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Kikwit in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told VOA Studio 7 the pope has validated the belief of many that he is a man of the people, through his actions, starting with his stop to Cuba, before arriving in the U.S. Bless the families. Bless them all.
In the first speech by a pope to a US Congress, the Argentine pontiff urged politicians to reject hostility to immigrants and treat them humanely, directly addressing a thorny subject that is dividing the country and stirring debate in the 2016 presidential campaign. Lawmakers, aides and invited guests jammed the historic chamber of the House of Representatives, while 50,000 more people were invited to watch on jumbo screens on the West Lawn of the Capitol.
They even shared a meal again on Thursday night, Latham said, just hours before Boehner abruptly announced his resignation from Congress on Friday morning. Both sides were looking to his words for moral support for their arguments from a figure deliberately resistant to clean political definitions.
His message of humility and service should be a lesson for all.
“When the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one”.
If Democrats and Republicans could agree on one point, it was that they were moved by his compassion, manifested in his calls to help the most vulnerable and the poor.
“A good deal of what Pope Francis is doing is largely driven by his personality and his style”, said Higgins.
“I could not agree more when Pope Francis says politics must serve the good of the human person. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes”.
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“He reminded us that as a nation we are an accepting, forgiving and inclusive people and that we are powered and strengthened by our diversity”.
