Pope Francis took full advantage of his opportunity to address a joint session of Congress and used the time to refocus that body on the moral implications of the issues they debate.
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A missionary’s life is exciting and brings joy, he said, because it is not sedentary or turned in on itself.
“I like Pope Francis because he was born in Argentina; he is one of us”. He faced Congress and in one of the most direct lines in his address, said they must “stop the arms trade”. Obliquely taking aim at a militarized foreign policy, he said, “If we want security, let us give security”. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves. “We must not be taken aback by their numbers but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best as we can to their situation”. The Pope repeatedly invoked the “golden rule” and said that a more just world could only come when powerful nations set an example with how they interacted with others.
“He’s wrong on immigration, he’s wrong on global warming and he’s wrong on capitalism”, said Avallone, a Catholic and a second generation Italian American. He consistently spoke of the centrality of marriage and the family to a well-ordered society.
“I can not hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before from within and without”, he said.
“He said ‘fundamental relationships are being called into question as is the very basis of marriage and the family, ‘” she notes. He repeatedly reinforced the concepts of social responsibility, the importance and dignity of life and the family, and the need for the economy to work for all people, not just a few.
Tom Rooney, a Republican representative from Florida, said the pope’s message had extra meaning for him as a Catholic.
On his historic first visit to the United States, Francis brought parts of the capital to a standstill on Wednesday and Thursday, as tens of thousands jostled amiably to see the 78-year-old Argentine.
He sounded nearly apocalyptic in his address from the South Lawn of the White House: “Mr President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution”.
The Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, a devout Catholic, cried at several junctures as he flanked Francis.
In a speech that did not include a single reference to Jesus Christ, the Pope did honor Dorothy Day, a socialist who founded the Catholic Worker.
He offered a blessing at the front of the church and greeted the homeless. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation. “He speaks to the common man”.
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, a Catholic, told the Philadelphia Daily News that as the pope left the chamber Thursday, he headed to the lectern to grab Francis’ drinking glass. There is nothing this Pope has said that has differed substantially from what has been said before. Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but we know that it is very hard to judge the past by the criteria of the present.
Catholics in the United States and throughout the world are indebted to St. Junipero and thousands of other witnesses who lived their faith and passed it on, the Pope said in his homily.
“This pope, in case you didn’t notice it, you can see right as he gets out of the plane – he has a sense of joy”, says Adler, who notes that this may have a long-running effect on Pennsylvanians and Americans – Catholic or not.
“I love his simplicity”, Smith said.
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This Pope is not gong to ordain women, homosexual priests, do away with celibacy, okay contraception, legitimise divorce and remarriage, and sanction abortion.
