“With great blessings, of course, come great responsibility”, Boehner said. “Legislative activity is always based on care for the people”. The blessing reportedly was given during the event at the Catholic Charities of Washington.
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In a call for world peace, the pope said it is “shameful” that more isn’t being done to stem the rising tide of armed conflicts around the world. He is considered one of the most influential American Catholic authors of the 20th century, writing more than 60 books, including “The Seven Storey Mountain“, which sold more than a million copies.
It was the first time in history that a pope has addressed a joint session of Congress. And today, he told legislators, the common good includes protecting the environment and taking bold steps “to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity”.
“The Holy Father’s visit is surely a blessing for all of us. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies”.
Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Republicans jumped up and applauded at the line, and Democrats quickly joined them.
But the response to the pope’s passionate words about embracing immigrants seemed to strike a bipartisan chord. Sen.
Several Republican presidential candidates were in the audience, including retired neurologist Ben Carson, Senator Marco Rubio and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“In these times when social concerns are so important, I can not fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement”.
The pope praised King for his focus on “liberty in plurality and non-exclusion;” Day for “social justice;” and Merton for “dialogue and openness to God”.
“Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism”, he declared, adding that “a delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms”.
The pope also called for protection of life at every stage of development, including an end to the death penalty.
A reporter had asked the pope in July about why he spoke so much about the poor and about the rich, but rarely about the lives and struggles of the hard-working, tax-paying middle class. The result of a papal promise to correct that was the speech to Congress and through Congress to the American people.
“Almost without exception, they have shown cowardice and callousness and continue to do so now”, said Barbara Dorris, president of SNAP, or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. As someone who has worked for many years on U.S.-Cuban relations, I appreciated his words “When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all“.
Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington September 24. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world”.
“I was not expecting him to address the bipartisan divide”, said Emily Warn, 62, a writer from Seattle.
Francis, born to an Italian immigrant family in Argentina, delivered a wide-ranging speech that addressed issues dear to liberals in the United States but also emphasized conservative values and Catholic teachings on the family. “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family”, he said. “I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life”, he said.
The Pontiff reminded members of Congress that majority were once foreigners. He said the family, in a bigger sense, is threatened “from within and without”.
Tens of thousands of people assembled on the West Front of the Capitol, where at least five jumbotrons are set up with speakers to play the address to the crowd.
Speaking through a translator, he asked even those who had no faith to send him good wishes anyway. She stood with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, thrilled to be close to her pope, the first from her country.
I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways, especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their insights. “He may be so far, but he is close”.
It’s daily work. After Pope Francis returns to the Vatican, they should get to it.
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That’s changing, as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has become a champion for the cause of declaring Dorothy Day a saint. His US journey continues through Sunday, ending in Philadelphia.
