Pope Francis has arrived at Joint Base Andrews, marking the beginning of his first trip to the United States.
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After much anticipation, the religious leader has arrived in the states where he will spend six days throughout Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia. During his flight to the USA , the pope held a short press conference with journalists, telling them that it would a “mistake” to call him a leftist or liberal despite his statements criticizing global capitalism and sometimes friendly statements on LGBT people.
The pope will fly from Cuba and land in Washington, D.C., Tuesday afternoon where he will be greeted by President and Mrs. Obama.
“Our goal is 100% reliability and we appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding while our operations teams work to minimize any delays”, the company wrote on its website. “But with crowds expected to number in the hundreds of thousands, federal officials say it will be among the largest mobilizations of security officers in American history”, the New York Times reports.
“I was in the cathedral, but I was also in the Superdome when he addressed a group of youth”.
Republicans are hoping that the pope’s ire is not directed only at them.
“I feel very blessed”, said Judith Padron.
“I feel like I’ve been put on this mission to be able to go and see and maybe even meet him and feel the excitement and bring it back here and share the excitement with all my loved ones and friends as well”, said Allen.
Meanwhile, among those accompanying the pope is Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
“Beginning with his White House reception on Wednesday morning, very excited to be there our governor, and his wife will be there, as well”, Mulligan said.
The Secret Service has been studying the pope’s movement for months and also has access to a 3-D virtual map to get an advanced look at where he will visit.
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Ahead of his visit to the USA , Pope Francis said that during the Catholic Church’s upcoming jubilee year women who have had an abortion should be forgiven if they are “contrite”. 56 members of Congress were educated at Jesuit universities or high schools, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who issued the invitation to Pope Francis to visit Congress.
