“He had a very positive message of hope and he challenged us all to cooperate with the common good”, said U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland.
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Yet Francis spoke to a Congress that has deadlocked on immigration legislation at a time when there are more than 11 million people in the USA illegally and when a few lawmakers have balked at Obama administration plans to accept more of the migrants from Syria and elsewhere who are now flooding Europe.
The Latin American pope spoke Thursday in a House chamber packed with lawmakers and their guests, Vice President Joe Biden, Cabinet officials and Supreme Court justices.
“The Son of God knew what it was to be a homeless person, to start life without a roof over his head”, the pope told them.
Democrats, on several occasions, stood to applaud the pope’s remarks that are in line with numerous party’s liberal policies, while Republicans remained silent before rising to their feet out of respect. “Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies”, the pope said.
Thousands of spectators will be watching his address from the West Lawn of Capitol Hill and many more on TV from around the world.
On other issues, the pope called for a worldwide end to the death penalty – the U.S. is one of the few countries that still practice it – and denounced the arms trade as being fueled by hunger for “money that is drenched in blood”.
The pope’s words touched Lizette Zamudio, a 19-year-old from Mexico. The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. While he did talk about the US bishops’ pet issue of protecting “religious liberty”, for those not keyed into the ongoing culture war battles over access to contraception and discrimination against LGBT individuals, it just sounded like Francis was speaking of the traditional, all-American meaning in terms of the right to worship freely.
Pope Francis told Congress on Thursday that the United States should reject a “mind-set of hostility” to immigrants, directly addressing a thorny subject that is dividing the country and stirring debate in the 2016 presidential campaign. And also warned that the big global warming disaster would “be of the nuclear form because we have incompetent politicians watching over us when it comes to nuclear weapons”.
“I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play”, he declared.
“He gave me a lot of hope”, said Rendon said after hearing the pope speak. We have other means of rehabilitating people. He said that the Pope is bringing the “beautiful message” of gospel to people.
She said that she would try to follow the pope’s charge that “we shouldn’t stay on the sidelines but get out and act”.
Meeting the Pope was a “humbling moment”, he said later, after calling the visit a “great blessing”.
The pope arrived in the USA on Tuesday, September 22, and met with President Barack Obama at the White House the following day.
Francis’ presence has already led Florida Sen.
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Less than an hour after the Pope had called for Washington to come together, and gotten rousing applause for doing so, the divisiveness was on display in a White House statement on a Senate (full fiscal year) appropriations bill that would keep the government open but defund planned parenthood, saying it contains highly objectionable provisions that serve a “narrow political agenda”. He concludes his US trip in Philadelphia this weekend.
