Pope Francis arrived on his first visit to the United States on Tuesday, bringing to Washington a message that its power and wealth should be used to serve humanity, and not the other way around. Pope Francis has been known to speak to homeless people and treat them with the same respect he gives everyone else.
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White House staffers say Pope Francis is in a class all by himself and that his visit stands out.
“If we can get there and see that, that would be fantastic to me”, another pilgrim, Marie, said. In the letter, they said, “We sleep on the streets because we can not pay the rent”. Reverend Mary Lewis Wilson of Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast agreed. “I’m still in such shock over everything”, said Aaron Ledesma, who writes a blog called The Gay Catholic and who wrote to the White House office of correspondence and received an invitation.
“I feel very blessed”, said Judith Padron. “If the Pope plans to spend the majority of his time advocating for flawed climate change policies, then I will not attend”.
“To be in that presence, you know someone who represents Christ’s church here on Earth, that’s a tremendous blessing”.
Pope Francis has begun his tour of the United States, where he is expected to greet millions of American Catholics and address thorny issues like climate change and income inequality.
Pope Francis also will be the first pope to address a joint session of Congress.
Also scheduled to meet the pope at Andrews is Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese.
A group of people from South Florida are making the 22-hour pilgrimage to Washington in hopes of catching a glimpse of Pope Francis on his first American tour.
But he said he did not intend to discuss the Cuban embargo in his speech to the U.S. Congress, but he would talk more in general of the importance of bilateral agreements to promote progress, peace and the common good.
In Cuba, rather than harshly rebuking the Castro regime for its decades of restricting freedom for its people, President Raul Castro walked away telling reporters how the Pope makes him consider returning to the Catholic Church and praying again.
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“That all has to be very skillfully thought out – how we’re going to protect him, allow access of the public at different venues, and do it in such a manner that law enforcement can screen as many people as possible to keep it secure”.
