Instead Francis – the first pontiff to address Congress and the first from Latin America – focused on immigration, the death penalty, racial injustice, the weapons trade, and poverty.
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Earlier this year, at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the bishops issued a statement saying that the death penalty “contributes to a cycle of violence in our society that must be broken”. The conviction of this has led the Pope, right from the initial stages of his ministry to strive hard for the abolition of death penalty at different levels.
On Thursday, security was tight outside Capitol Hill, with streets blocked off and a heavy police presence that rivalled an inauguration or State of the Union address by the USA president. “Since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes”.
Capital punishment is legal in 31 U.S states and according to statistics produced in mid-2015, there are 3,002 inmates in line for execution.
What the Friday: Pope Francis touted the Golden Rule to Congress. One guy didn’t get the message. He called for its “global abolition” and arguing that any punishment should never preclude the chance for rehabilitation. These six – Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas – would constitute a voting majority of the court in the event that they agreed on the hot-button social issues of the day.
A bench of Justices T S Thakur and V Gopala Gowda said, “Today, there is a movement against death penalty”.
The Pope told the audience that foreigners must not be feared and that he too, was the son of immigrant parents.
He also called for global vigilance against fundamentalism of all kinds, but warned a “delicate balance” must be struck between fighting extremism and preserving religious freedoms.
In a historic speech to the U.S. Congress, Pope Francis fundamentally rearranged the political priorities for American Catholics in public life.
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The opinions expressed in this article are exclusively those of the author and are not necessarily those of World Religion News.
