He said, “Most of my conversations have been with my real good friends in Oklahoma who happen to be Catholic, and they have not changed in their positions”.
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The Pope also called for a worldwide end to the death penalty – the U.S. is one of the few countries that still practise it – and denounced the arms trade as being fueled by hunger for ‘money that is drenched in blood’.
Pope Francis was midway through his remarks to Congress when something unexpected happened.
“Legislative activity is always based on care for the people”. James Inhofe (R-OK) is a vocal skeptic of the idea that humans contribute to a changing climate, and once brought a snowball onto the Senate floor to blast the “hysteria on global warming”.
During his visit to Washington D.C., Bambrick said that Pope Francis praised the courage of Catholic Bishops in dealing with sexual abuse.
“We must not be taken back by the numbers but view them rather as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories”, Francis said.
The Pope’s next stop is in New York City, where he will address the United Nations on 25 September. He invoked the golden rule to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. But, in the vein of the best Jesuit teachers, Francis praised America, its rich political history and its ideals before delicately delivering some things its political leaders might, well, want to consider working on.
Without directly addressing the issue, Pope Francis hinted at a defense of heterosexual marriage, saying the family “is threatened, perhaps as never before”.
Holy Cross freshman Maya Collins said, ” It really ties into my course that we’re doing because it’s about exploring differences in disability and poverty and so being able to listen to it with all my classmates to tie it into our class was really cool”.
The pope did not shake many hands on his way into the chamber, unlike during presidential State of the Union addresses when presidents seem to embrace everyone in the aisle they can find. And on Thursday he spoke directly to those who have gone without.
His speech, held in the House of Representatives and before a joint session of Congress, could serve as a deluge in a drought.
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“This pope, in case you didn’t notice it, you can see right as he gets out of the plane – he has a sense of joy”, says Adler, who notes that this may have a long-running effect on Pennsylvanians and Americans – Catholic or not.
