WASHINGTON — Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, challenged Congress and by extension the mightiest nation in history on Thursday to break out of its cycle of polarization and paralysis to finally use its power to heal the “open wounds” of a planet torn by hatred, greed, poverty and pollution.
Taking a rostrum never before occupied by the bishop of Rome, the pontiff issued a vigorous call to action on issues largely favored by liberals, including a powerful defense of immigration, an endorsement of environmental legislation, a blistering condemnation of the arms trade and a plea to abolish the death penalty.
The pope looked out over the National Mall from the Speaker’s Balcony at the Capitol on Thursday.Francis in America: Conservatives and Liberals Find Much to Cheer in Pope SpeechSEPT. 24, 2015
President Obama and His Holiness Pope Francis on Wednesday at the White House, where he was welcomed with an elaborate ceremony.Francis in America: Pope Francis, in Washington, Addresses Poverty and Climate. The young and the very young were on hand Wednesday as Francis arrived at Catholic University.
In particular, Pope Francis beseeched a nation that generates a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth to not let money drive its decisions at the expense of humanity. “Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one, the greatest common good,” he told a joint meeting of Congress in an address that cited American icons like Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In his speech, Pope Francis also defended religious liberty and the traditional family at a time when the United States has just legalized same-sex marriage and a Kentucky court clerk went to jail rather than issue marriage certificates violating her religious beliefs. He was less explicit in condemning abortion but called for a defense of life at “every stage of development.”
“I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened perhaps as never before, from within and without,” he said at the end of his speech, delivered in slow, cautious English. “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.”
After his much-anticipated remarks, the pope traveled a short distance from the grandeur of the Capitol to address the plight of Washington’s homeless at St. Patrick’s Church, and to share a meal with those who are without a place to live.
“We can find no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing,” the pope said, speaking in Spanish with an interpreter at the church. He urged the homeless to turn toward prayer for strength, and he beseeched those with means to remember them.
“We know that Jesus wanted to show solidarity with every person,” His Holiness Pope Francis said.
