Pope Francis calls for abolition of death penalty

William Brangham begins our coverage.

Seventh-graders in Moore’s classes also will be watching intently this weekend when Pope Francis travels to Philadelphia.

Pope Francis listens to applause before addressing a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. Instead, students on Thursday viewed an ABC News report of the pontiff answering questions from Americans ahead of his US visit.

Inside the House listening was senator Marco Rubio, who is steadily climbing in the polls and is Catholic and a Republican. But at least a few members of Utah’s delegation to Congress were pleased with the historic address.

Replied Boehner: “We’ll need a lot of hope today”. “That in itself is giving a message, he’s a pope of the poor, the pope of the neglected, the pope of the abandoned”.

“We can shut down carbon, you go back to the Stone Age, all live in poverty and the world is far worse”, said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. “We have much to do to care for our planet, strengthen economic opportunity, and defend the rights & dignity of all”.

MAN: He radiates happiness.

Later on Thursday the Pope was to leave for New York, where he will address the United Nations on Friday.

For the PBS NewsHour, I’m William Brangham in Washington, D.C. “Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies”, he said. Both parties heard a challenge from the pope.

Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, delivered a wide-ranging speech in English that took on issues dear to liberals in the United States and also emphasized conservative values and Catholic teachings on the family. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, does that mean, whether it’s minds changing or agreement coming – he did talk about the polarization in Congress and in the country. “Oh, I thought it was great”, said Gary. Whole essays will be written about his pro-life focus on the death penalty rather than on abortion, although his reference to all stages of life was clear.

But I do see a little room from the pope on the issue of climate and environment.

Arriving at the site the pontiff met with the families of those who first responded to the attack and were killed in the attempt to help people, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“If the pope wants to devote his life to fighting climate change then he can do so in his personal time”. “I just felt like something came through me”.