Pope Francis meets baby pope in Philadelphia visit

We loved our brothers. Those who covered this up are guilty.

Were there a few issues? Yes. It was a “Catholic divorce” they said and did not believe it to be something valid or compatible with Christ’s teaching on marriage and divorce. However, we hope most recognized that it was worth the trouble to get a very rare opportunity to have this remarkable man in their midst.On Sunday, the pope bemoaned the mistrust that dominates today’s culture and how it keeps people disconnected from one another.

Easily done if you rely on platitudes and, like many a politician, say nothing.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Pope Francis and an admiring throng of thousands enjoyed a little music from the Queen of Soul, Andrew Bocelli and others at the end of his first day in Philadelphia on his first-ever US tour.

It was not a coincidence.

The next World Meeting of Families will be held in Dublin in 2018, Church officials have announced – placing the event in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country that has been ground zero for the Church’s clergy sex abuse crisis outside the US.

Bocelli, whose rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer” was accompanied by The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Heritage Chorale, has described Francis as “a blessing given to the world“. It was an eye opener.

“The biggest thing for me (in this message) was the small things in life that you can do for each other every days”, said Rona Iredale, whose family saw the Mass from a rooftop bar.

But the overall impression of the visit, mot least the million-strong Mass with which the trip concluded in Philadelphia, remains one of the charismatic Francis’s huge success in mobilising and moving the faithful in a church that faces huge challenges and divisions.

He decried “a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality”. We all gain and benefit when we do this. “By contributing your gifts, you will not only find your place here, you will help to renew society from within”. He should know the effect of his words before he speaks them. That’s when he noticed the boy in the wheelchair. A member of the Pope’s security team carried Quinn over to a smiling Pope Francis for a kiss. Eleven-year-old Michael Keating has cerebral palsy and was at the airport with his family because his father is the director of the marching band that performed during the arrival ceremony. His is the son of the Chuck Keating, the Shanahan band director, and his wife, Kristin.

Still, why do so many American Christians appear determined to treat the Bible like a collection of rune stones with predictive powers – especially when doing so comes at the expense of pursuing justice and mercy in the here and now?

Then he asked an aide the time of his closing Mass on Sunday, and after learning it would be at 4 p.m., he bid his audience goodbye until tomorrow.

The 78-year-old pontiff addressed the crowd in his native Spanish after his private meeting with the five sexual abuse survivors.

On the airplane, Pope Francis, 78, continued to talk about his visit to the United States.

And finally, before wearily climbing the steps to his plane one more time for the trip back to Italy, he exhorted us not to forget this new “family” that was forged this week.

“It was really cool to be with a bunch of people my age who were similarly moved by seeing the Pope”, Cecilia Laguarda ’17 said.