Central New Yorkers travel to Philadelphia to take part in Pope’s Mass

“In terms of articulating his message and generating enthusiasm and connecting with Americans, it was a tremendous success”, said Andrew Chesnut, religious studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

World Meeting of Families organizers and city of Philadelphia officials will look back on the papal visit at a pair of news conferences Monday morning.

On the plane he told reporters that the world can not pretend the crisis now impacting Europe sprang up overnight.

“And if a person doesn’t allow an objection of conscience, they’re denying a right”, Francis said.

And the love of money?

Francis said conscientious objection had to be respected in legal structures. “Because what was groped and destroyed was her flesh, the flesh of her daughter”. He said these gestures made by members of a family enhance love among them. He also advocated for the importance of rehabilitation in the criminal justice system, saying everyone has a role to play in helping them rejoin society.

Wherever Francis goes, a crowd is sure to gather. This is the final day of a five-day trip to the U.S., which includes stops in Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia, after a three-day stay in Cuba.

The pope asked the congregation to consider how they treat each other in their own home.

Serving time in prison is a painful time, said the pope, who continues to speak on the telephone with inmates he used to visit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“I have come so that we can pray together and offer our God everything that causes us pain, but also everything that gives us hope, so that we can receive from him the power of the resurrection”.

They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children.

He told the crowd to show affection and compassion for fellow human beings.

In another issue pressing on the American church, Francis was asked about the case of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for several days after she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples despite the Supreme Court’s ruling making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

Francis met with five victims at a previously undisclosed, private moment. He also said those responsible for abuse would be held accountable.

The abuse of minors is “nearly a sacrilege”, he said, and by committing these acts the priest has “betrayed his vocation, the calling of the Lord”.

“We know the abuses are everywhere – in families, in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the gyms”.

Questioned about peace talks in Colombia, the pope said he was pleased when he heard that a tentative agreement had been reached last week between the government and the rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.

The pontiff urged people to forgive others, although he said he understood that a few victims of clerical sexual abuse and their relatives would not be able to do so.