Pope Francis delivers historic address to US Congress

We must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or any other kind.

Lawmakers of all political backgrounds and religious affiliations eagerly welcomed the pope, pledging to pause from the bickering and dysfunction that normally divide them and hear him out.

In Congress, even “the wave” is political.

The St. Mary’s High School junior was born in Cordoba, Argentina, and lived in an apartment complex the future pope used to call home.

He said that people should not be taken aback by their huge numbers but rather should view them as persons, see their faces and listen to their stories. We must avoid a common temptation nowadays: “to discard whatever proves troublesome”.

The pope was pointed in his call for Congress to take steps to “avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity”, stating, “I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play”. If we want life, let us give life. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro who served on the Escort Committee for Pope Francis’ address this morning.

Indeed, Pope Francis quoted his encyclical, Laudato Si, noting that “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. This is a statement that has been worked closely on and negotiated closely by our respective teams over the course of many months”, a senior official told reporters Thursday ahead of the U.S.-China summit.

In a speech that did not include a single reference to Jesus Christ, the Pope did honor Dorothy Day, a socialist who founded the Catholic Worker.

One can say that Francis was making an ecumenical appeal for humility, an acknowledgement that any religion can be distorted to justify violence.

Pope Francis urged respect for life at every stage, and an end to the death penalty, and also to follow the golden rule.

With his intellect, charisma, moral authority and irresistible smile, Francis challenges us to remember that whatever our political or theological differences, we are all in this together.

Already, countries and territories accounting for at least 60 percent of global emissions have announced their targets, including the world’s No. 1 and 2 polluters, China and the United States.

The Pope said that the world was depending on American ingenuity-from techonology companies to its universities-to find solutions and implement them. I wish I could be optimistic that they also touched our leaders’ hearts. The last American that the Pope named, the theologian Thomas Merton, was cited as a direct call on Congress stop partisan bickering and start showing constructive results. “He did not really get into politics, but he preached the gospel and stood for the values of Jesus while encouraging those who are in public office to use well their gifts for the common good and be good leaders”. Pews full of US priests and sisters erupted in applause on hearing Francis’ words, which came after he halted an overhaul the Vatican had ordered under his predecessor to the largest umbrella group of USA sisters.

He also took the opportunity to indirectly allude to several social issues, possibly referring to the recent legalization of same-sex marriage when he said “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family”. He gently prodded the bishops to forgo “harsh and divisive language”, while commending their “courage” in the face of the church’s sexual abuse scandal – rhetoric that angered victims he may meet with later in his trip.

This is a Pope that all sides are keen to claim as their own, but he remains hard to pigeonhole, as he went on to eat a meal not with the political elite but with the poor and the homeless who are ever present here, in the capital of the world’s richest nation.

Francis was both subtle and shrewd in choosing the four American icons whose lives and work formed the scaffolding of his speech.