Pope Francis on final leg of US visit

As Pope Francis spoke outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall Saturday, he stood at the same lectern that President Abraham Lincoln used to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

Pope Francis, dressed in his usual flowing white robe, was being watched from inside the plane by his aides with no one coming to his aid. “To me, in that moment, he must have felt that blessing”, said Kristin Keating, a fourth-grade teacher from the Elverson area.”For us, it was handsome”, she added.

The pope’s speech also touched on religious freedom and globalization.

But soon after, Francis said religion is also abused to stir hatred and brutality, and urged followers of all faiths to advocate for “peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others”.

“Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate”, the pontiff told a crowd before the historic hall. But he said he wanted to talk mostly about religious freedom – a rallying cry for USA bishops who have waged high-profile fights against gay marriage, abortion and insurer-provided birth control. Instead, he used the occasion to embrace other causes close to his heart.

Indeed, a couple of nights earlier, Pope Francis expressed his “esteem and gratitude to the women religious of the United States” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

Pope Francis speaks at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 26, 2015. The City of Brotherly Love is under a security lockdown, with traffic banned downtown for the entire weekend and thousands of National Guardsmen in the streets to corral throngs of faithful hoping to see the pontiff.

A piece of Presidential history will be a part of the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia.

The Saturday afternoon Mass marked the first time a Pope had addressed a congregation at the church since Pope John Paul II visited the city in 1979. Among those greeting him was Richard Bowes, a former Philadelphia police officer wounded in the line of duty.

Keating, who has cerebral palsy, was on a wheelchair at the corner of a barricade.

Pope Francis landed at Philadelphia airport at 9:30 Saturday morning and by 10:30 was celebrating mass at the mother church of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

He continued that it is also demonstrated in the hundreds of schools, run by religious men and women, as they “trained children to read and write, to love God and neighbor, and to contribute as good citizens to the life of American society”.

He has made similar comments in the past, but has rejected the idea of ordaining women.

In his homily, the pope singled out the story of Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia-born heiress who became a nun and then, after her death, a saint. He’s received a rock star reception at each of his events, inspiring politicians, regular people and even a dog – who donned a papal costume. “He has a magnetic personality that not only appeals to Catholics, but to the universal masses”.

It marked his last public engagement in New York before leaving for Philadelphia, where he was set to greet huge crowds at the Festival of Families, which takes place every three years. His message resonates. It’s much more of an all-encompassing one.