Pope Francis To Begin US Tour

The latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. Take, for instance, the city’s three Potbelly locations.

Streets within a three-block radius of the Capitol will be closed starting Thursday at midnight in anticipation of Francis’s address to Congress, with a host of other road closures throughout the pope’s time in Washington.

The President and first family will greet the Pope when he lands Tuesday afternoon at Andrews Air Force Base.

With more than 18,000 people signed up, this year’s will be the most attended of the eight World Meetings.

The church itself is viewed positively by 60 percent of Americans, while 63 percent view Pope Francis favorably. “For us, this is a security event, one of the highest level”.

The visit will therefore also be costly, with the Secret Service already spending about $15 million to rent bike racks that will be used as barriers along the Pope’s travel routes. “People willingly accept that because they feel this is their way of walking with Francis“.

Vice President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, on Tuesday called the Pope’s visit “an important moment not only for American Catholics, but all Americans” and said Pope Francis has “become a moral rudder for the world“. “I struggled for a long time not just with my faith but also with being a gay man. If I had heard messages like this when I was 13, it would have changed everything”, he said. We’re all brothers and sisters.

This papal visit is historic for a couple of reasons.

He noted that the Pope has “a deep interest” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, events in Syria and Lebanon, and the potential persecution of Christians.

“He speaks directly and clearly, but out of a basis that we can all understand”, Cardinal Wuerl told us.

And he’s arriving in a country that seems glad to greet him: almost half of Americans and 78 percent of Catholics said they were looking forward to the pope’s trip to the United States. There is less willingness to have the Pope intervene in USA domestic affairs.

Lupe Mendoza looks up as San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone officiates at a Sunday Mass for St. Peter Catholic Church parishioners who are traveling to Washington, D.C., to see Pope Francis.

Meanwhile, among those accompanying the pope is Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl. The Vatican itself is housing a Syrian family, and has asked churches to do the same. And few expect his speech to make legislation on those issues any more likely.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said that officials in New York, Philadelphia and Washington have reviewed the “threat picture” from ISIS, al Qaeda and other terror groups.

But rather than fight the line at Potbelly’s, today I begin navigating the crowds at WMOF, with many stories to come, I’m sure. This has been a big issue for Catholics for decades and decades and in the history of the church life has always been extremely important.