Pope Francis visit is a hot ticket in Washington, Congress members find

Certainly there is good reason for a religious leader to speak up in the USA-what with the Obama administration’s campaign to put an end to religious liberty and to destroy Christianity-but what is the red pope doing?

For his three-day visit to Cuba, beginning on September 19, Francis can expect a warm reception from the Castro regime following recognition of the key role he played in Havana s reconciliation with the United States this year. I hope Mr Trump doesn’t tell the pope that he dresses more up to date then the pope.

Francis made clear he isn’t downplaying the gravity of abortion, which the church essentially views as equivalent to murder. Instead, he applied his vision of mercy to what is an intensely personal, often anguished choice for women.

“The tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness, as if not realizing the extreme harm that such an act entails”, Francis wrote.

Francis drew on decades of pastoral experience with faithful in his native Argentina, including as Buenos Aires archbishop.

The Hudson funeral home owner wants to talk to the pope about his son Daniel, who was murdered in 2002 by a parish priest thought to be trying to hide his sexual abuse of young boys.

“I said I wasn’t planning on it, and he said, ‘Well, if anyone is entitled to see him, you certainly are, ‘” O’Connell related. “I know that it is an existential and moral ordeal”, the pope wrote.

In any language the pope seems to know how to please an audience. Our formulations of faith were born of dialogue, encounter, comparison and contact with different cultures, communities and nations in situations calling for greater reflection on matters not previously clarified.

“The questions our people pose, their anguish, their quarrels, their dreams, their struggles, their concerns all have hermeneutical value we can not ignore if we are to take seriously the principal of incarnation….”

“This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one”, he reflected.

The reporter called O’Connell and asked him if was going to see the pope when he visits Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. “We try to be as compassionate, caring and kind as we possibly can as families say goodbye”.

During a broadcast hosted by ABC News, Pope Francis went out of his way to praise Sister Norma Pimentel, an activist nun from Texas who is making a name for herself working on behalf of people who break our laws. “And a change in tone can, in this case, amount to a change in character”.

And within the past year, the Holy See delegated both Cardinal Walter Brandmuller and Bishop Athanasius Schneider to visit the seminaries of the SSPX.

Each time, so vivid, he still recalls specific moments.

The Pope added that the Second Vatican Council was an effort “to overcome this divorce between theology and pastoral ministry, between faith and life”.

Pope Francis has expressed a determination to root out sexual abuse by priests.

Peter Christiansen, a Twin Cities priest who later became bishop of the Superior Diocese, did visit the O’Connell family several times.