Pope In US Visit Will Meet With Poor, President, Politicians

Francis’ visit, which is tied to the September 22-27 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, will also include a White House meeting with President Barack Obama, addresses before the United Nations General Assembly and a joint session of Congress, and visits to East Harlem’s Our Lady Queen of Angels School and the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is the 9/11 Memorial’s chairman, said, “Pope Francis’ visit to the Memorial and Museum will be a special moment for our city”.

The pope’s upcoming visit to the United States has spurred excitement among Catholics, and the full itinerary for has trip had been eagerly awaited.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York released a statement Tuesday, in which he said the pope’s “relatively brief” visit there will “offer an example to the entire world of how people of different faiths cannot only live together in peace and harmony, but also come together in a spirit of mutual cooperation and respect for one another”.

He will arrive at JFK global Airport at approximately 5 p.m. before attending evening prayer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 6:45 p.m.

– Visits Independence Mall, discusses religious freedom with Hispanics and other immigrants. It is hoped that the site will be able to accommodate about 25,000 people.

It will be conducted in Spanish, “which is everyone’s native language at this point, our second language as Americans”, Rossi said.

When details of the trip emerged a year ago, there was concern that the program would have the pontiff spending most of his time with political elites in marbled halls: President Obama at the White House, lawmakers on Capitol Hill, diplomats at the United Nations and bishops in the cathedrals of each city.

“For a Pope who likes to suddenly add stops on the road, mid-day breaks could bring surprises if Secret Service lets him get away with it”, tweeted Rocco Palmo, a popular Catholic blogger based in Philadelphia.

While Pope Paul VI in 1965, St. John Paul II in 1979 and Benedict XVI in 2008 celebrated Mass in Yankee Stadium, Francis will celebrate Mass for a smaller crowd in Madison Square Garden.

Wuerl said he did not know what the pope’s message to Congress would be, but that he would be “speaking as a pastor”.

The chief Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said on Tuesday that the pope had not yet decided whether he would chew the leaves after Bolivia’s culture minister revealed this week that the pope had “specifically requested” that coca leaves be made available during his trip.

– Visits Festival of Families, Benjamin Franklin Parkway. “The pope will do what he thinks is most opportune”.

The pope will then take up residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Lower Merion.