Thousands of Texans expected to greet Pope Francis

Pope Francis greets children at the basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre -Cuba’s patron saint- in El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba.

Pope Francis is settling in for his first night in the U.S. Well-wishers in fancy clothes stood behind metal fencing, straining for a view of the pope’s arriving vehicle .

So it seemed a little anti-climactic when the famously humble leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics climbed not into a limousine but into a modest dark grey Fiat 500L for his drive to the Vatican Embassy in Washington.

The pope spent a few minutes greeting onlookers outside the nunciature before heading inside.

The Catholic Church’s dwindling membership in the United States also stems from the recent drop in Mexican emigration. Though there are aspects of American life that Francis embraces, he has quickly become known for blunt critiques of contemporary society and global economics, and his criticism – from capitalism to climate change to technology – spans the political spectrum. His trip ends Sunday in Philadelphia.

Once Francis wraps up his Washington visit and returns to Andrews Air Force Base on Thursday to head to New York, he’ll ditch the Alitalia jetliner he’s been on and pick up the American Airlines plane. “And he’s certainty made many comments that as Christians we should look after those less fortunate than ourselves”.

The advocacy group Good Jobs Nation is calling for low-wage staff at federal buildings to walk off the job to “welcome [Pope] Francis and his message for the working poor”. The pope offered a final wave before departing.

U.S. Catholic institutions have millions of dollars invested in energy companies, Reuters reports. He says that the President admires Pope Francis, and that they share some common values. Then he and Obama proceeded with their entourages past the crowd and into the terminal.

How smartly he wears it in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York could have a major impact on the future of the American church.

Francis said the question of the embargo is part of the US-Cuba normalization process underway and, “My desire is that they arrive at a good result, that they reach an agreement that satisfies both sides”.

Congress was viewed as unlikely to lift the embargo anytime soon.

Paul Vallely, author of “Pope Francis, The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism”, predicted both “warmth” and “some finger-wagging” from the pope. He says he’s only repeating the social doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Many Republicans and other Obama critics don’t believe in man-made climate change and some said that the president’s efforts in Alaska were too little, too late. He says such explanations are wrong.

In Cuba, Francis basked in the adulation of Cubans grateful to him for brokering the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the USA and the communist island.

“There may be some kind of inconsistency here between what the pope has said and what the Church is doing in US oil and gas country”, said Mickey Thompson, a consultant and former director of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association.

“I’m very excited”, Olson said.

As the pope of mercy, he will likely call on the United States and Europe to welcome refugees from Syria and elsewhere.

Never mind the fact that McKinley was from Ohio and never even visited the Alaskan peak before his death.

We can assume, based on all the excitement surround his visit, that the Pope’s messages to Congress will be respected and well received which is completely opposite from the response Obama receives when he addresses the same topics.

A crowd of 15,000 is expected to welcome Francis at a ceremony on the White House lawn Wednesday morning. It’s not just from the Catholic community.

America’s President Barack Obama welcomed the pope as he landed today — a rare honour for a foreign dignitary.