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Maine pilgrims elated to see pope celebrate Mass
'It was absolutely worth it – even with the long lines,' says Kay Saucier of Levant.Mainers on a pilgrimage organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland make their way down 19th Street in Philadelphia on Sunday toward security screenings before attending the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis. Kelley Bouchard/Staff WriterPHILADELPHIA — The pilgrims from Maine rode for hours on a bus, walked for miles through crowded city streets and jostled the masses to find the perfect spot to watch Pope Francis celebrate Mass on Sunday.
They strolled by Hispanic pilgrims who sang joyful hymns, and they prayed fiercely with rosary beads as born-again Christian preachers hurled hateful insults their way, including at passing nuns.
Many of the 45 Mainers on a pilgrimage organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland found vantage points near Jumbotrons on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, about a half-mile from the altar that was in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Despite the hard slog and hassles, the pilgrims were elated to have celebrated their faith with an estimated 1 million people in the City of Brotherly Love.
“It was absolutely worth it – even with the long lines,” said Kay Saucier of Levant, near Bangor. “It took us three hours to walk and wait to get through security. But to hear him speak and see the crowd absolutely silent – it was mesmerizing.”
Saucier and other pilgrims were impressed with how smoothly the Eucharist was distributed to thousands of believers. At the appropriate time, 250 priests and deacons lined up along the parkway under yellow and white umbrellas provided by the Knights of Columbus. A total of 85,000 hosts – or Eucharistic wafers – had been consecrated for the occasion.
“That was the most amazing Eucharist,” said Lee Street of Raymond. “It was like the loaves and the fishes.”
Monica Cote of Bangor was struck by the diversity she saw in the sea of humanity that surrounded her.
“To think that every human being is made in the image of God – that was overwhelming to me in that moment,” Cote said.
She also was moved by the pope’s homily, which focused on the need to create a loving home as a foundation to heal divisions in the world. It was a simple message that she believes will have a big effect as it ripples out through the millions who heard the pope in Philadelphia and across the globe Sunday.
“When you treat each other with love and compassion, it goes a long way toward healing troubles everywhere,” Cote said.
And Cote was amused when Pope Francis demonstrated his now-familiar sense of humor at the end of the Mass.
“When I ask you, ‘Pray for me,’ don’t forget,” he said, smiling.
“It made me chuckle because it makes him so human,” Cote said. “It was a cute remark that hit home.”
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Maine bishop stresses importance of family during papal pilgrimage
Bishop Robert Deeley of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland delivers a homily before 1,200 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pa.Bishop Robert Deeley, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, chats with pilgrims Vanessa Madore, left, Monica Cote and Nancy Grover, all of Saint Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pa.PHILADELPHIA — The family is at the heart of the Roman Catholic faith and at the center of celebrations here this weekend at the World Meeting of Families.
That’s the message Bishop Robert Deeley of Maine delivered Saturday to 1,200 pilgrims from across the United States during a Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, about an hour outside Philadelphia.
Among the listeners were about 100 Mainers on pilgrimages organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and Saint Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor.
After the Mass, the Maine groups headed to Philadelphia, hoping to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis during welcoming events at the Festival of Families on Saturday evening on the milelong Benjamin Franklin Parkway. By late afternoon they made it through a security check and were at Philadelphia City Hall, where they watched the pontiff speak at Independence Hall on a large video screen surrounded by thousands.
“People at work said I’d probably have a better view of him at home, but I wanted to be here in the midst of all this,” said Lorraine Auclair of Greenville as she waited for the pope to pass by on the parade route.
Deeley’s homily at the shrine on the importance of family – with marriage as its foundation – resonated with Sabrina Arel, 28, of Lisbon, an office manager who teacher religion to young Catholics.
“Sometimes we forget that marriage is a vocation, too,” said Arel, who marveled at the beauty of the shrine and the bishop’s willingness to celebrate Mass with the pilgrims.
Founded in 1953 to bolster the faith of Polish Catholics in the United States, the shrine houses a reproduction of the Black Madonna icon of Czestochowa, Poland.
For the Mainers on the pilgrimage organized by the diocese, the day started with a bus ride from their hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during which 46 people recited the rosary in unison, repeating a mesmerizing series of Hail Marys and Our Fathers.
The pilgrimage ambassador then played an audio recording over the intercom of a talk on the importance of family that he attended Friday during the World Meeting of Families.
As the bus headed onto Interstate 95 to pass through Philadelphia, traffic was forced to a sudden stop by police cruisers. In the distance, on a completely different stretch of highway, the pope’s motorcade entered the city via the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
“I thought, ‘That might be the closest we get to him,'” said Lee Street of Raymond, who is on the pilgrimage with her mother, Jini Fitzgibbons of Bridgton.
At 7:15 p.m. Saturday the pontiff rode by the Maine pilgrims in the popemobile on his way to the parkway and the Festival of Families. The crowd roared and the Maine pilgrims cheered.
“We saw the pope, and he’s super cute,” said Lauren Stone of Westbrook.
The pilgrims from Maine plan to be among an estimated 1 million faithful expected to attend a Mass celebrated by the pope Sunday afternoon on the parkway.
Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
Twitter: KelleyBouchard
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Analysis: In U.S. visit, pope was caring but cautious
Even as he delivered moving messages of humanity, Pope Francis avoided engaging in America's polarizing culture wars.With a generous spirit and palpable affection for American values, Pope Francis won the nation’s heart during his six-day visit that ended Sunday. With his commitment to unchanging church doctrine, he disappointed some who yearn for reform.
His message was pastoral, a series of dramatic reminders of man’s obligations toward the needy, the stranger, the other. His gestures were powerful – his tiny Fiat that knocked the papacy down to a human level, his loving embrace of a disabled child, his decision to dine with the homeless directly after addressing Congress.
But as he delivered moving messages of humanity, the Argentine prelate, making his first trip to the United States at age 78, avoided engaging in America’s polarizing culture wars.
The result for many Catholics, liberal and conservative, was a sense of possibility and renewal, tempered by questions about whether welcoming rhetoric is enough to bridge serious divisions as a traditional church struggles to find its place in a fast-paced, disillusioned society.
“This was a real feel-good visit,” said Jeannine Hill Fletcher, a feminist theologian at Fordham University in New York. “He called us back to charity in a really beautiful way. But look at the missed opportunities to deal with the complex issues that divide the Catholic Church in America. Where was the open discussion of the places where the church is really wrestling? Where were the realities of women, the realities of gay and lesbian Catholics, the realities of racism?”
For some Catholics, Francis’s decision not to speak explicitly about the pressures for reform in church policy on divorce, abortion, contraception or homosexuality was what allowed him to connect to people on more foundational questions of faith and hope.
“The open question of this papacy,” said R.R. Reno, editor of the conservative Catholic journal First Things, “is whether the atmosphere is encouraging or the unrealized hopes are discouraging. Many Americans are spiritually exhausted by the culture wars, and in him, they feel a relaxation of those wars. I’m a conservative Catholic and I find him very appealing, but he has raised expectations of change that are not going to be fulfilled.”
Again and again in speeches before Congress, at the United Nations and at Masses and meetings in Washington, New York and Philadelphia, Francis sent a dual message: His notion of Catholicism offers open arms and declines to be the harsh Church of No that has turned off millions of American Catholics, but the church is an eternal institution and its doctrines do not change to conform to contemporary social trends.
“This visit is a breath of fresh air,” said Timothy O’Donnell, president of Christendom College, a Catholic institution in Front Royal, Virginia, “because he’s connecting people to things that are timeless, fundamental truths. People get it when he talks about the Golden Rule – the true, the good and the beautiful. Americans do tend to try to put people immediately into categories of our politics – left and right, liberal and conservative. This pope doesn’t fit into those categories. Rather, he brings people together.
“He has the common touch and the humor – look at his offhand comments about mother-in-laws,” O’Donnell said, recalling the pope’s crack Saturday about how families often quarrel: “Plates can fly and children give headaches,” Francis said. “I won’t speak about mothers-in-law.”
But one person’s joke is another’s slam, and Fletcher saw that moment as evidence that the pope is out of touch with a changing world. “The pope doesn’t have a mother-in-law,” she said, “but he can invoke the hostile humor of the mother-in-law joke that devalues women. His tone says he’s trying to take the church in a new direction, but where were the challenging questions? He listened to the victims of sexual abuse as a pastor, but where is the anger we need to feel at a church that was structured in a way that allowed this violation to occur?”
The pope’s meeting with a handful of abuse victims Sunday, and his statement that abuses of children by clergy are a “crime,” were evidence of an effort to confront the scandal. But to many advocates for abuse victims, Francis fell short, failing to commit the church to transparency about who committed abuses and how they are being punished.
Francis’s agenda was designed to focus less on church policy and more on large questions of faith and modern life. “This was a generous trip, a cautious trip,” Reno said. “Anyone who wanted him to confront the ills of America would be disappointed. There are plenty of conservative Catholics who wish he’d been more strident on abortion. He steered clear of our debates about single-sex marriage. It was a deliberately non-confrontational visit.”
He is, like the United States from its revolution to today, a sunny pragmatist with clear, bedrock principles.
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Pope meets with family who drove 13,000 miles to see him
The family makes the trip over 194 days from Argentina to Philadelphia in an old Volkswagen van.Catire Walker, center, Noel Zemborain, left, and their children, from left, Carmin, Mia, Dimas and Cala pose in front of their 1980 Volkswagen van, which they named Francisca. The family piled into the van in March in Buenos Aires, Argentina, traveling 13,000 miles to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia and attend the Festival of Families.PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis met Sunday with a family who made a 13,000-mile trip over 194 days from Argentina to Philadelphia in an old Volkswagen van.
Francis spent time with fellow Argentinians Catire Walker and Noel Zemborain and their four children and was touched by their experience, said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.
Walker and Zemborain quit their jobs in food service and marketing to lead their children on the unforgettable tour of the Americas, using savings and soliciting donations to fund the trip to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
Along the way they made 12 border crossings and stayed with dozens of host families, did lots of sightseeing and documented the trip online. They schooled their children – Cala, 12; Dimas, 8; Mia, 5; and Carmin, 3 – with the help of a distance learning program.
“I think this kind of meeting shares the same spirit we want our journey to have – to meet other families, to know other families,” Zemborain told The Associated Press last week. “The (World Meeting) slogan is ‘The Family Fully Alive,’ and that’s how we feel as a family.”
Zemborain, Walker and the kids plan to continue traveling until November.
Francis was to celebrate a Mass on Sunday that organizers estimated would draw more than 1 million people to downtown Philadelphia.
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Pope Francis joins hundreds of thousands for Mass
Pope Francis meets victims of the church sex abuse scandal and offering words of hope to jail inmates before Mass.Pope Francis speaks to inmates during his visit to the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia on Sunday. The Associated PressPHILADELPHIA — On the final day of his visit to the United States, Pope Francis met with sex-abuse victims and then with prison inmates Sunday in gestures that served as a reminder of the Catholic Church’s greatest failings and its enduring moral power.
He then traveled in the popemobile through vast crowds here, kissing babies and children, and celebrated an outdoor Mass before hundreds of thousands of adoring faithful.
“As far as goodness and purity of heart are concerned, we human beings don’t have much to show,” he said in his homily. But, he added, “if only we have faith, the Father will give us his spirit.”
The Mass, his last in the U.S., bore all the pomp of the ancient ceremony, with a sea of the faithful uttering “amens,” the voices of the choir soaring over a thronged boulevard and the smoke of incense drifting in the air. As the pope held a communion wafer aloft, the clicks of digital cameras broke the silence.
Francis left the Mass to applause, saying, as he has all week: “Pray for me. Don’t forget.”
In a goodbye ceremony at the airport here, he noted that “my days with you have been brief” and urged Vice President Joe Biden and others listening to remember the urgent issues he has championed: caring for the environment, the poor and immigrants.
“May our days together bear fruit that will last,” he said, speaking in English.
Thus ended an extraordinary day and a momentous six-day pilgrimage to Washington, New York and Philadelphia.
‘GOD WEEPS’ FOR SEX ABUSE VICTIMS
The 78-year-old pontiff started his Sunday by speaking at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary with five victims of sexual abuse – a much-anticipated event in a city still scarred by a scandal that tainted many priests. The three women and two men were abused by clergy, family members or teachers, according to the Vatican’s press office.
“God weeps,” the pope told a gathering of bishops afterward, departing from his prepared speech. “I commit to a careful oversight of the church to ensure that youth are protected, and I promise that all those responsible will be held accountable.”
The pope met later with about 100 inmates at the largest of Philadelphia’s six prisons, telling them, “All of us need to be cleansed, to be washed.” He waded into the audience of prisoners, grasping their hands and touching their heads and hugging three. It offered a testament to the pope’s efforts to tend to the poor, forgotten and neglected.
The Vatican had refused to say whether the pope would reach out to abuse victims, describing such a meeting as a personal encounter, not a media event. Victims and their advocates have criticized the pope for paying too little attention to the sexual-abuse crisis that shocked much of the nation and that left the U.S. Catholic Church with deep wounds.
“I am profoundly sorry that your innocence was violated by those who you trusted,” Francis told the sex-abuse victims, according to his prepared remarks released by the Vatican. “We promise to support your continued healing and to always be vigilant to protect the children of today and tomorrow.”
Kevin Waldrip, 64, who was abused at age 13 by a priest, was unmoved by the pope’s meeting.
“God may weep,” he said, “but (the pope) certainly doesn’t, and the church doesn’t. They’ve proven it again and again.”
The pope’s meetings with sex-abuse victims and prisoners came ahead of the Mass, the capstone of his two days in Philadelphia.
“Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love,” the pope, dressed in vestments of gold and emerald green, said in his final homily of the week.
“ ‘Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name will not go unrewarded,’ says Jesus,” the pope declared, speaking in Spanish against the backdrop of the columned Museum of Art.
“These little gestures are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the other things we do,” he said. “They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children.”
“They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion,” he said. “Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early breakfast awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work . . . a blessing before we go to bed.
“Love is shown by little things,” he said.
STUCK IN LONG LINES, MISSED MASS
Despite planning for massive crowds, tens of thousands of pilgrims were stuck in long security lines at the 10 checkpoints around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and were unable to make it to the Mass. Some took the logjam in stride, including Soren Johnson, who lives in Leesburg, Virginia, and who had packed four of his five children into the family minivan at 9 a.m. Sunday for the drive to Philadelphia.
“I feel that giving my kids this experience is already a great memory of Pope Francis,” said Johnson, 40, “and that they’ll have some experience, albeit distant, of a very special pope.”
Others were deeply disappointed not to make it past the security checkpoints in a city that had practically shut down for the pope’s visit.
“It would have been nice if this was organized,” said Chris Johnson, who lives in Levittown. Johnson and her friends had tickets to the Mass, but they were stuck in a line of thousands that wasn’t moving on 20th Street.
“We’ve been standing here for three hours, and we haven’t moved,” she said. “It just makes me angry. Checking bags should not take this long. They either don’t know what they’re doing or they don’t have enough people.”
MESSAGES FOR PRISON INMATES
The 4 p.m. service was the climax of a historic journey that has riveted Americans’ attention, giving Francis a broad audience for his messages about serving the poor, bolstering families, caring for the environment and welcoming immigrants.
If his message to abuse victims was that the church can and will change, then his message to prisoners was that they can choose to change and find redemption.
Inmates at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility include some who are awaiting trial and others who have been convicted of crimes such drug trafficking, rape and murder.
“This time in your life can only have one purpose: to give you a hand in getting back on the right road, to give you a hand to help you rejoin society,” Francis told them, speaking before a walnut chair that inmates had built for him.
He spoke of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, and said that everyone – including prisoners and the pope himself – has something “we need to be cleansed of, or purified from.”
“Life is a journey, along different roads, different paths, which leave their mark on us,” he said.
WORDS FOR BISHOPS ON SEX ABUSE
The pope’s address before the bishops Sunday morning returned to some of his favorite themes, criticizing what he described as society’s obsession with material goods.
“Today, consumerism determines what is important. Consuming relationships, consuming friendships, consuming religions, consuming, consuming . . . whatever the cost or consequences,” Francis said in his prepared remarks.
But his unscripted comments about child sexual abuse, delivered at the beginning of his address, came as something of a surprise and won the greatest notice.
“It continues to be on my mind,” he said, “that people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones violated that trust and caused them great pain.”
It was dark when his American Airlines plane – dubbed Shepherd One – taxied for takeoff at the airport. Framed by a window, the pope could be seen pouring himself a glass of bottled water. At 7:46, the plane took off, and the pope’s first visit to the United States was over.
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Pope visits Philadelphia, extols America’s founding ideals
Pope Francis extended a warm and affectionate welcome to recent immigrants and extolled America's founding ideals of liberty and equality Saturday.Pope Francis is greeted as he arrives at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on Saturday. The Pope will spend the last two of his six days in the U.S. in Philadelphia as the star attraction at the World Meeting of Families, a conference for more than 18,000 people from around the world that has been underway as the pope traveled to Washington and New York.PHILADELPHIA – He spoke at Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed. He stood at the very lectern Abraham Lincoln used to deliver the Gettysburg Address. And he stepped forward to the stirring strains of “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
In a scene rich with historical symbolism, Pope Francis arrived in the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday, offering warm and affectionate words of welcome to immigrants and extolling America’s founding ideals of liberty and equality.
“Those ringing words continue to inspire us today,” the pope said of the Declaration of Independence, “even as they have inspired peoples throughout the world to fight for the freedom to live in accordance with their dignity.”
He cited the abolition of slavery, the growth of the labor movement and the fight for racial equality as proof that “when a country is determined to remain true to its founding principles, based on respect for human dignity, it is strengthened and renewed.”
At the same time, Francis warned that religious freedom is under threat. But it was not the hard-hitting discussion some conservative American bishops may have wanted to hear.
Loath to get dragged into domestic culture wars, the pope did not mention gay marriage, abortion or government-mandated birth control coverage by name, speaking of threats to religious liberty in broader, more global terms.
He decried “a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality.”
Using the occasion instead to embrace other causes close to his heart, Francis encouraged immigrants in the crowd of 40,000 to celebrate their heritage and traditions, and he assured them they are of value to America.
“By contributing your gifts, you will not only find your place here, you will help to renew society from within,” the first pope from Latin America said in his native Spanish.
On Saturday night, tens of thousands gathered on the wide Benjamin Franklin Parkway for a music-and-prayer festival featuring Aretha Franklin, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and actor Mark Wahlberg.
Sitting on a huge throne, Francis listened to the entertainment and to several families tell their stories of joys and troubles.
But in an indication that Francis was lagging from the exhaustion of a weeklong trip to Cuba and the U.S., the program was trimmed after it ran more than an hour late and Francis ditched his prepared remarks to instead deliver an off-the-cuff monologue on families and God’s love.
He called families a “factory of hope,” even with their imperfections.
“Defend the family, because that’s where our future will play out,” he said.
After he finished, a chant erupted from Logan Square: “¡Viva El Papa, Viva La Familia!”
Francis came to Philadelphia to close out the World Meeting of Families, a Vatican-sponsored conference of more than 18,000 people from around the world. He found a city practically under lockdown, with blocked-off streets and checkpoints manned by police, National Guardsmen and border agents.
There had been fears that visitors might be scared away by the security, and, in fact, train ridership was lower than expected, some streets were eerily quiet and a vendor of pope sunglasses cut his price from $15 to $10 for lack of business.
It remains to be seen if the expected 1 million people turn out for Francis’ final Mass in the U.S., on the Parkway on Sunday.
Earlier in the day Saturday, the pontiff arrived from New York at the Philadelphia airport, where a Catholic high school band launched into the theme song from the Philadelphia-set movie “Rocky.” Among those greeting him was Richard Bowes, a former Philadelphia police officer wounded in the line of duty. Francis also kissed the forehead of a 10-year-old boy severely disabled with cerebral palsy.
Then he celebrated a Mass for about 1,600 people at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, saying in his homily that the future of the Catholic Church in the U.S. requires a much more active role for lay Catholics, especially women.
“It means valuing the immense contribution which women, lay and religious, have made and continue to make to the life of our communities,” he said.
Francis has repeatedly said women should have a greater role in church leadership, though he has rejected the idea of ordaining women. By calling for more involvement of women and the laity, he seemed intent on healing one of the major rifts in American Catholicism that have alienated many from the church.
Later in the day, he traveled to red-brick Independence Hall in his open-sided Jeep, rolling slowly past adoring crowds and kissing babies handed to him by members of his security detail.
During the first two legs of his U.S. visit, in Washington and New York, he addressed Congress and the United Nations, urging action on such global issues as climate change and economic inequality. The Philadelphia visit is expected to be more personal, more focused on ordinary Catholics and their families.
“He has a magnetic personality that not only appeals to Catholics, but to the universal masses. He’s not scripted. He’s relatable,” said Filipina Opena, 46, a Catholic from LaMirada, California.
Tony Coletta, a 62-year-old Philadelphia-area surgeon and health care company CEO who helped raise money for the papal visit, said: “I believe that he’s going to bring the Catholic Church back in America in a way that nobody’s ever seen before. His message resonates. It’s much more of an all-encompassing one. And the small things that he does, spending time with the poor, it’s more than just symbolic.”
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia organized the conference, hoping for a badly needed infusion of enthusiasm amid shrinking membership, financial troubles and one of the worst clergy sex-abuse scandals to hit a U.S. diocese.
The archdiocese has been the target of repeated investigations. In 2011, before Archbishop Charles Chaput came to Philadelphia, a grand jury accused the diocese of keeping on assignment more than three dozen priests facing serious abuse accusations.
A monsignor who oversaw priest assignments was found guilty of child endangerment, becoming the first American church official convicted of a crime for failing to stop abusers.
The pope is widely expected to talk privately with abuse victims this weekend.
The visit is also shaping up as one of the most interesting ecclesial pairings of the pope’s trip. His host is Chaput, an outspoken opponent of abortion and gay marriage who takes an especially hard line.
Francis has strongly upheld church teaching on such issues but has struck a more compassionate note, saying, “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a supposedly gay priest.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rachel Zoll in New York and Kathy Matheson and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia.
This story has been corrected to show that the pope kissed a boy, not a man, in a wheelchair.
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Pilgrims throng to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis
Plenty of stories by people traveling to Philadelphia to see the pope.A woman holds an icon as she watches Pope Francis celebrate Mass on a large video monitor as people await the arrival of the pope at Independence Hall on Saturday in Philadelphia.PHILADELPHIA — Hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholics are making the pilgrimage to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis on the last leg of his first visit to the United States, where they hoped to catch a glimpse of the popular pontiff at some point during his packed schedule – or even receive a blessing or healing touch.
Some of their stories:
DOING THINGS ON THE CHEAP
The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia from Nashville, Tennessee, are primarily a teaching order. They felt it was important to travel to Philadelphia to see the pope so they could share the experience with their students.
But they were doing things on a strict budget.
More than 100 of them drove up to Philadelphia, about an 800-mile trip.
They are staying with volunteer families. And they are watching what they spend on food; some eateries raised their prices for the weekend.
“Peanut butter and jelly,” said Sister Anna Grace Neenan, waving the remains of her flattened sandwich on white bread as the sisters clustered near barricades.
It’s all worth it, they said.
“People see his goodness and are attracted to it, Catholic and non-Catholic, rich and poor. His message is one of love for all people,” she said. “It’s so beautiful to see the American people so welcoming. The holy father has so much love. “
DIVORCED, REMARRIED AND BACK IN CHURCH
Kate Maloney-West said her “heart swelled” when she heard of Pope Francis’ outreach to divorced Roman Catholics.
Maloney-West didn’t go to church for three years after her own divorce. She got the marriage annulled so she could remarry in the church.
“I’ve never been angry with the church. We’re all sinners. I just keep trying to find my way back,” said Maloney-West, 50, of Aldan. The legal secretary was volunteering at Independence Hall for the papal visit Saturday.
Pope Francis has sped up the process for annulling marriages and opened debate on whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
When Francis called for a more merciful approach to divorce, “my heart swelled,” she said. “This pope is going to bring the church along where it needs to be.”
DREAMING OF THE POPE
The dream came to Leslie Herring one night in July: Pope Francis picked her profoundly disabled daughter out of a crowd, hoisted her out of her wheelchair and blessed her.
And she was healed.
“The first thing she did was talk,” recalled Herring, 35, of Pottsville. “And then she got up and walked.”
Herring woke up from her dream in a cold sweat – and decided on the spot to make the trip to Philadelphia, about 75 miles away.
Her daughter, Debianne, who turned 7 on Friday, has suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy since infancy. She cannot walk or communicate except to blink her eyes yes and shake her head no.
The pair, along with Herring’s mother, were heading to a papal event at Independence Hall on Saturday and will be on a special viewing platform for disabled people at Sunday’s outdoor Mass. Herring, who was raised Roman Catholic but does not attend church regularly, is praying her dream will become reality, knowing it would be nothing short of miraculous.
“That’s how I felt when I woke up – that this is the miracle he will perform,” she said.
PASSING ON A TRADITION
Jean and Jayson Ladines, both 33, of Toronto, had their hands full getting to Philadelphia to see the pope during the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families.
First there was the eight-hour drive to Pennsylvania with their 4-year-old daughter, Mikayla, and infant son, Raphiel.
Then there was their daily 90-minute commute. They were saying at a hotel in Allentown, driving 50 miles and then taking a train 20 miles into Philadelphia.
The Ladineses are part of a lay group called Couples for Christ, which has its roots in World Youth Day 1995 in Manila.
Jean Ladines said she attended then as a teen. Now she feels as if she’s passing on a tradition to her children.
“Now it’s deeper. It’s more generational,” she said. “It’s more meaningful to me than then.”
FRANCIS GROUPIES
Tony Coletta, a 62-year-old surgeon and CEO of a health care company outside Philadelphia, helped raise money to fund the World Meeting of Families and papal visit. He nabbed an aisle seat at the cathedral where Francis was celebrating Mass on Saturday.
He said he and his wife, Karen, are “Francis groupies.” She brought rosaries and medals in hopes of a papal blessing.
“The church has had tough times. Our city has had tough times. This is an opportunity for everybody to come together around an incredible man,” Coletta said.
“I believe that he’s going to bring the Catholic Church back in America in a way that nobody’s ever seen before. His message resonates. It’s much more of an all-encompassing one. And the small things that he does, spending time with the poor, it’s more than just symbolic,” he said. “He’s been doing it his whole life.”
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At Philadelphia airport, pope kisses head of disabled boy
The pope orders his car to stop and walks over to the 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy.PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis kissed the forehead of a boy with cerebral palsy after landing in Philadelphia on Saturday morning, coaxing a small smile from the severely disabled 10-year-old.
Francis apparently spied Michael Keating as he was being driven away from the plane. Ordering the Fiat to stop, Francis got out and walked over to the boy, put his hand on his head and kissed him as his sobbing mother looked on.
Kristin Keating thanked the pope, who grasped her hand. Francis also shook the hand of Keating’s husband, Chuck Keating, the band director at Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown. The band serenaded Francis as he arrived in Philadelphia for the last leg of his six-day visit to the United States.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” Kristin Keating said of the papal encounter, adding she felt “totally blessed and loved” by the pope.
Her son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 6 months old. He also has a profound intellectual disability as well as vision and hearing problems and cannot do anything for himself, communicating through various moans and cries.
Michael, who got up 2:15 a.m. for the trip to Philadelphia, had been agitated off and on throughout the morning, but he seemed to calm in the pope’s presence.
“When the pope took his hand off him, he had a bit smile on his face. To me, in that moment, he must have felt that blessing,” said Kristin Keating, a fourth-grade teacher from Elverson.
“For us, it was beautiful,” she added. “For us, it meant something.”
Francis later blessed several disabled children at a Mass at Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.
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On a pilgrimage to see the pope, Maine Catholics find hope and meaning in their faith
More than 40 pilgrims are going to see Francis in Philadelphia on a trip organized by the Diocese of Portland.Lauren Stone of Westbrook and Lorraine Auclair of Greenville, daughter and mother, ride the bus Friday on their way to see Pope Francis this weekend in Philadelphia. "Everything is so mean and scary in the world," Stone said, "and Pope Francis is so kind and caring."Kay Saucier readily admits she’s no saint.
At 68, the Levant grandmother – and soon-to-be great-grandmother – has weathered a difficult marriage, divorce and annulment, raised four kids on a secretary’s salary, and wrestled with past changes in the doctrine of her Roman Catholic faith.
Through it all, attending weekly Mass and sharing in the Eucharist sustained her.
“It gave me peace. It fed me,” said Saucier, who’s on a pilgrimage to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia this weekend. “My faith kept me going through all of it. I was exhausted, but I was never in turmoil.”
That comfort is one of the gifts that Francis is offering to Catholics who have strayed and to others who seek safe harbor, Saucier said Friday during a chartered bus ride from Portland to Philadelphia with more than 40 other pilgrims.
Like many on the trip, which was organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Saucier welcomes the interest and excitement generated by the charismatic but humble Argentinian. It’s especially encouraging to Catholics in Maine, where their numbers have fallen from 286,408 people in 1990 to about 175,000 today.
Lorraine Auclair relishes what some call the “Pope Francis effect,” especially when she sees the dwindling number of young families who attend Mass regularly at Holy Family Catholic Church in Greenville, her hometown.
“I see it every week, so to see this much interest and enthusiasm right now gives me hope,” said Auclair, 63, a hospital department manager. She’s on the pilgrimage with her daughter, Lauren Stone, 38, who lives in Westbrook.
“I’m from the generation that doesn’t think you need to be there every week,” said Stone, a mother of two who works as a customer service representative.
“But I haven’t been this interested in the church in forever,” Stone continued. “Everything is so mean and scary in the world, and Pope Francis is so kind and caring, he kind of gives you hope that it’s really not that bad.”
Another pilgrim, Joseph Webber, a medical technician who lives in Raymond, paints a more stable picture of the church. He notes that some Catholic parishes are growing in other parts of the United States and the world, where there are 70 million members and 1.2 billion members, respectively.
“We’re being called to be near this pope,” said Webber, 67, who teaches adults who are becoming Catholic. “We feel better when we’re close to the light. I saw it with Pope John Paul II and I think this pope is doing it as well. He’s letting people know that we’re here and we’re not going anywhere.”
While some Catholics worry that Francis is going soft on church rules against abortion, contraception and gay marriage, Katherine Lane is drawn to his humility and his message to Congress to cooperate for the common good.
“He’s shifting the emphasis away from the bureaucracy of the church and focusing on the teachings of Christ,” said Lane, 72, who lives in Surry, near Ellsworth. “He’s also an excellent diplomat. He wouldn’t have survived the politics in Argentina if he wasn’t.”
A retired family physician, Lane joined the pilgrimage because she wants the crowd that greets Francis on Sunday to be as large as possible. About 1 million people are expected to gather on the mile-long Benjamin Franklin Parkway to celebrate Mass with the pontiff.
Lane brought along her 9-year-old granddaughter, Sabine O’Malley of Portland, to witness the pope’s historic visit. Sabine isn’t Catholic, so her primary goal is to see the Liberty Bell, but she likes what Francis says about helping the poor and educating children and protecting the environment.
“I like what he’s trying to do and the impact he’s having on the world,” she said.
For Saucier, the greatest impact that Francis could have would be to bring former or nonpracticing Catholics back to the flock. She sees him opening the door to sinners like herself.
“The pope is Christ in our presence,” Saucier said. “The apostles were all sinners. The pope calls himself a sinner. All of us are sinners and Jesus accepts us in tenderness and compassion. That’s what Pope Francis is doing today. He is mirroring Christ.”
Saucier also appreciates that this pontiff isn’t getting hung up on the rules. She views the church as a family, and like any organization that allows people to thrive, there are rules that set the bar for best behavior, she said.
But successful families also offer understanding, support and forgiveness when one of their own stumbles.
“Pope Francis hasn’t changed the rules,” Saucier said. “He’s reminding us of the added dimension of love. He’s showing that the church should be more than rules. It should be human. It should meet people where they are.”
Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
Twitter: KelleyBouchard
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Pope Francis brings ‘a cool, refreshing peace’ to crowd of 80,000 in New York
After a parade through Central Park, close to 18,000 people attend the pope's evening Mass at Madison Square Garden. As many as a million are expected for a Mass on Sunday.NEW YORK — Sweeping through the landmarks of America’s biggest city, Pope Francis on Friday offered comfort to 9/11 victims’ families at ground zero, warnings to world leaders at the United Nations and encouragement to schoolchildren in Harlem as he mixed the high and low ministry so characteristic of his papacy.
In the early evening, he led a jubilant parade through Central Park past a crowd of about 80,000 and celebrated Mass at Madison Square Garden, a solemn service celebrating New York in all its diversity.
“Living in a big city is not always easy,” Francis told 18,000 people at the Garden, easily one of the most respectful crowds the arena has ever seen. “Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world in the diversity of its cultures, traditions and historical experiences.”
Francis’ itinerary for his only full day in New York was packed with contrasts befitting a head of state dubbed the “slum pope” for his devotion to the poor. He moved from the corridors of power to the grit of the projects with lush Central Park in between.
He drew huge, adoring crowds while also managing to connect one-on-one with countless New Yorkers, despite extraordinarily tight security that closed off many streets and kept most spectators behind police barricades.
“As he passed by, you felt a cool, refreshing peace, as if he were spreading a huge blanket of peace through the crowd,” Ruth Smart of Brooklyn said of the procession in Central Park. “Even though the crowd exploded in a roar, it was pure joy.”
On Saturday morning, he flies to Philadelphia for a big Vatican-sponsored rally for Catholic families. As many as 1 million people are expected for the closing Mass on Sunday, the last day of Francis’ six-day, three-city visit to the U.S., the first of his life.
As Friday’s Mass came to a close with a sustained and thunderous roar of applause, the toll of the long day seemed evident as an exhausted Francis walked with assistance down the stairs of the altar. The Vatican spokesman said Francis, who suffers from sciatica and a bad knee, is feeling the effects of missed physiotherapy appointments while he’s been on the road but still has energy for the final two days of the trip.
In his speech at the U.N., the pope declared the environment itself has rights, and that mankind has no authority to abuse them, presenting his environmental mantra live before world leaders in hopes of spurring concrete commitments at the upcoming climate-change negotiations in Paris.
The Vatican later said his declaration that the environment itself has rights was a new development in the church’s social teaching.
He decried the destruction of the environment through a “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity.”
He demanded immediate access for the world’s poor to adequate food, water and housing, saying they have the right to lodging, labor and land.
Francis’ speech, delivered in his native Spanish, received repeated rounds of applause from an audience that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousefzai, the young Pakistani activist shot and gravely wounded by the Taliban.
The ovations contrasted sharply with the moment of silent prayer during the pope’s visit later in the morning to ground zero for an interfaith tribute to the Sept. 11 victims.
After praying before the waterfall pools that mark the spot where the twin towers once stood, Francis met with relatives of the 3,000 victims whose names are inscribed on the water’s edge.
Among those on hand was Monica Iken-Murphy, whose husband, bond trader Michael Patrick Iken, died in one of the towers.
“This is where loved ones lost their lives … and this is the way we are going to honor them by having someone who is holy, closest to God, Pope Francis, come here and bless this site,” Iken-Murphy said. “I couldn’t be prouder to share this memorial and museum with him.”
Francis’ afternoon schedule reflected the penchant of the “people’s pope” for engaging with the public, starting with a visit to Our Lady Queen of Angels School, set amid public housing in the heavily Hispanic neighborhood of East Harlem.
After the morning’s deadly serious activities, the 78-year-old pope clearly perked up when he got to the Catholic school. He joked around with the children, chatted happily with them in Spanish, shook hands and posed for a few selfies. A security guard intervened when one girl gave him a big hug.
The pope – who says he hasn’t watched TV in decades and doesn’t know how to work a computer – even got a lesson in how to use a touch screen from fourth-grader Kayla Osborne, age 8.
The crowd in the gym included about 150 immigrants and refugees, some of them in the U.S. illegally.
In his remarks, Francis recalled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, saying: “His dream was that many children like you could get an education. It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able to fight for them.”
From Harlem, Francis headed toward Central Park, where he smiled as he rode slowly in his open-sided Jeep past a cheering, shrieking crowd and a sea of arms holding cellphones aloft. For those lucky enough to score a ticket, there was a catch: No backpacks, no chairs and no selfie sticks.
About a half-hour before the popemobile passed through, a rainbow suddenly appeared above the crowd, which erupted in joyous “Oooohs!” and “Ahhhhhs!”
Denise Villasenor, a 27-year-old Columbia University graduate student from the Philippines and a Catholic, practiced capturing a selfie with the pope ahead of the procession.
“The pope’s positions always revolve around compassion and love – you know, being a person for others,” she said. “Immigration, the environment, it all comes to being compassionate, for others.”
During the visit to the United Nations, the Vatican flag was raised there for the first time. The General Assembly recently agreed to allow the U.N.’s two observer states, the Holy See and Palestine, to fly their flags alongside those of the 193 member states.
Although his U.N. remarks on the environment and the economy carried a message many liberals welcomed, Francis also affirmed church doctrine on abortion and sexuality.
Among other things, he called for the “absolute respect for life in all its stages,” including the unborn.
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Philly seminary puts pope-inspired beer on tap for Francis’ stay
The brewery jokingly says Holy Wooder 'guarantees to cleanse your soul and set you on the path to righteousness.'PHILADELPHIA — It started out as a lark inspired by the frenzy over Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia: a limited-run beer for the local bars with a playful name and a label showing the pontiff raising a gold-hued goblet of the stuff.
Holy Wooder, a powerful Belgian-style tripel, was already a hit with the downtown happy hour crowd when the seminary hosting Pope Francis this weekend called to say it wanted some, too.
The Philadelphia Brewing Company gladly obliged, delivering a half-keg to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, just outside the city limits, late last week.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirmed the order.
“We don’t usually do home deliveries, but we made an exception,” brewery co-owner Bill Barton said.
Francis will sleep at the seminary, located on a pastoral 75 acres, and return there to rest between events. On Sunday, he will greet bishops from around the world and pose for a photograph with seminarians, recreating an image featuring Pope John Paul II in 1979.
Archdiocese spokesman Ken Gavin said Thursday that having the beer on tap at St. Charles is a fun way for seminarians to celebrate the pope’s visit.
It’s unclear if Pope Francis will sample the suds he inspired, or if the former nightclub bouncer even enjoys beer like his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The 88-year-old Benedict lifted a hearty stein to celebrate his birthday in April.
Holy Wooder has a 9.75 percent alcohol by volume, about twice the punch of a Budweiser. The brewery jokingly says Holy Wooder “guarantees to cleanse your soul and set you on the path to righteousness.”
The name, suggested by design intern Katy Loringer, is a play on the way many Philadelphians say “water.” She drew the label, framing Francis’ head with a stained-glass halo and replacing his cross with the brewery’s bright red logo.
It’s one of eight beers inspired by the pope’s visit.
Among the others are YOPO: You Only Pope Once, a pale ale; Papal Pleasure, a Belgian amber brewed in tanks blessed by a Catholic priest; and Jesus Wept, a German-style wheat beer.
The aptly named POPE: Pub on Passyunk East in South Philadelphia hosted a tasting of all eight beers this week. The bar collaborated with Philadelphia Brewing Company to produce Holy Wooder and declared it “the official beer of the POPE.”
Only 2,000 gallons, or about 60 barrels, were made.
“It’s at the highest demand of any product we’ve ever made,” Barton said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I wish we made more.”
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Maine company upgrades cathedral’s sound system for pope’s Mass
Brunswick-based Terra Speakers is known for making speakers that blend in with churches' architecture.Pope Francis' words will be amplified by Maine-made Terra Speakers at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.Anticipating Pope Francis’ celebration of Mass on Saturday, the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia installed speakers made by Brunswick-based Terra Speakers to upgrade its sound system.
The 15-year-old speaker manufacturer is not well known in Maine, primarily because it’s not a retailer – you can’t buy its speakers off a shelf at Best Buy or Target. But its network of custom dealers has installed Terra’s hand-built indoor and outdoor speakers across the country in high-end homes and commercial properties, primarily faith-based properties, according to James Banfield, a company co-founder.
A custom dealer installed nearly three dozen of Terra’s speakers throughout the Philadelpia basilica a few weeks ago. The speakers are designed to be inconspicous and blend in with the church’s architecture, Banfield said.
The dealer who did the work has been a longtime customer of Terra and in the last 15 years has used the company’s speakers in roughly 2,500 jobs, primarily in the New York City area.
“It is sort of surreal to be involved in this historic event in even this small way,” Banfield said. “Our speakers have ended up in the hands of celebrities we admire as well as in restaurants we love. To have them be a part of this spectacle has been really incredible.”
Banfield and his business partner, Chris Perron, founded Terra Speakers in 2000 in Perron’s father’s garage in Sabattus. They had both previously worked for New England Audio Resource, better known as NEAR and still based in Gardiner, but they left the company after it outsourced its speaker manufacturing overseas. They decided to start manufacturing their own speakers when a former NEAR customer contacted them about making some custom speakers.
Banfield estimates his team of five full-time employees in Brunswick, including himself and Perron, manufactures between 5,000 and 6,000 speakers a year.
“We hand-make the drivers in Maine, as well as put them in cabinets and do a lot of the soup to nuts,” Banfield said. “That’s one of our benefits – we can control the quality.”
Terra’s speakers are installed in more than 100 churches and synagogoues in the New York metro area, so the installation in Philadelphia’s basilica is a typical job. Other high-profile customers include the New York Police Department, West Point, Pixar and Fordham University.
Terra Speakers isn’t the only Maine manufacturer involved in the pope’s visit to the United States. Auburn-based furniture maker Thos. Moser will provide custom-made armchairs for the pope and four cardinals during a stop at Independence Hall on Saturday and then again when the Pope Francis says goodbye at the airport.
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Mainers praise Pope Francis’ call for cooperation by political leaders
Members of Maine's congressional delegation find inspiration in the pontiff's address to a joint session of Congress.Pope Francis looks out at members of the U.S. Congress as he receives a standing ovation at the conclusion of his address on Capitol Hill Thursday.Members and guests of Maine’s congressional delegation praised Pope Francis for urging political leaders to cooperate for the common good when he addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday morning.
It was the first time that a pontiff addressed the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in what has become a whirlwind visit this week to Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia by the leader of nearly 70 million Roman Catholics in the United States and 1.2 billion worldwide.
Rep. Chellie Pingree said Francis seemed to embrace his address as a “teaching moment,” respectfully reminding the nation’s top elected officials of their basic responsibility to work together to make life better for everyone. Pingree sensed that her colleagues were receptive and responsive to the pope’s soft-spoken instruction, interrupting with applause when he began to recite, “Do unto others…”
“He couldn’t even get through the Golden Rule,” the 1st Distric Democrat said in a phone interview. “He really held everyone’s attention. He covered it all, from the importance of the family to how we take care of the Earth. I think he really raised the level of dialogue in Congress.”
Pingree said the pope’s message reached beyond the halls of Congress to the working men and women of America, who struggle every day to make a living and provide for their families. He also spoke to seniors, to the young and to the most vulnerable members of society with a message of love, peace and justice.
“He called on us to accept and embrace new immigrants as they seek a better life for their families in America,” Pingree said in a statement. “And he challenged us, as Americans and members of Congress, to rise above divisiveness and conflict. His speech was inspirational and encouraging and I hope we all take it to heart.”
Pingree’s guest in the House gallery was former governor and congressman Joseph Brennan. An additional 50 of her constituents received tickets through a random drawing to sit on the Capitol lawn and watch the address on large video screens.
They included Betty Hilton of Buxton, who drove to Washington with her sister, Carol Letourneau of Biddeford. Both are lifeflong Catholics.
Hilton, who is a locksmith at the University of Southern Maine, said she felt that the pope spoke from his heart and projected compassion and love for every single person. She called him “the people’s pope,” saying that she heard the Argentinian pontiff urge each person to make the world a better place for all children and families.
FROM THE CAPITOL LAWN
“I don’t think he held back,” Hilton, 56, said via email. “We needed a man from another country to come over here and tell us what we were doing wrong. We need to take care of people that are here and take a look at the violence here. All of my grandparents are immigrants, so I really appreciated what he said about that. We need to stop and slow down and take care of each other.”
Jim Britt of Cape Elizabeth was there with his 81-year-old mother, Pat Britt, who lives in Cincinnati and is a regular churchgoer.
“She was in tears when she saw the pope,” said Britt, 47, who works in public relations. “It was a very relaxed, very large crowd. People were really calm from the moment we arrived and were very respectable and quiet while the pope spoke. That all changed when the pope stepped out onto the balcony and people roared with love and adoration for him.”
Britt also was impressed by the pope’s reference to the Golden Rule.
“It’s how I try to live my life and what I teach my kids,” Britt said via email. “But the most satisfying part of that was who he was talking to. Those words were really meaningful because he was talking to Congress, which has been so dysfunctional.”
Sen. Susan Collins was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who accompanied Pope Francis into the House chamber, walking with the pontiff down the center aisle.
Collins, who is Catholic, greeted Francis at one point, saying “Welcome, your holiness.” He responded with a smile.
“It was incredible,” Collins said in a phone interview. “He has a face that when he smiles is filled with such joy and peace, it makes an instant connection.”
A PASTORAL CHALLENGE
Collins said the pope issued a pastoral challenge to Congress to work together to improve life for all people in this country and to address crises around the world, including the Syrian refugees flooding into Europe and the conflict in the Middle East.
“It was evident that he had done his homework and saw his purpose as healing the divisions that have kept us from doing the work that needs to be done,” the Republican said. “This message really resonated with me.”
Collins said she was inspired by the pope’s message of “hope and healing, of peace and justice” and his focus on four exemplary Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
“To me, that demonstrated the power of the individual to make a difference in the world and spoke to the best of America,” Collins said.
Collins’ 88-year-old mother, Patricia Collins, a devout Catholic who lives in Caribou, was her gallery guest.
“She was ecstatic,” Collins said.
Sen. Angus King pointed to the urgency of the pope’s message to confront the polarization of politics and ensure justice for all.
“If the pope has taught us anything today, it’s that we are one people, regardless of race, gender, economic status, or anything else, and that we owe to one another respect, kindness, compassion, and goodwill – fundamental values that transcend partisanship and politics,” King said in a statement. “We would do well to not only heed the Pope’s words, but also to follow his example as we work to bring people together and solve our nation’s most pressing problems.”
King, an independent, invited the Rev. Michael Seavey, administrator of Portland’s Catholic parishes, to be his guest in the House gallery to witness the historic address.
Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican representing Maine’s 2nd District, said he was honored and humbled, as a Franco-American Catholic, to help welcome Pope Francis to Congress.
“In his speech, the pope stressed the importance of pursuing the common good, building a better future, and the importance of life and family,” Poliquin said in a statement. “As a single father, to a terrific son, I’m pleased the pope stressed the importance of family and am honored to represent our district on this historic day.”
Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
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Next for Pope Francis: UN address and Mass at Madison Square Garden
While advocating social justice and environmentalism, the pontiff reiterates support for traditional family values.Francis waves to the crowd as he arrives at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., waiting to greet him.NEW YORK — Pope Francis plunged into the melting pot of New York on Thursday after reminding the country of its immigrant origins in the first papal speech before Congress. At an evening prayer service in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, he thanked American nuns for their strength and courage in a deeply meaningful acknowledgment of their service following a yearlong Vatican crackdown.
Over 40 hours in New York, the pope will address world leaders at the United Nations, participate in an interfaith service at the Sept. 11 memorial and celebrate Mass at Madison Square Garden. He will visit a school in Harlem and take a drive through Central Park, part of a whirlwind tour of the Big Apple that got off to a quintessential welcome with a high school brass band serenading him with “New York, New York,” on the airport tarmac.
The popular pontiff received raucous cheers upon his arrival in Manhattan. Thousands of people lined the streets leading to St. Patrick’s to greet him, cheering, waving flags and adoringly chanting his name as he gestured toward them from his popemobile. On the steps of the recently spruced up cathedral, dignitaries including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer welcomed him for an evening vespers service.
Once inside, the pews full of U.S. priests and sisters erupted in applause when Francis told American nuns he wanted to thank them for their strength, spirit and courage and to “tell you that I love you very much.”
It was the strongest expression yet of his gratitude after the Vatican under his predecessor ordered an overhaul of the largest umbrella group of U.S. sisters, accusing them of straying from church teaching. The nuns denied the charge and received an outpouring of support from American Catholics, and the crackdown ended this year, two years early, with no major changes.
CAN LEAN LEFT OR RIGHT
In Washington earlier Thursday, the pope waded into bitter disputes while speaking to Congress, entreating the nation to share its immense wealth with those less fortunate. He urged Congress and the nation to abolish the death penalty, fight global warming and embrace immigrants. Lawmakers gave rousing ovations to the leader of the world’s Catholics despite obvious disagreements over some of his pleas.
After Francis addressed Congress, the first pontiff to do so, he underscored his message by traveling to a downtown Washington church, where he mingled with needy and homeless people, blessed their noontime meal and walked among them while they ate.
Francis wraps up his visit this weekend in Philadelphia, where he speaks in front of Independence Hall and celebrates Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to close out a big Catholic families rally.
At the Capitol, the remarkable sight of the pope speaking in the House chamber seemed to delight lawmakers of all persuasions, though he offered an agenda more to Democrats’ liking. Besides his focus on climate change and immigration, he denounced arms sales and seemed to allude approvingly to the Iran nuclear deal and recent actions by President Obama’s administration to open relations with Cuba, done with his urging.
“Being at the service of dialogue and peace,” Francis said, “also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world.”
Republicans heard something to like in his references to the sanctity of life and family relations, reminders that even the more open Catholic Church over which Francis presides still condemns abortion and gay marriage.
For all the spectacle, it seemed unlikely the pope’s visit would break congressional inertia on the issues dear to him, with no action in sight from the Republican majority on global warming or immigration.
But Francis, in his historic speech, appeared determined to remind the United States of its foundations as a country made up of foreigners, addressing the chamber and the American people in personal terms as a son of immigrants to “this great continent.”
“Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated,” he said. “Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves.”
MESSAGE GOING TO U.N.
After the address, Francis appeared high on a Capitol balcony and addressed a cheering crowd of thousands of people below.
“Buenos dias,” he called out in the language of his native Argentina and millions of U.S. immigrants, legal and not. “God bless America!”
The pope’s jam-packed tour began last weekend in Cuba and included a White House meeting and a ceremony to canonize America’s first Hispanic saint. On Friday, at the United Nations, the pope is sure to make many of the points emphasized in Washington.
At the Capitol, the packed House chamber included Supreme Court justices, Cabinet officials and lawmakers of both major political parties, some of whom bowed their heads in deference as Francis walked down the center aisle to approach the dais where presidents deliver their State of the Union speeches.
“Mr. Speaker, the pope of the Holy See,” bellowed the sergeant at arms.
Behind the pope sat Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the first and second in line to the presidency, both Catholics.
Francis, in deliberate and accented English, noted that many lawmakers descended from immigrants and the U.S. was founded by foreigners “who came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom.”
His appeal comes amid the worst refugee crisis since World War II: Europe has been overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war in Syria and Iraq and widespread conflicts and poverty in Africa. In the U.S., tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America have surged across the southern U.S. border as violence has flared at home.
For now, Congress has deadlocked on immigration legislation, and the chances for progress have only grown more remote amid the hardline rhetoric of the U.S. presidential campaign. Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who watched the pope’s New York motorcade from the Trump Tower balcony, has painted Mexican immigrants as criminals and has said he would build a wall along the border and force Mexico to pay for it.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Francis has called for a more welcoming attitude toward migrants everywhere and has backed that up with a modest welcome of his own: The Vatican recently took in two refugee families and has committed to care for them while they await their asylum applications.
On another contentious subject, Francis advocated abolition of the death penalty in the U.S., an idea that enjoys support from lawmakers of both parties at the federal level. He spoke out against fundamentalism of all kinds while urging care in combating it.
In calling for action on the climate and to combat poverty, he took care to insist he was not anti-business, as some conservatives have suggested.
His mention of climate change drew standing cheers from Democrats while Republicans stood to applaud the reference to opposing abortion. Republicans in particular also loudly applauded as he asserted the importance of family life and bemoaned that “fundamental relationships are being called into question as is the very basis of marriage and the family.” The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage, recently legalized by the Supreme Court.
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Pope Francis thrills admirers, wades into controversies in first full day in the U.S.
He meets with President Obama and bishops, canonizes a saint and celebrates Mass while addressing immigration, global warming and religious rights.Pope Francis waves while he greets school children prior to his departure from the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's diplomatic mission in the heart of Washington, Wednesday. The Associated PressWASHINGTON — A fast-moving Pope Francis plunged into his first U.S. visit with gusto Wednesday, embracing the adulation of jubilant crowds as he crisscrossed Washington and confronted enduring controversies that included global warming, immigration and the clergy abuse scandal.
The popular pontiff, who has captured the imagination of religious and secular Americans for his humble style, began to establish an in-the-flesh identity as a committed champion of the poor, the dispossessed and the planet. But he also positioned himself as a loyal adherent to church teachings and hierarchies that are much less popular than he is, pushing back, Vatican watchers said, against efforts to enlist him on either side of the culture wars.
The pope thrilled a White House gathering by introducing himself as the son of immigrants and aligning himself with President Obama’s climate-change efforts. But he also echoed the call for “religious liberty” that conservatives claim as resistance to same-sex marriage and other fast-changing social mores.
At a prayer meeting later, he urged U.S. bishops to avoid the harsh and divisive language of modern politics. But he also praised their “courage” in handling the sexual-abuse crisis, provoking swift outrage from victim advocates.
The nuances of his message may have been lost, if it was heard at all, on the giddy throngs that rose early and waited hours to catch the briefest glimpse of the pontiff. Local workers largely heeded pleas to work from home, leaving city streets strangely empty for the tens of thousands of faithful, many of whom traveled from around the hemisphere to see the first Latin American pontiff.
CELEBRATING MASS, PRAISE FOR OBAMA
With the weather at its Washington-in-autumn best, every move of the motorcade was greeted by cheering crowds, starting with a group of Catholic schoolchildren who gathered outside the Vatican Embassy to cheer his departure for the White House.
“We love Francis, yes we do! We love Francis, how ’bout you?” they hollered.
The first day of the pope’s five-day U.S. tour was a busy and active one. The pontiff’s morning address to administration officials on the White House lawn was followed by a private meeting with the president. The parade that followed ended at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, where the pope held a prayer meeting with hundreds of bishops from around the country.
After a brief rest, the papal entourage moved to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception adjacent to Catholic University, where the pope celebrated his first American Mass in front of some 20,000 ticketed celebrants, and he canonized a saint for the first time on U.S. soil. The pontiff’s long day ended where it had started about 12 hours earlier, with Francis greeting a crowd of Catholic students in front of the Vatican Nunciature, where he would again spend the night.
Along the pope’s parade route near Lafayette Park, Secret Service agents had to slow people down when the crowds threatened to become dangerous.
“It was like a Black Friday at a department store,” Christopher Hale, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, said of the rush, as priests nearby heard the confessions of the waiting faithful.
Inside the White House fence, the pope was quick to address climate change.
“Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution,” he said. “Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.
“When it comes to the care of our ‘common home,’ we are living at a critical moment of history,” he said. “We still have time to make the changes needed.”
PROUD SON OF AN IMMIGRANT FAMILY
Francis’s remarks also focused on the need to provide comfort to those at the margins of society.
The event was attended by thousands of dignitaries, among them Vice President Joe Biden; his wife, Jill; Ethel Kennedy; Secretary of State John Kerry; and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington.
In his warm welcome to the pope, Obama called Francis a living example of Jesus and a figure of humility and simplicity.
“I believe the excitement around your visit, Holy Father, must be attributed not only to your role as pope but to your unique qualities as a person,” the president said. “In your humility, your embrace of simplicity, in the gentleness of your words and the generosity of your spirit, we see a living example of Jesus’ teachings.
“You call on all of us, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to . . . ensure that every human being is able to live in dignity, because we are all made in the image of God,” Obama said.
Francis addressed the president in accented but clear English, introducing himself to the crowd in his first sentence as “the son of an immigrant family” – his parents came from Italy to Argentina – and describing the U.S. as “largely built by such families.”
After his remarks on the White House lawn, Francis, clothed in flowing white robes, basked in the adulation, smiling and waving to delirious bystanders as he passed in the bubble-topped popemobile. Security guards plucked children from the crowd, and the pope kissed and blessed them before passing them back.
The circuit along 15th Street, Constitution Avenue and 17th Street in Northwest, and past the Washington Monument, was a love fest, with the pope leaning out the side openings of his car and waving to the cheering bystanders as if to friends.
Many of the signs were in Spanish – “Yo (Heart) Papa Francisco!” was popular, reflecting the enthusiasm among Latinos for the Argentine pontiff.
Francis spoke repeatedly of the role of immigrants in shaping the United States. At his first U.S. Mass, performed in Spanish at the basilica, he canonized Junipero Serra, an 18th-century Spanish missionary in California.
On Thursday, Francis will make the first address by a pope to a joint meeting of Congress. Afterward, he is scheduled to appear on the balcony of the West Front of the Capitol to greet a crowd that was expected to swell to about 50,000.
After the parade Wednesday, the pope prayed with several hundred American bishops at St. Matthew. In the soaring church that hosted the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, the pope noted the bishops’ continental responsibilities.
“From your great coastal cities to the plains of the Midwest, from the Deep South to the far reaches of the West, wherever your people gather in the Eucharistic assembly, may the pope be not simply a name . . . but a felt presence, sustaining the fervent plea of the bride: ‘Come, Lord!’ ”
Francis then brought up immigration, a political issue in the U.S.
“I am well aware of the immense efforts you have made to welcome and integrate those immigrants who continue to look to America, like so many others before them, in the hope of enjoying its blessings of freedom and prosperity,” he said.
LAYING OUT CHALLENGES FOR CHURCH
The pope also mentioned the devil, “the evil one … who … roars like a lion, anxious to devour” joy. And he listed the church’s challenges in the future: “The innocent victims of abortion, children who die of hunger or from bombings, immigrants who drown in the search for a better tomorrow . . . the victims of terrorism, wars, violence and drug trafficking, the environment devastated by man’s predatory relationship with nature.”
But it was his comment on the sexual-abuse scandal that drew a swift reaction:
“I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing, we, too, are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.”
Marci Hamilton, a law professor at the Cardozo School of Law who has represented hundreds of sexual-abuse victims, said she wished the pope had focused more on the victims, rather than the church.
“I think the survivors had hoped for more attention on their suffering,” said Hamilton. “It’s also shocking to hear him praise the bishops in their handling of child sex abuse when there are so many states that cut out the victims from the justice system.”
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Notes from Day 2 of Pope Francis’ U.S. visit
Girl, 5, gets papal kiss, requests blessing for immigration reform
A 5-year-old girl in a brilliantly colored dress and braids who was handed up to Pope Francis for a blessing during a parade in Washington on Wednesday morning asked the pontiff to give his blessing to immigration reform and push lawmakers to act.
Sophie Cruz of South Gate, California, delivered a bright yellow T-shirt and a letter expressing wishes that her mother and father and millions of others who are in the U.S. illegally are allowed to remain in the country. Her trip was sponsored by an advocacy group.
“I’m scared that the ICE will take my family away,” Sophie said in an interview, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sophie got beyond a barricade and approached the popemobile, carrying the T-shirt that read in Spanish: “Pope: rescue DAPA, so the legalization would be your blessing.” It refers to a program called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which would extend deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for some years, but is on hold after 26 states sued to block it.
Sophie shied back when a bodyguard came near. But when the pope gestured to her, she allowed the bodyguard to pick her up and bring her forward for a papal kiss and blessing. A guard passed the shirt and message into the pope- mobile.
Sophie went to Washington with her 36-year-old father, Raul, who like her mother, came to the U.S. from Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca about 10 years ago. Sophie and her sister were born in the U.S. and are therefore American citizens.
Poll finds Americans lukewarm about Francis’ secular activism
Americans love Pope Francis and his forgiveness agenda, but they’re less enthusiastic about the judgments he’s making about secular issues such as the debate over climate change and income inequality, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll completed on the eve of the pope’s arrival for his first visit to the United States.
The survey gave Francis a 64 percent favorability rating, considerably higher than those of all the U.S. political leaders the poll asked about.
The pope is admired by a majority of all ideological, generational and religious groups: 86 percent of Catholics approve of him but so do 55 percent of born-again Christians and 58 percent of American who adhere to no religion.
“I think he’s giving the Catholic Church a new perspective, that it doesn’t have to be so rigid, said Lydia Becker, a 59-year-old Catholic who works as a dental assistant in Homestead, Florida.
On climate change, though, just one-third of those surveyed are supportive. And, they’re also lukewarm about the pope’s activism against economic inequality.
The survey of 1,001 U.S. adults was conducted Sept. 18-21 for Bloomberg Politics by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
– From news service reports
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Mainers at Mass celebrated by Pope Francis moved by his words and presence
It's a day to remember, starting with the White House welcome, continuing with midday prayers and ending with the canonization Mass.Maine state Rep. Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, stands in front of a poster of Pope Francis at a Metro stop in Washington, D.C., where he saw the pontiff celebrate Mass on Wednesday afternoon at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the University Mall at the Catholic University of America.Ryan Fecteau came away with a sunburn and a renewed sense of faith after attending a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis on Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Fecteau, 23, a Democratic state representative from Biddeford, secured his seat on the lawn near the basilica around 9:30 a.m. and sat under the blazing sun until the service got underway at 4:15 p.m.
Francis celebrated the Mass in Spanish, so Fecteau and many others relied on the closed-captioned English translation on large video screens. Fecteau, who is the youngest openly gay state representative in the United States, said he was surprised to hear how gently the pontiff delivered his increasingly popular messages of inclusiveness, respect and compassion.
“The first thing I noticed is that he’s so soft-spoken. That was incredible to me,” Fecteau said in a phone interview after the Mass. “He talked about how there isn’t a ‘short list’ of who’s worthy to be part of the faith. That was a defining moment for me. There were people from all walks of life there and I was fortunate to be among them.”
Fecteau was one of dozens of Mainers who attended events in the nation’s capital on Wednesday as Pope Francis made the rounds from the White House, where he met privately with President Obama, to midday prayers with American bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, to the canonization Mass for Saint Junipero Serra at the basilica. Like Fecteau, many of them are Roman Catholics, who now number about 175,000 in Maine.
Members of Maine’s congressional delegation attended the welcoming ceremony at the White House, including U.S. Sen Angus King, I-Maine, whose guest was the Rev. Michael Seavey, administrator of Portland’s Catholic parishes. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, was there with former Democratic state legislator Anne Rand of Portland. The two women posed for a photo with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
Bishop Robert Deeley, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, attended midday prayers with the pope, then visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine before attending the Mass at the basilica.
Deeley, who had met Pope Francis before, said the most moving moment for him was when he greeted the pontiff.
“I told him that I carried the love and prayers of the Catholic people of Maine,” Deeley said in a phone interview after the Mass, which included Bible readings in Native American, Spanish and English, and prayers in Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian and other languages.
“It was a beautiful testimony to all of the cultures and peoples that make up the United States,” Deeley said. “It was an exhausting day, but the enthusiasm of everyone there really lifts you up.”
About 25,000 people attended the canonization Mass for Serra, a Franciscan friar who started nine Spanish missions in California in the 1700s. While Native American groups have criticized the ceremony, saying that Serra doesn’t deserve sainthood because the mission system persecuted California Indians, no protesters were apparent at the Mass, Fecteau said.
The Mass was concelebrated by more than 1,000 priests, including 400 bishops, said Suzanne Lafreniere, public policy director for the Maine diocese.
“It was amazing to see so many men who have given their lives in service to the church,” Lafreniere said via phone. “It kind of choked me up when I saw them.”
While she was waiting in line, making her way into the Mass, Lafreniere saw Pope Francis ride by.
“People around me were in tears,” Lafreniere said. “They had a visceral reaction to seeing him.”
Lafreniere also attended the White House welcoming ceremony in the morning, as did Steve Letourneau, CEO of Catholic Charities Maine. The crowds, the intense security and the opportunity to witness the pope’s humility and hear his call to live and share the Gospel was overwhelming.
“The whole day was amazing,” Letourneau said via phone after the Mass. “There was a lot of waiting, but it was kind of like Christmas. Everyone was nice to each other. You got the sense that people were happy and excited and honored to be there for this historic day. It’s something I will remember for the rest of my life.”
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Anonymous donor, inspired by pope, gives $60,000 to build home for Somali family
The donation to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland will pay for construction of a home in Scarborough.Thirteen homes, including one partially funded by an anonymous gift of $60,000, will be built on a site off Broadturn Road in Scarborough.An anonymous donor inspired by Pope Francis has provided $60,000 that Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland will use to build a house in Scarborough for a Somali couple and their four children.
The donor was compelled to make the contribution in honor of the pope’s historic visit to the United States and his continued pleas for compassion, the Portland Habitat chapter said in a statement.
The house will be named in Francis’ honor.
“We are honored to be a part of a project celebrating Pope Francis and his many acts of goodwill, inclusiveness and compassion,” Godfrey Wood, executive director of the Habitat chapter, said in a statement Wednesday. “The generosity of this donor is inspiring and gives us a great start on the construction of this home.”
The house will be built, beginning in October, within the organization’s planned 13-home community on Broadturn Road in Scarborough.
Since June, crews have been working on roads, sewer lines and other infrastructure. This will be the first house completed. Eight of the 13 homes will be sold at an appraised price to approved families. The other five will be sold through the Scarborough Housing Alliance.
Once the first house is finished, the keys will be given to Sharmarke Hussein and Hoodo Yussuf, both originally from Somalia, who will live there with their four children. Calls and emails to Habitat officials seeking further details weren’t returned Wednesday night.
The project is part of an effort by Habitat for Humanity to connect people of different faiths within communities. The Hussein family is Muslim.
“The Pope Francis House symbolizes building a bridge between different religions; we’re all working together for one goal,” Sharmarke Hussein said in a statement.
The local Habitat chapter has appealed to schools and other organizations, as well as the local Catholic community, to help with additional fundraising and volunteer efforts.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland has built 75 homes in southern Maine since 1985.
More information about Pope Francis House is online at habitatportlandme.org.
Correction: This story was updated at 10:53 a.m., Sept. 24, 2015, to reflect that eight of the 13 homes planned for the Broadturn Road community will be sold at an appraised price to approved families. An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information.
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Pope Francis canonizes 18th-century missionary in Mass attended by thousands
The sainthood of Junipero Serra is controversial because many Native Americans say he enslaved converts as he established missions in what is now California.WASHINGTON — An 18th-century missionary who brought Catholicism to the American West Coast was elevated to sainthood Wednesday by Pope Francis in the first canonization on U.S. soil.
Francis canonized Junipero Serra during a Mass outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in North America.
Serra was a Franciscan friar who marched north from Baja California with conquistadors from his native Spain, establishing nine of the 21 missions in what is now California. The pope announced in January that Serra would be canonized.
The decision was polarizing. Serra is revered by Catholics for his missionary work, but many Native Americans in California say he enslaved converts and contributed to the spread of disease that wiped out indigenous populations.
In his homily, Francis defended Serra, characterizing him as a kind and open-hearted man who protected Native Americans from colonizers.
“He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life,” Francis said. “Junipero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it. Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people.”
During a visit to South America in July, Francis offered a broad apology for the sins, offenses and crimes committed by the church against indigenous peoples.
Many Latinos in the U.S. view the canonization of a Spanish-speaking missionary as a badly needed acknowledgment of the Hispanic history of the American church, and as an affirmation of Latinos as a core part of the U.S. Catholic future. Latinos make up about 38 percent of U.S. Catholics, but are well above the majority in several dioceses. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest U.S. diocese, is about 70 percent Latino.
The pope’s apology did little to quiet those who oppose the canonization. Serra’s critics say he was carrying out a Vatican policy by treating indigenous people as inferior.
Francis spoke in his native Spanish, and Latino Catholics from California were among the 25,000 people who got tickets to the outdoor Mass. Vice President Joe Biden also sat in the congregation. Before the Mass, the pope entered the basilica to raucous cheers and applause from more than 2,000 men and women studying to become priests and nuns.
Joe Moyhanan, 28, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who is studying for the priesthood at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, said bearing witness to the first canonization on U.S. soil was inspiring and showed what could be accomplished during a life devoted to Christ.
“God wants all of us to be saints,” Moyhanan said. “It’s attainable.”
Hundreds of faithful gathered at the historic mission in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where Serra is buried, to watch the Mass on a giant TV screen and pray. At the same time, about a dozen Native Americans gathered in a small, aging mission cemetery inside the grounds to worship their ancestors in a silent protest of the canonization.
Louise Miranda Ramirez, Tribal Chairwoman from the Esselen Nation, said her ancestors were abused by the Franciscan missionaries and trapped in the mission system.
“These are my ancestors that were whipped. These are my ancestors that were killed, that were hung and they’re our tribal people,” she said. “Once they had baptized them, they could not leave this ground.”
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Maine Bishop Deeley among those greeting Pope Francis
The pope encourages the nation's bishops to build relationships with all people, no matter the person's views on church teaching.Maine's Bishop Robert P. Deeley greets Pope Francis in this still image taken from CatholicTV's presentation of midday prayers. Deeley was among a small group of bishops who had the opportunity to personally greet the pope.WASHINGTON — Pope Francis told U.S. bishops there is no place for “harsh and divisive” rhetoric in their ministry, indicating he wants to see a change in tone after years of culture wars.
The pope encouraged them to build relationships with anyone, no matter that person’s views on church teaching, and to do so with compassion.
He said in remarks to bishops Wednesday: “It’s not about preaching complicated doctrines, but joyfully proclaiming Christ who died and rose for our sake.”
Bishop Robert P. Deeley of the Diocese of Portland was among those greeting the pontiff at midday prayers at St. Matthew’s Cathedral.
In recent years, the American bishops have dedicated increasing resources to opposing abortion, gay marriage and artificial contraception. As leaders of the nation’s largest denomination, they have become torchbearers for religious conservatives on these issues.
The bishops said they had to take up these fights because society and governments were increasingly accepting immoral policies.
But since the earliest months of his papacy, Francis has said the church had become too focused on divisive social issues and should instead focus on mercy.
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Pope Francis urges action on climate change, immigration, inequality
Throngs of people line the streets of Washington as the pope keeps dignitaries waiting so he can greet spectators and children.Pope Francis arrives for the Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington on Wednesday.WASHINGTON — Cheered by jubilant crowds across the nation’s capital, Pope Francis forged common cause Wednesday with President Obama on climate change, immigration and inequality, as the popular pontiff signaled he will not sidestep issues that have deeply divided Americans.
On his first full day in the United States, the pope also reached out to America’s 450 bishops, many of whom have struggled to come to terms with his new social justice-minded direction for the Catholic Church. He gently prodded the bishops to forgo “harsh and divisive language,” while commending their “courage” in the face of the church’s sexual abuse scandal – rhetoric that angered victims he may meet with later in his trip.
Late in the day, Francis – the first pope from the Americas – canonized Junipero Serra, the famous 18th century Spanish friar who brought the Catholic faith to California.
The 78-year-old pontiff’s whirlwind day in Washington enlivened the often stoic, politically polarized city. Excited crowds lined streets near the White House to catch a glimpse of the smiling and waving Francis as he passed in his open-air “popemobile.” He appeared to draw energy from the cheering spectators, particularly the children his security detail brought to him for a papal kiss and blessing.
In keeping with his reputation as the “people’s pope,” Francis kept Obama and other dignitaries at the White House waiting so he could spend time greeting schoolchildren gathered outside the Vatican’s diplomatic mission, where he spent the night.
With flags snapping, color guard at attention and a military band playing, Francis stepped from his modest Fiat onto the South Lawn on a crisp fall morning that felt as optimistic as his own persona. Pope and president stood on a red-carpeted platform bedecked with red, white and blue bunting for the national anthems of the Holy See and the United States.
The pope’s remarks were brief, yet pointed.
Speaking in soft, halting English, Francis said that as the son of an immigrant family, he was “happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.” The Argentine pope was born to Italian parents who left their home country before he was born, and he has been a forceful advocate for humane treatment of migrants.
Francis was enthusiastic in his embrace of Obama’s climate change agenda, specifically praising the president for taking steps to reduce air pollution. In a firm message to those who doubt the science of climate change, he said the warming planet “demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition” of the world that will be left to today’s children.
“Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation,” said Francis, who has been pressing his environmental message ahead of climate change talks in Paris later this year.
The pope’s messages were warmly welcomed by Obama, who has prodded his Republican rivals for action on immigration and climate change with limited success. In his own remarks heralding the pope’s arrival at the White House, Obama thanked Francis for reminding the world of the “sacred obligation to protect our planet – God’s magnificent gift to us.”
The pope and president were also aligned in their call for addressing global poverty and inequality, with Obama praising Francis’ call to put “the least of these at the center of our concern.”
The pope had something for conservatives, too, with a clear call to protect religious liberties – “one of America’s most precious possessions.”
“All are called to be vigilant,’ he said, “to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”
U.S. bishops and conservatives who have objected to the Obama administration’s health care mandate and the recent Supreme Court legalization of same-sex marriage have made religious freedom a rallying cry, with a largely domestic focus.
After their opening remarks on the lawn, Obama and Francis met one-on-one for 40 minutes in the Oval Office, joined only by an interpreter. White House aides said the discussion was private, and declined to say whether the leaders addressed subjects on which they sharply differ, including abortion and gay marriage.
While the pope’s visit was analyzed for political implications in a city already consumed by next year’s U.S. presidential election, for Catholics and many other Americans Francis’ six-day, three-city trip to the U.S. is an opportunity to connect with a humble church leader who has rejuvenated many of the country’s believers.
“He’s made the church more of an obtainable thing,” said Nigel Stacy, a law student who arrived at the White House in the middle of the night to get a good place to stand for the arrival ceremony. “It’s more relatable. You see what he does and you can see yourself emulating that.”
Washington resident Theresa Wellman, who brought her mother and five children to watch the pope’s parade through the streets of the nation’s capital, called Francis “a breath of fresh air.”
“He’s changed the tone into a loving, merciful church to serve the poor,” Wellman said.
The church’s leadership in the U.S. has sometimes been more skeptical of the pope, wary of the divide between his focus on a merciful church and the culture wars that America’s bishops have been involved in over abortion and gay rights.
In his remarks to U.S. bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Francis emphasized one of the defining messages of his papacy, to focus less on defending church teaching and more on compassion. The pope told the American church leaders that “harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue of a pastor” and he encouraged them to speak with anyone, no matter their views.
In his first comments in the U.S. on the clergy sex abuse scandal that erupted in 2002, the pope praised the bishops for a “generous commitment to bring healing to victims” and for acting “without fear of self-criticism.”
An organization for abuse victims quickly disagreed.
“Almost without exception, they have shown cowardice and callousness and continue to do so now,” said Barbara Dorris, president of SNAP, or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Under public pressure, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pledged to oust any guilty clergy from church work and enact safeguards for children. However, some victims say the bishops still haven’t fully accounted for sheltering abusers. This year, three bishops resigned over their failures to protect children.
Later Wednesday, Francis celebrated a Mass of Canonization, the first ever on U.S. soil, for Junipero Serra in Spanish. Several thousand of the 25,000 tickets to the event were set aside for Spanish-speaking people, many from California. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception erected a temporary sanctuary outdoors for the Mass, which lasted into the evening.
On Thursday, Francis planned to deliver the first papal address ever to Congress, speaking to Republican-majority legislators deeply at odds with Obama on many of the same issues the leaders addressed at the White House.
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Notes from the U.S. visit of Pope Francis
Guest list for White House visit stirs controversy
With the pope’s arrival Tuesday, there has been a simmering controversy over the Obama administration’s guest list for his visit to the White House.
On Monday, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee waded into the debate with a tweet that said: “Classless decision by POTUS to transform Pontifex visit into a politicized cattle call is an insult to millions of Catholics.”
But the Vatican and White House played down reports of differences over the guest list, which includes the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, a leader for transgender rights, a gay Catholic blogger and a prominent nun-lobbyist who bucked the bishops on the Affordable Care Act – for an event on the South Lawn to be attended by about 15,000 people Wednesday.
A Vatican source involved in the planning of the pope’s trip said it made sense not to “put him in an embarrassing situation,” but it wasn’t a big worry, if there were a handful of open church dissenters among the thousands.
The debate over the invitations has been fueled by online conservative critics. An article by Thomas Williams in Breitbart last week said, “In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching.”
Ed Morrissey on a site called Hot Air said, “I’m curious. When the Saudis visited the White House this month, did Obama invite women’s-rights activists to dinner with them?”
Native Americans challenge pope’s canonization of missionary
When Pope Francis canonizes 18th-century missionary Junipero Serra as a saint Wednesday in a Mass in Washington, he will give Hispanic-Americans a saint of their own — and put a halo on one of the most controversial figures in California’s Native American history.
The Vatican is holding Serra up as a founding father of the United States, a figure who defended the native tribes from the cruelty of Spanish colonizers.
The Franciscan friar, born in Spain, founded nine missions in what is now California to convert indigenous tribes to Christianity before his death in 1784. But with the Spanish came disease, which decimated Native Americans in the missions as they were forced to give up their ancestral land and culture.
Now their descendants say that declaring the founder of the mission system a saint is an outrage and an insult to their history.
“It is incomprehensible for us to think that you would canonize a person who is ultimately responsible for the death of approximately 100,000 California Indians and the complete extermination of many native tribes, cultures and languages,” Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun tribal band, wrote in a letter to Pope Francis asking him to halt the canonization.
Serra’s defenders say he was not responsible for the brutality of the Spanish colonizers.
Pope’s modest ride underscores simple style
Pope Francis was hard to spot in the motorcade of more than 20 armed SUVs and police cars motoring into the nation’s capital on Tuesday. The pontiff shunned the fancy wheels in favor of a much more modest ride: a Fiat.
After he stepped off his plane at Andrews Air Force Base in neighboring Maryland, Francis was driven away in the back of a tiny, charcoal gray Fiat 500L. The four-door model was sandwiched between two enormous black SUVs in the motorcade.
Francis has made a point of using modest cars, part of his emphasis on simplicity and conservatism and rejection of today’s consumerist lifestyle.
Storm could mean showers for outdoor Mass in Philadelphia
Forecasters say a storm moving up the Atlantic coast this week could dampen Pope Francis’ outdoor Mass in Philadelphia.
The National Weather Service says clouds will blanket the region all weekend, with a chance of showers beginning Sunday morning.
Organizers expect hundreds of thousands of people for a festival and concert featuring Francis on Saturday and his Mass on Sunday. About 40,000 people are ticketed for his Saturday speech on immigration and religious freedom at Independence Mall.
Tight schedule limits how pope is greeted in Congress
No handshakes, selfies or fist bumps when Pope Francis enters the House chamber for his historic speech to Congress.
That’s the message from House and Senate leaders, who in a letter asked lawmakers to refrain “from handshakes and conversations along and down the center aisle during the announced arrivals of the Senate, dean of the Diplomatic Corps, U.S. Supreme Court, president’s Cabinet and Pope Francis.”
The pontiff will be on a tight schedule Thursday, and congressional leaders want to avoid anything that could slow him down, such as members of Congress shaking hands with the chief of one of the departments or greeting a Supreme Court justice or even the pontiff himself.
The pope is scheduled to arrive at the Capitol shortly after 9 a.m., meet with House Speaker John Boehner, then address a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at 10 a.m. Vice President Joe Biden, diplomats, justices and Cabinet members are expected in a jam-packed chamber.
House members and senators each were allocated one ticket to distribute for seats in the House gallery.
The speech also will be telecast on giant screens on the West Lawn of the Capitol, where up to 50,000 people with tickets are expected to view it.
After his speech to Congress, the pope will appear on the Capitol balcony facing the National Mall to address the crowds.
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Brian Williams returns to MSNBC to cover pope’s visit
It's his first day back at work following his suspension from NBC News and demotion for misleading viewers about his role in news stories.NEW YORK — Brian Williams returned to the airwaves of MSNBC to anchor coverage of the visit of Pope Francis to the United States on Tuesday, his first day back at work following his suspension from NBC News and demotion for misleading viewers about his role in news stories.
Dressed in a suit and blue striped tie, Williams made no mention of his absence. He anchored the network’s coverage from 3 to 5 p.m. EDT, stationed in a Manhattan studio.
All business at first, Williams seemed to loosen up as his two-hour shift moved along. At one point, he was talking with NBC correspondent Anne Thompson, who was on the plane with the pope, after it had landed.
“Thank you, Anne. Grab your personal belongings,” he said.
Williams had opened his broadcast by introducing White House correspondent Chris Jansing, at the airport where the pope arrived, for a report, followed by short interviews with Maria Shriver and Jose Diaz-Balart. “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd was in the studio with him to discuss the trip’s importance.
Network news divisions had been gearing up for pope coverage, with Lester Holt, George Stephanopoulos and Scott Pelley anchoring special reports on Tuesday’s arrival on NBC, ABC and CBS.
But Williams’ return attracted the most notice. Except for an interview with Matt Lauer on “Today,” he’d been off the air since his suspension from “Nightly News” in February. He was caught telling a false story about his coverage of the Iraq War, and lost his “Nightly News” job after an NBC investigation turned up other instances of exaggerating his role.
His return was timed to coincide with MSNBC’s revamp and to offer some control over his first appearance.
– From news sevice reports
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Cheers, anticipation as Pope Francis arrives for U.S. visit
The pope receives red-carpet treatment at Andrews Air Force Base, where he’s greeted by President Obama and his family, a rare gesture of respect.Pope Francis was welcomed by President Obama, a military honor guard, chanting schoolchildren, politicians, and Roman Catholic clerics Tuesday when he got off his chartered plane.WASHINGTON — The pope of the poor arrived Tuesday for his first-ever visit to the world’s wealthiest superpower, where he was greeted by the president and his family and rode in a frugal little family car with the windows rolled down.
Pope Francis’ chartered plane from Cuba touched down at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where President Obama and his wife and daughters paid him the rare honor of meeting him at the bottom of the stairs on the red-carpeted tarmac. Presidents usually make foreign dignitaries and other visitors come to them at the White House.
Emerging from the aircraft to loud cheers from a crowd of hundreds, the smiling 78-year-old pontiff removed his skullcap in the windy weather and made his way down the steps in his white robes.
He was welcomed by a military honor guard, chanting schoolchildren, politicians, and Roman Catholic clerics in black robes with vivid sashes of scarlet and purple. Joe Biden, the nation’s first Catholic vice president, and his wife were among those who greeted him.
Eschewing a limousine, the pope climbed into the back of a little Fiat sandwiched between huge black SUVs. He promptly rolled down the windows, enabling the cheering, whooping crowds to see him as his motorcade took him to the Vatican diplomatic mission in Washington, where he will stay while in the nation’s capital.
The choice of car was in keeping with his simple habits and his stand against consumerism. His decision to lower the windows reflected his penchant for trying to connect to ordinary people despite the tight security around him.
During his six-day, three-city visit, the pope will meet with the president on Wednesday, address Congress on Thursday, speak at the United Nations in New York on Friday and take part in a Vatican-sponsored conference on the family in Philadelphia over the weekend.
The Argentine known as the “slum pope” for ministering to the downtrodden in his native Buenos Aires is expected to urge America to take better care of the environment and the poor, and to return to its founding ideals of religious liberty and open arms toward immigrants.
“I hope his actions and enthusiasm will shine as beacons of hope in the midst of our nation, inspiring all Americans to live similarly, that is, generously, always seeking ways to serve others selflessly,” Bishop Robert Deeley of Maine said in a letter to the diocese Tuesday.
FOURTH POPE TO VISIT THE U.S.
During the flight from Cuba, Francis defended himself against conservative criticism that his condemnation of trickle-down economics makes him a communist.
“I am certain that I have never said anything beyond what is in the social doctrine of the church,” he said. Some may have misinterpreted his writings in a way that makes him sound “a little bit more left-leaning,” but he said that’s wrong.
Joking about doubts in some quarters over whether he is truly Catholic, he said, “If I have to recite the Creed, I’m ready.”
Francis’ enormous popularity, propensity for wading into crowds and insistence on using an open-sided Jeep rather than a bulletproof “popemobile” have complicated things for U.S. law enforcement, which has mounted one of the biggest security operations in American history to keep him safe.
The measures are unprecedented for a papal trip and could make it nearly impossible for many ordinary Americans to get anywhere close to Francis, the fourth pope to visit the U.S.
For all the attention likely to be paid to Francis’ speeches, including the first address from a pope to Congress, his more personal gestures – visiting with immigrants, prisoners and the homeless – could yield some of the most memorable images of the trip.
“What the pope does in the United States will be more important than what he says,” said Mat Schmalz, a religious studies professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. “There are a lot of things he will say about capitalism and about wealth inequality, but many Americans and politicians have already made up their minds on these issues. What I would look for is a particular gesture, an unscripted act, that will move people.”
In Cuba, Francis basked in the adulation of Cubans grateful to him for brokering the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the communist island.
On the plane, though, he told reporters he will not use his speech to Congress to call specifically for the U.S. to lift the Cold War-era trade embargo against Cuba.
U.S. BISHOPS’ EXPECTATIONS
He arrives at a moment of bitter infighting across the country over gay rights, immigration, abortion and race relations – issues that are always simmering in the U.S. but have boiled over in the heat of a presidential campaign.
Capitol Hill is consumed by disputes over abortion and federal funding for Planned Parenthood after hidden-camera videos showed its officials talking about the organization’s practice of sending tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers. While Francis has staunchly upheld church teaching against abortion, he has recently allowed ordinary priests, and not just bishops, to absolve women of the sin.
Francis’ visit comes three months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, putting U.S. bishops on the defensive and sharply dividing Americans over how much they should accommodate religious objectors. The pope has strongly upheld church teaching against same-sex marriage but adopted a welcoming tone toward gays themselves, saying, “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a supposedly gay priest.
Americans are also wrestling anew with issues of racism. A series of deaths in recent years of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement has intensified debate over the American criminal justice system. Francis will see that system up close when he meets with inmates at a Pennsylvania prison.
U.S. bishops, meanwhile, expect Francis will issue a strong call for immigration reform, a subject that has heated up with hard-line anti-immigrant rhetoric from some of the Republican presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, will be sending a powerful message on that front by delivering the vast majority of his speeches in his native Spanish.
“Our presidential candidates have been using immigrants as a wedge issue,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said. “It’s our hope that the visit of Pope Francis will change this narrative.”
‘HE’LL CHANGE THE PRIORITIES’
Francis’ most eagerly watched speech will be his address to Congress. Republicans and many conservative Catholics have bristled at his indictment of the excesses of capitalism that he says impoverish people and risk turning the Earth into an “immense pile of filth.” Many conservatives have likewise rejected his call for urgent action against global warming.
Nevertheless, Francis enjoys popularity ratings in the U.S. that would be the envy of any world leader. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week found 63 percent of Catholics have a favorable view of him, and nearly 8 in 10 approve the direction he is taking the church.
Just how far Francis presses his agenda in Washington is the big question.
Paul Vallely, author of “Pope Francis, The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism,” predicted both “warmth” and “some finger-wagging” from the pope.
“He won’t necessarily confront people head-on,” Vallely said, “but he’ll change the priorities.”
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Notable moments between popes and U.S. presidents: Vignettes
Some memorable tidbits include matters of gifts, protocol and behavior.President John F. Kennedy and Pope Paul VI talk at the Vatican in this July 2, 1963 file photo. Kennedy's meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican was historic: the first Roman Catholic president of the United States was seeing the Roman Catholic pontiff only days after his coronation. Kennedy - who struggled against anti-Catholic bias during his presidential campaign - only shook hands with the pope rather than kissing his ring, as is the usual practice for Catholics.Pope Francis left Cuba on Tuesday for his first trip to the United States
Around midday, he left for Washington for a visit in which he will meet with President Barack Obama, address Congress and the United Nations and take part in a Vatican-sponsored conference on families in Philadelphia.
There have been some notable moments in the nearly 100-year history of meetings between the pope and American presidents:
WILSON
President Woodrow Wilson and Pope Benedict XV held the first meeting at the Vatican on Jan. 4, 1919, after World War I.
KENNEDY
President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican was historic: The first Roman Catholic president of the United States saw the Roman Catholic pontiff only days after the pope’s coronation. Kennedy, who struggled against anti-Catholic bias during his presidential campaign, only shook hands with the pope rather than kissing his ring, the usual practice for Catholics.
JOHNSON
Pope Paul VI’s trip to New York in October 1965 presented protocol problems. President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to see him, but the pontiff was chief of a state not officially recognized by the U.S. The solution: Johnson flew to New York for dinner at the apartment of his friend Arthur Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and the pontiff was welcomed to Johnson’s suite at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel the next day.
Johnson had a penchant for somewhat odd papal presents. At that 1965 meeting, his gifts to Paul included a silver-framed, autographed photograph of himself. At their next meeting two years later at the Vatican, Johnson presented the pontiff with a foot-high bust of himself.
CARTER
President Jimmy Carter hosted the first White House visit by a pope. Pope John Paul II was greeted at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington by Vice President Walter Mondale. The White House visit featured 10,000 guests, split between separate arrival and departure ceremonies on the North and South Lawns.
REAGAN
President Ronald Reagan had trouble keeping his eyes open on his first visit to the Vatican in 1982. Reagan’s head bobbed and his eyes repeatedly closed for seconds at a time while John Paul talked solemnly of crises in the Falkland Islands and Lebanon. The incident came during a 10-day European trip with a schedule unusually packed for Reagan. But it fed already rampant talk that the 71-year-old president wasn’t physically up to the job.
Reagan sparked controversy over the separation of church and state by establishing in 1984 formal U.S. diplomatic relations with the Vatican, long a desire of the Holy See. Shortly afterward, Reagan and John Paul had a quick meeting during separate refueling stops at the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, in May 1984. The pope had stopped there on his way to Seoul, South Korea; Reagan was on his way back from China. The Alaska stop generated tons of excitement, along with scores of T-shirts that said: “The Pope Meets the Dope.”
CLINTON
For his last of four meetings with Pope John Paul, President Bill Clinton flew to St. Louis to greet the pontiff as he began a U.S. tour. Back in Washington, the Senate was in the throes of its impeachment trial against Clinton, and John Paul said “America faces a time of trial.” But it was generally assumed that the pontiff, who also challenged Americans to “a higher moral vision,” was speaking about his long-running, unusually public and sharp dispute with the pro-abortion rights Clinton.
GEORGE W. BUSH
At President George W. Bush’s last meeting with John Paul, at the Vatican in June 2004, he presented the pope with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The pontiff responded by reading a statement about his “grave concern” over events in Iraq, where the U.S.-led war had been going on for just over a year.
After John Paul died in 2005, Bush became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a papal funeral.
At his first audience with John Paul’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI, at the Vatican in June 2007, Bush’s overly casual behavior was noted by many Italians and Vatican watchers. He addressed the pope as “Sir,” rather than the customary “Your Holiness” and leaned far back in his chair with one leg thrown informally over another, instead of adopting the ramrod-straight physical posture more commonly seen in the pontiff’s presence. Rome’s ANSA agency flashed a “Gaffe Presidente” headline.
Bush committed several firsts for Benedict’s first U.S. tour as pope. The president and first lady Laura Bush went to Andrews Air Force Base to welcome the pontiff. Bush invited 13,500 people, the largest crowd of his presidency, to the White House for Benedict’s arrival ceremony on the South Lawn. Bush also hosted a dinner honoring the pope, though Benedict did not attend.
Benedict’s White House visit came on his 81st birthday, and the crowd that had gathered on the South Lawn sang “Happy Birthday” twice to the German-born pope. He also was presented with a tiered birthday cake baked by the White House pastry chef.
OBAMA
President Barack Obama and Pope Francis met for the first time in March 2014 at the Vatican. Afterward, the Vatican and the White House offered differing accounts of what the leaders discussed during their nearly hour-long meeting. Obama stressed their common ground on fighting inequality and poverty while Vatican officials emphasized the importance to the Roman Catholic Church of “rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection.” That point referred to a major disagreement over mandatory contraceptive coverage under Obama’s health care law.
Like Bush, Obama is personally welcoming the pope. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to be at the foot of the airplane stairs at Andrews Air Force Base to greet Francis when he arrives in the U.S. for the first time.
The White House has invited some 15,000 people to Francis’ arrival ceremony on the South Lawn on Wednesday morning.
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Deep political divisions will greet Pope Francis in D.C. today
In a time of raging debate, the popular pope has an extraordinary opportunity to influence – and roil – lawmakers.The popular Pope Francis "could make both sides of the aisle squirm a little" during his U.S. visit, says a theology professor. The Associated PressWASHINGTON — Pope Francis arrives in the United States on Tuesday as Congress is embroiled in raging debates over abortion, immigration and climate change, giving him an extraordinary platform from which to influence – and roil – lawmakers of both parties.
The politics of the pope’s visit, which includes a meeting with President Obama at the White House, a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, and the first address by a pope to a joint session of Congress, will be further complicated by a presidential election in which matters of faith have featured prominently, and sharp lines have already been drawn over the Vatican’s recent softer tone.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics generally speaks on broad principles drawn from church teachings – helping the poor, elevating human life – rather than making policy prescriptions. But Pope Francis, riding a wave of popularity that rivals that of Pope John Paul II, has shown an ability to speak more directly on sensitive political issues.
“He could make both sides of the aisle squirm a little,” said Frederick C. Bauerschmidt, a theology professor at Loyola University Maryland. “Pope Francis has shown himself willing to get specific.”
His 2-year-old papacy has been defined so far by a change in tenor, not doctrine, watchers say. He sent shock waves through the church by responding in 2013 to a question about gay priests by asking, “Who am I to judge?” He has also been vocal on immigration, calling last year’s surge of Central American children into the United States a “humanitarian emergency.”
Nearly 60 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the pope, according to Gallup – significantly more than see Obama and Congress favorably.
The pope is scheduled to speak to Congress on Thursday as lawmakers debate government funding tied to abortion. Some Republicans are threatening to block legislation to fund the government beginning Oct. 1 unless money for Planned Parenthood is cut.
The organization, which performs abortions, receives federal funding to provide other medical services, such as cancer screenings.
The Catholic Church has for centuries considered abortion a moral evil. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has lobbied heavily against a provision tied to the Affordable Care Act that required religious employers to offer insurance coverage for contraception.
At the same time, Pope Francis used an encyclical in June to blame humans for climate change, which cheered Democrats cheer and put some conservative Republicans on the defensive. At least one of them, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, has said he will skip the pope’s speech in protest.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush was pressed on the pope’s climate change encyclical in June. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, drew a line between his beliefs and his role as a leader.
“I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinal or my pope,” the former Florida governor said. “I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting in the political realm.”
CATHOLIC LAWMAKERS
Nearly a third of Congress is Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center, and they’re split evenly between the parties: 81 Republicans and 83 Democrats. Despite the pope’s rhetorical de-emphasis of church opposition to homosexuality and abortion, his critique of capitalism and his message on climate change, several Catholic Republicans – including House Speaker John Boehner – have said they are eager to hear him.
Seven candidates for president are Catholic. They include Martin O’Malley, who is seeking the Democratic nomination. The former Maryland governor wrote an op-ed in the National Catholic Reporter on Monday in which he tied Francis’ visit to the refugee crisis in Europe.
O’Malley, who is trailing in the polls to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, has been pressing the Obama administration to accept far more Syrian refugees. Clinton, the former secretary of state, echoed that sentiment in an interview over the weekend.
“How we respond to these and to so many other challenges – from education to health care – will speak to the type of country we are,” O’Malley wrote. “It is not enough to reflect or have faith – we must have the courage to risk action on that faith.”
Ben Carson, a retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and another presidential candidate, recently appeared to question the faith of front-runner Donald Trump. Carson, a Seventh-day Adventist, later apologized. Trump is a Presbyterian.
More recently, Carson drew criticism for saying he would not advocate the election of a Muslim to be president.
DEEP DIVISIONS OVER DOCTRINE
Whether Francis’ visit will influence any of the debates in Washington is unclear. While 90 percent of Catholics in the United States hold a favorable view of him, deep divisions remain about church doctrine.
A Pew Research Center survey this month found that 84 percent of Catholics say it is acceptable for unmarried parents who live together to raise children, for instance. Nearly four in 10 said homosexual behavior is not a sin.
“Our surveys find that U.S. Catholics disagree with a lot of church teachings, even though they have a very favorable view of Francis,” said Jessica Hamar Martinez, a senior researcher at the center.
Even if the pope doesn’t weigh into current political debates directly, he is likely to have a broader message about capitalism and culture. And that might be difficult for members of both parties to listen to.
“He’s not coming to support Hillary or Donald Trump. Or John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi,” said the Rev. James Martin, editor-at-large of America magazine, a national Jesuit publication “He’s coming to preach the Gospel.”
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Maine-related highlights of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States
Bishop Robert Deeley and other Mainers plan to attend events in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.• Maine’s congressional delegation and their guests will be among the officials welcoming Pope Francis to the White House at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday. He will then meet privately with President Obama, making him the third pope ever to visit the White House.
• Bishop Robert Deeley and other U.S. bishops will meet with Pope Francis for midday prayer at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Deeley also will attend the canonization Mass of Junípero Serra, to be celebrated by Pope Francis at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
• Maine’s congressional delegation and their guests will gather at the Capitol at 9:20 a.m. Thursday to hear Pope Francis deliver the first papal address to a joint session of Congress.
• Bishop Deeley will celebrate Mass at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. About 2,000 people are expected to attend, including delegations from Portland, Bangor and dioceses across the country that have traveled to Philadelphia for the pope’s visit.
• The delegation from Portland will visit the National Shrine of St. John Neumann in Philadelphia at 3 p.m. Saturday. Bishop Deeley will accompany the group to a welcoming ceremony for Pope Francis at the Festival of Families on Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
• Bishop Deeley and other U.S. bishops will meet with Pope Francis at 9:15 a.m. Sunday in St. Martin’s Chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Bishop Deeley also will attend the closing Mass of the World Meeting of Families, to be celebrated by Pope Francis with about 1 million people on Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 4 p.m. Sunday.
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Mainers prepare for journeys to see Pope Francis
The pontiff's visit to Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia has them making travel plans.George Dionne of Grand Isle, a bus trip organizer, says, “This pope is a breath of fresh air for the Catholic Church.”Monica Cote doesn’t mind that in the crush of a million people who are expected to converge on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway next Sunday, hoping to see Pope Francis celebrate Mass, she might not lay eyes on the man himself.
A registered nurse from Bangor, Cote is much more concerned about the spiritual aspects of her planned journey to the City of Brotherly Love. The limits of the physical world were something that she and her husband, Vincent, who was a deeply spiritual man, discussed often before he died last year after a long illness.
“Monica,” he would tell her, “you get way more with less.”
It’s a mindset that helps to explain why Cote, 61, recently gave up her career to help care for her 8-month-old twin granddaughters while her daughter establishes herself as a physician working in underserved areas of Maine.
So Cote’s hope – as she prepares to join hundreds of Mainers who will travel to see the pope this week when he visits Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia – is to feel the “ripple effect” of his love and compassion.
“I want to be in the spiritual energy that this is going to produce,” Cote said. “The world is in such turmoil and I know Pope Francis has a positive effect on people, both Catholic and non-Catholic. I want to be a part of that in my earthly lifetime.”
Cote is one of about 50 pilgrims from across Maine, all with their own motivations, who will travel from Portland to Philadelphia on a bus trip organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. She joined the Portland group after a bus trip planned by her home parish, St. Paul the Apostle in Bangor, quickly filled up with a similar number of people.
A third bus, organized by Knights of Columbus councils in the St. John River Valley, is heading for Philadelphia as well, carrying about 50 people from the strongly French Catholic communities of Fort Kent, Frenchville, St. Agatha, Madawaska, St. David, Grand Isle and Van Buren in northern Aroostook County.
Hundreds of other Mainers will travel to see Pope Francis on their own, including state Rep. Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford, who plans to attend the Mass that the pontiff is scheduled to celebrate Wednesday afternoon at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Fecteau got his ticket to the Mass through a lottery offered to alumni of Catholic University of America, where he graduated in 2014. Fecteau will be one of about 25,000 people who are expected to crowd the basilica’s steps and the university’s mall.
“I’ll be excited to be in his presence,” Fecteau said. “I’m not sure I’ll understand much of what he says.”
The entire service will be conducted in Spanish, the Argentinian pope’s native language, because it’s a canonization Mass for Junipero Serra, a Franciscan friar who started nine Spanish missions in California in the 1700s and is considered the founder of the Spanish church in the United States. Native American groups are protesting the ceremony, saying that Serra doesn’t deserve sainthood because the mission system persecuted California Indians, offenses for which Pope Francis has apologized.
Despite any controversy surrounding the Catholic Church, the week ahead promises to be historic in many ways, as Pope Francis visits the United States for the first time ever, with plans to deliver the first papal address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday. The Mass next Sunday in Philadelphia will cap the first World Meeting of Families to be held in the United States since Pope John Paul II launched the massive Catholic gatherings in 1994.
Pope Francis comes to the United States after making groundbreaking statements that offered understanding and some measure of forgiveness to homosexuals, divorced Catholics and women who’ve had abortions.
When he became pope, he told reporters he chose to name himself after Francis of Assisi because the 12th-century saint “is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.” In that vein, he has championed the poor, blasted corporate greed and called for a planet-saving response to climate change. At the same time, he has remained steadfast in the church’s opposition to contraception, abortion and same-sex marriage.
ACCEPTANCE AND UNDERSTANDING
Fecteau, 23, is the youngest openly gay state representative in the United States and was the first openly gay speaker of the student association at CUA. While he attends Mass regularly and his love of the Gospel is strong, Fecteau wrestles with Catholic doctrine that has long made him feel like an outsider in his own church.
“When you’re going through the process of figuring out who you are, you’re made to feel unwelcome and disenfranchised,” Fecteau said. It was especially hurtful to hear family members use their religion to explain why they didn’t support gay rights, he said.
Fecteau appreciates that Pope Francis has made a point of living humbly and calling on believers to help the poor, protect the environment and demand social justice in the world. He’s glad the pope is promoting the more positive messages of Jesus Christ rather than focusing narrowly on the church’s opposition to gay marriage, abortion and contraception.
“It’s inspiring and speaks to the Jesuit tradition he comes from,” Fecteau said. “You’re seeing a pope who’s trying to get us back to a tradition of living what’s in the Gospel. Pope Francis has taken us by the hand and is leading us there more so than any of his predecessors.”
And while Catholic doctrine still counts homosexual acts as sinful, Fecteau heard acceptance and understanding when Pope Francis told reporters, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Fecteau has a T-shirt that features the pope’s face and the saying “Who am I to judge?” He plans to wear it when he attends the Mass in Washington. He’s pretty pumped about the prospect of seeing the man who has made him feel more welcomed in the church.
“I’ll be like a teenager at a Taylor Swift concert,” he said.
JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
Fecteau also plans to be outside the Capitol on Thursday morning when the pope addresses Congress. As many as 200 other Mainers are expected to be there as well. Each member of Maine’s congressional delegation, including Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin, received 50 tickets for seats on the Capitol lawn, where special guests will be able to watch the address on large video screens.
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree got email requests from 652 constituents and distributed her 50 tickets through a random drawing, said spokesman Willy Ritch. Each representative and senator also received a ticket for a special guest to be seated in the gallery of the House of Representatives during the address.
Pingree’s gallery guest will be former Gov. Joseph Brennan, 80, a lifelong member of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Portland who graduated from Cheverus High School and Boston College.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent, has invited the Rev. Michael Seavey, administrator of Portland’s parishes, to be his gallery guest, according to the diocese.
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who is Catholic, will be joined by her 88-year-old mother, Patricia, a devout Catholic who was the religious education director at Holy Rosary Church in Caribou for 10 years, a former board chairwoman of Catholic Charities Maine and a former lay representative to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“She is ecstatic at this opportunity,” Sen. Collins said. “It was easy to decide who to give my one ticket to. I can’t imagine anything I could do that would make her more happy.”
It will be a special moment for the senator as well, though she met Pope John Paul II in Rome in 2001 when she was part of a bipartisan delegation that delivered a Congressional Gold Medal to the pontiff. She also was at Washington Nationals baseball stadium in 2008 when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass with 46,000 people.
“But this is truly the most special,” Collins said of Pope Francis’ congressional address. “I truly love this pope and his message and his humility. This pope has been so inclusive in his approach, which is very appealing to me. He has reached out to former Catholics and made them feel welcome. I can’t tell you how many of my non-Catholic friends have expressed a fondness for Pope Francis and his messages of forgiveness and inclusiveness.”
Maine’s congressional delegation also is expected to attend a welcoming ceremony at the White House on Wednesday morning before the pope meets privately with President Obama. Pingree’s guest for that event will be former Democratic state legislator Anne Rand of Portland, Ritch said.
A DIFFICULT TRIP
For most Mainers traveling to Philadelphia, there will be no ticketed seating and little hope of meeting Pope Francis. An estimated 800,000 to 1 million people are expected to attend the Mass next Sunday on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, said Gregory Sylvain, spokesman for Canterbury Pilgrimages, a Bedford, New Hampshire, company that arranges Catholic pilgrimages to religious events and spiritually significant places.
The buses traveling from Portland and Bangor are among 50 Philadelphia pilgrimages that Canterbury has arranged for church groups across the country. The pilgrims from Portland will be visiting two shrines Saturday, including a Mass for about 2,000 faithful at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa that will be celebrated by Bishop Robert Deeley of the Maine diocese.
Sylvain said nearly 4,000 buses have received Homeland Security permits to park at designated sites that are 3 to 4 miles from the parkway, a mile-long scenic boulevard that stretches from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, made famous in the film “Rocky,” to Philadelphia City Hall.
Much of the city center will be closed to traffic. As a result, most people attending the Mass will have to walk many blocks and stand for hours before the 4 p.m. service, only to see the pontiff on massive video screens set up along the parkway.
“If they get a glimpse of him, they will be doing well,” Sylvain said. “They’ll probably see a better image of him on a Jumbotron.”
Including a 12-hour bus ride from Maine, the trek to the Mass next Sunday promises to be arduous.
“That’s what a pilgrimage is. It’s not supposed to be easy,” said Annette Rioux, a diocese administrator who helped to organize the trip.
TRAVELING FROM THE COUNTY
Add four more hours for the 50 folks traveling from Aroostook County to Philadelphia.
That bus was organized by George Dionne, 63, a retired postal carrier and former Maine Army National Guard major who lives in Grand Isle. A logistics expert, Dionne began planning the trip last November, by which time all hotel rooms within 30 miles of Philadelphia had been booked by church officials planning the World Meeting of Families.
He found rooms at an Embassy Suites in Parsippany, New Jersey, over an hour from Philadelphia. He had yellow polo shirts made up for group members to wear that feature the Knights of Columbus logo and the words “Pope Francis Philadelphia 2015.”
Dionne saw Pope Paul VI in his window at the Vatican in 1974. He had traveled to Rome while stationed with the Army in Germany. He was 23. The experience had a modest impact on him.
“I can’t remember who the pope was back then,” Dionne said. “This pope is a breath of fresh air for the Catholic Church. He’s driving his little Ford Focus around. He’s down-to-earth. He’s making people think about poverty.”
Dionne also appreciates the way Pope Francis has reached out to gay people and others previously scorned by the church, though Dionne voted against gay marriage in Maine.
“Now I’m OK with it,” Dionne said. “It’s gone through. Marriage is just a word. The word meant something more to me. But he’s right. Who are we to judge?”
Guy and Barbara Roy of St. David hope to be on the bus with Dionne, along with two of their six adult children.
They’re playing it by ear because Guy Roy, a retired French teacher, has been battling stage 4 colorectal and liver cancer for three years. After meeting with a healing priest in Massachusetts, Roy experienced initial success with chemotherapy and other medical treatments. Now he’s taking a natural protocel treatment and hoping for a clean bill of health in October.
But it’s his faith and the future of the country that are Guy Roy’s primary concerns as he anticipates traveling to attend Mass celebrated by Francis.
“It’s an opportunity to strengthen my faith,” he said. “I feel our country is at a crossroads. We are blessed that he is coming and hopefully it will put our country on a better path.”
SEEKING GOD’S FAVORS
The Roys believe government is too big and they oppose abortion and gay marriage, though they appreciate the pope’s efforts to be less judgmental.
“He’s certainly trying to bring people together,” said Guy Roy, 69. “He’s doing it a little differently and we support him. He wants people to come back to the church, so he’s a little more receptive.”
Her husband’s health is first on Barbara Roy’s list of “favors” she’ll be seeking while in the pope’s presence. She’d also like the pontiff’s help in bringing some of her six children back to the Catholic faith.
“They’re all spiritual, loving people,” she said, “but we’d like them to follow the faith again like we do.”
She’d also like to see a living saint in her lifetime.
“He is very holy,” said Barbara Roy, 64. “He’s here in a time of mercy. Where the pope is, Christ is.”
Guy Roy also hopes his wife gets to see Francis. He saw Pope John Paul II in Quebec City 31 years ago, when she was pregnant and unable to join him.
“This is the opportunity of a lifetime, going together,” Guy Roy said. “It’s a big trip. A stressful trip. But it will be worth it.”
On a more personal note, Guy Roy plans to ask God to allow him to continue serving as choir director at St. Gerard Church in Grand Isle.
“I’d like to continue working for him, if he’s willing,” Roy said.