Pope Francis in the USA-Visit to Congress of the United States of America

Spencer Ackerman

One of the most interesting moments of the speech was when Francis spoke about ideological extremism. Spencer Ackerman had this to say:

At a moment when a band of millenarian fanatics declare themselves to be the “Islamic State,” and when a boy who brings a clock into school gets arrested on bomb suspicions because of his religion, Pope Francis tells Congress that “no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism.” Francis’ message, to guard against “the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil,” is not one of equivocation or equivalence, as he speaks specifically about “combat[ting] violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system. Instead, it’s a call to maturation: “We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within.”
The value of a spiritual leader on the world stage is to prompt the powerful into introspection. Here is Francis telling a Congress, and a country, that is acting like Muslim lives are cheaper than Christian and Jewish ones, that “to imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.”
The response to Francis falls to the presidential candidates demonizing Muslims, the legislators and presidential aides content to keep detaining men indefinitely without charge, the president with a Nobel Peace Prize who proliferates what he euphemistically calls “targeted killing,” and the voters content with all this. If Francis’ speech is to be met with more than empty and ritualistic applause, they -- we -- must all ask: Do we actually reject it?

 

Pope Francis will now walk through Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building.

 

Megan Carpentier

US opinion editor Megan Carpentier weighs in on abortion – specifically, that difficult-to-decipher moment at the end there about “a culture which pressures young people not to start a family”.

Though the pope earlier this year ordered priests to offer absolution to women who had abortions but repented their actions, he was unequivocal in his opposition to abortion during his speech to Congress, telling the assembled members, to near-rapturous applause, “The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.” (His reminder that the responsibility to protect and defend human life also extends to opposing the death penalty was, unsurprisingly, less well-received.)
But it was nearer to the end of the speech that he reminded his listeners, however obtusely, that the Church’s opposition to reproductive rights, including birth control, has its roots in the faith’s understanding of “family” and women’s role in it.

‘It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.
‘In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problem are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.’

Though the pope is also addressing the Church’s concern with same sex marriage, he’s also alluding to the fact that the Church conceives of motherhood as women’s most important role in the world, though he supports equal pay for those who have to work. But it’s interesting that he focuses on the intersection of economic insecurity and fertility rates as much as economic possibility (and ‘choice’) as a factor in people’s choices on whether to start families.
But the focus on ‘family’ here was really a focus on women, and women’s rights, as much as it was a reference to marriage equality, and a call for women to reconsider what the Church believes to be their fundamental role as mother’s and protectors of the family.

Updated at 3.58pm BST

 

Pope Francis finishes speaking

In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.

He ends: “God bless America!”

Pope Francis completes his address Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

 

 

“In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young,” he continues. “For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.”

Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future.

Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.

Culture-wars conservatives will like this, a little. But it is still non-specific enough as to not threaten the Left.

 

Francis obliquely addresses same-sex marriage and family

Francis says that he will end his visit to the US in Philadelphia, where he will take part in the World Meeting of Families. “It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme,” he says.

How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without.

This is a section which could be read as throwing a bone in the direction of the Christian right on same-sex marriage - though, in contrast to the directness with which Pope Francis addressed the arms trade, the reference is oblique.

Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.

Updated at 3.56pm BST

 

15m ago15:49

Dan Roberts

More from Dan Roberts, in the Capitol Building:

The speech is having a remarkable effect on lawmakers as Democrats repeatedly lead Republicans in standing ovations when the Pope enlists moral arguments to support liberal positions.
On at least four occasions, the floor of the House of Representatives resembled a Mexican wave as Republicans at first resisted the encouragement to applause but decided to stand once it was clear that Democrats were doing so.
This was most apparent when Pope Francis quoted from the bible in urging them to do “unto others as you would have them do unto you”. The line was used to support his call for immigration reform, but it must have been hard for many Christian Republicans to risk sitting down during a quote from the scripture.

Updated at 3.50pm BST

 

'Money that is drenched in blood': Francis calls for end to arms trade

From his tacit praise of Obama’s diplomatic efforts - which will likely not make him friends among conservative hawks - Francis turns to the arms trade.
“Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world,” he says.

Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?

Here, as before, he does not mince words.

Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.

 

The speech is not getting much love from Rorate Caeli, a conservative Catholic blog, which tweeted out its dissatisfaction that abortion had been “glossed over”. 

 

 

Pope Francis celebrates a US that has 'overcome historic differences' – with Cuba and Iran?

Turning obliquely to diplomacy, Francis uses his fourth human example: Thomas Merton.
A Cistertian monk, mystic and poet, Merton belonged to an order of Trappists in Kentucky. Originally born in France, he was a keen proponent of social justice, spirituality, and pacifism, and a prolific writer and essayist who pushed dialogue with Buddhist and Taoist figures and advanced the cause of interfaith understanding. His most famous work is the Seven-Storey Mountain.
The pope quotes from Merton’s autobiography:

I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness

From his example, the pope said he wished to appreciate “the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past”. He may be alluding to the Iran nuclear deal, or rapprochement with Cuba – in which he was directly involved – or both.
He continues, for the tea-leaf readers:

It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. [Applause.]
This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism.

A poster of Pope Francis in Havana. Photograph: Ramon Espinosa/AP

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Ed Pilkington

Guardian US chief reporter Ed Pilkington, who has covered America’s confrontation with capital punishment for years, weighs in on the pope’s call to help abolish it – finally – in this country:

Pope Francis has just thrown down the gauntlet to the handful of largely southern states who are still actively pursuing the death penalty. He put his challenge in global terms – calling for the worldwide abolition of capital punishment. But his call comes at a particularly sensitive moment in the national debate on the ultimate penalty.
After the US supreme court gave the go-ahead in June to a controversial new execution drug, several states are now preparing to restart executions; Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia all have executions scheduled before the end of October.
The pontiff went further than his condemnation of the death penalty. He also made an implicit attack on the US fondness for the sentencing of people to life without parole, which some people call “life means life”.
The US is the only country in the world that still sentences juveniles under 18 to the sentence, which essentially commits the individual to remain locked up for their entire natural life. Some 2,500 people are currently serving that sentence for crimes they committed as a child.
The pope lamented that situation, saying: ‘A just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.’

Updated at 3.46pm BST