WASHINGTON — Cheered by jubilant crowds across the nation’s capital, Pope Francis found common ground Wednesday with President Barack Obama on climate change, immigration and inequality, as the popular pontiff signaled he would not sidestep issues that have divided Americans deeply.
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” and commended 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 took 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 by in his open-air popemobile. He seemed 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.
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 before climate change talks in Paris this year.
The pope’s messages were welcomed warmly by Obama, who has prodded his Republican rivals for action on immigration and climate change with limited success.
The pope and president were also aligned in their call for addressing global poverty and inequity, 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.
For Catholics and many other Americans, Francis’ six-day, three-city trip 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.
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.
Papal itinerary
Thursday: Washington/New York
Address to Congress; visit to local parish; fly to New York; prayers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.
Friday: New York
United Nations address; 9/11 Memorial visit; Mass at Madison Square Garden.
Saturday: New York/Philadelphia
Arrival in Philadelphia; Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.
Sunday: Philadelphia
Bishops meeting; prison visit at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility; Mass; meeting with organizers of the papal visit; departure for Rome.
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Praise irks abuse survivors. • WASHINGTON — Pope Francis praised American bishops Wednesday for their “generous commitment'” to helping victims of clergy sex abuse, drawing an angry rebuke from advocates who said the bishops acted only under the threat of hundreds of lawsuits.
Addressing church leaders in a prayer service at a Washington cathedral, Francis said they had faced the crisis “without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.”
But the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said that the bishops had displayed “cowardice and callousness” in response to victims who came forward and that they “hide behind expensive lawyers and public relations professionals” instead of fully confronting the scope of the problem within the church. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of , an advocacy group that collects records on abusive priests from around the world, called the pope’s remarks “distressing and quite off-base.”
Missionary now a saint. Junipero Serra, an 18th-century Spanish missionary who brought Catholicism to the American West Coast, was elevated to sainthood Wednesday during a Mass outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Francis in the first canonization on U.S. soil.
The Franciscan friar established nine of the 21 missions in what is now California.
The decision was polarizing. Serra is revered by Catholics for his missionary work, but many Native Americans in California say he contributed to the spread of disease that wiped out indigenous populations.
In his homily, Francis defended Serra.
“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.”
Girl delivers her message. The massive security apparatus protecting Pope Francis got its first test Wednesday as a 5-year-old California girl with a T-shirt and a message about immigration made her way through a security barrier and onto his parade route.
Sophie Cruz of suburban Los Angeles initially shied away as a pair of security officials approached her before she was encouraged to approach the vehicle by Francis himself. He gave her a hug and kiss.
She gave him 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 Cruz told The Associated Press in an interview, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A gift from Aretha. Getting Aretha Franklin to sing for you could be considered a gift in itself.
But the Queen of Soul plans to give Pope Francis a box set of sermons by her father, civil rights activist C.L. Franklin, when she performs for him at the Festival of Families concert Saturday in Philadelphia.
The Associated Press
