On Tuesday, September 22nd, Pope Francis arrived in the U.S. and made his first stop in Washington D.C. Throughout his five-day trip, he visited not only the American Capital, but he also visited New York and Philadelphia.
Pope Francis is currently the two-hundred and sixty-sixth Pope of the Catholic Church. Francis was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the year 1936. According to PopeFrancisVisit.com, before he studied to enter the priesthood, he earned a degree as a chemical technician. He was elected as pope on March 13th, 2013. A bit later, he left for Rome with great impressions.
At the Pope’s White House Welcoming Ceremony, he stated, “Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination.”
In the end, this positive outlook was proven correct, as he gave many encouraging opinions on the Catholic Organization of our country on his way home. For example, according to CNN.com, he immediately experienced a feeling of warmth and welcome. More specifically, he used particular adjectives to describe each of his stops throughout the trip.
He first stated, “Washington, the welcome was warm but more formal,” and then that “New York was a bit exuberant”. Finally, he ended in saying that Philadelphia was “very demonstrative.”
In addition, Pope Francis gave his opinion on certain topics that are currently of controversy here in the United States, mainly on sexual abuse by clergy.
According to CNN, he met with five victims of this type of abuse, and afterwards, made it clear that any individual who commits to this crime is of “betray [to] their holy calling”.
Although this may be socking, he does admit that these criminals can be forgiven by God, as long as they are “open to letting it in”.
Another topic that was addressed included the idea of women serving as priests. In response to this issue, Pope Francis stated,
“That cannot be done. Not because women don’t have the capacity.”
In the end, not only did Pope Francis himself enjoy his trip to the U.S., but the Americans themselves definitely enjoyed his company. Mollie Miller, a junior at West Morris Central High School shared her thoughts.
“He seems like a nice guy and he can make a change in the world…” she said.
Another student from West Morris Central High School, Jamie Kuhn, shared that “he is the best person ever. I am not even religious and I love him.”