Pope Francis landed in Washington D.C., late afternoon on September 22nd at the Joint Base Andrews for his six day U.S. visit. He accepted an invitation to speak at the House Of Representative.
On September 24th, Pope Francis spoke to the House of Representatives, as a global political leader, rather than a religious/moral voice alone. His fifty minute speech stressed on the pressing issues of immigration, global warming and poverty. He also mentioned abolition of the death penalty, the protection of ethnic and religious minorities, arms wars and the protection of families.
Pope Francis made counter-arguments to conservative Donald Trump’s campaign towards the deportment of 10 million undocumented immigrants, stating that “I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants”. The Pope mentioned one of the reasons many immigrants sought to the United States for refuge was for the right and freedoms our founding fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence.
Pope Francis challenged Congress to continue to address Global Warming issues, “he called for a courageous and responsible effort to avert “environmental deterioration caused by human activity”.
Pope Francis’ speech favored both Republican and Democratic partisans, according to Republican Senator Mike, “We found ourselves standing up and sitting down more than what we anticipated”.