Pope speaks as immigrant in land of immigrants

In his address on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday, on the morning after his arrival in Washington from Cuba, Pope Francis chose to emphasise his own immigrant roots, and those of the nation he was visiting.

“I am deeply grateful for your welcome in the name of all Americans,” he told President Barack Obama at the welcoming ceremony. “As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.” At the same time, he reminded Mr Obama of the central importance to America of the family – the Eighth World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia that he was to join today was the primary reason for his US visit. That meeting would celebrate “the institutions of marriage and the family at this, a critical moment in the history of our civilisation”, he said. The Supreme Court’s recent legalisation of same-sex marriage – something celebrated by lighting up the White House in rainbow colours – has been seen by many in the Church as undermining those very institutions.

Francis told Mr Obama that American Catholics “are concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty” and Mr Obama said he respected that right. Both Francis and Mr Obama mentioned their shared concern for climate change, which Francis said is “a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation” and Mr Obama referred to as our “sacred obligation to protect our planet – God’s magnificent gift to us”.

Mr Obama said we must heed “Scripture’s call to lift up the poor and the marginalised, to stand up for justice and against inequality, and to ensure that every human being is able to live in dignity – because we are all made in the image of God”. Francis said we must recognise the “group of the excluded which cries out to Heaven, [a cry] which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies”.

Speaking to the US bishops at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle later on Wednesday, Francis returned to the theme of immigration. “Now you are facing this stream of Latin immigration which affects many of your dioceses. Not only as the Bishop of Rome, but also as a pastor from the South, I feel the need to thank and encourage you,” he said.

 “Dialogue is our method,” he insisted, “not as a shrewd strategy but out of fidelity to the One who never wearies of visiting the marketplace, even at the eleventh hour, to propose his offer of love  ... I speak to you as the Bishop of Rome, called by God in old age, and from a land which is also American.

“Wherever the name of Jesus is spoken, may the Pope’s voice also be heard to affirm that: ‘He is the Saviour!’ From your great coastal cities to the plains of the Midwest ... wherever your people gather in the Eucharistic assembly, may the Pope be ... a felt presence, sustaining the fervent plea of the Bride: ‘Come, Lord!’,” Francis proclaimed.

He was to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday and the General Assembly of the United  Nations in New York on Friday before flying to Philadelphia today.