NEWS REPORT BY NHU TRAN
ANew Chapter:
Pope in Congress
K ind eyes, a lov ing smile, and a
hum ble yet pow er ful aura?t hese
were some of t he t hings His Holiness Pope Francis brought t o t he
Unit ed St at es dur ing his 6- day
visit . His visit marked t he first offi cial visit by a reign ing Pope t o
U.S soil since t he 1960s. Wit hin
only 6 days in t he ?land of freedom,? t he ?M essen ger from God?
had made a signif i cant impact on
all of it s cit i zens. From polit icians and lawmak ers t o prison inmat es and t he home less, Pope
Fran cis received adu lat ion from
crowds of t housands wher ever he
went .
t heir coun t ry and im prove t heir
lives. His speech implied t hat t he
mod ern socio- polit ical world has
been more about polit i cians, and
less about t he people. Pope Francis lat er st at ed: ?I f pol i t ics must
t ruly be at t he ser vice of t he human per son, it fol lows t hat it cannot be a slave t o t he economy and
finance.?
The high light of t he t rip was
unar guably his speech at a joint
ses sion in Con gress. M any now
refers t o t his as a hist oric speech
due t o it s per fect t im ing in relat ions t o what is cur rent ly going
on wit h t he U.S. Cur rent ly, t he
U.S gov ern ment is on t he verge
of shut t ing down for a sec ond
t ime and in t he midst of many
global issues. Ex pressing his appreci at ion t o t he U.S, ?I am most
grat eful for your invi t at ion t o address t his Joint Ses sion of Congress in ?t he land of t he free and
t he home of t he brave?,? Pope
Francis capt ured t he very essence
of t he coun t ry. His open ing
words, which set t he t one for t he
rest of his speech, were met wit h
a massive round of applause.
He went on t o describe t he Amer ican spirit , ?The com plex i t ies of
hist ory and t he real it y of human
weak ness not wit hst anding, t hese
men and women, for all t heir
many dif fer ences and limi t at ions,
were able by hard work and selfsacrifice ? some at t he cost of
t heir lives ? t o build a bet t er fut ure,? segue ing int o t he con t rover sial is sue of ac cept ing
refugees from t he M id dle East .
Pope Fran cis brought list en ers?
at t ent ion from t he broad aspect s
of t his cri sis back t o t he human it ar ian an gle of t his global issue:
?We must not be t aken aback by
t heir num bers, but rat her view
t hem as per sons, see ing t heir
faces and lis t en ing t o t heir st ories, t rying t o respond as best we
can t o t heir sit uat ion. To respond
in a way which is al ways humane,
just and frat er nal.? This per haps
was one of t he cli max in his
speech, as t he Pope, upon fin ishing his sent ence, received a st anding ovat ion.
Pope Fran cis com menced his
speech by re mind ing t he at t endees t hat t he pur pose of t heir
jobs is t o pro t ect t he peo ple of
On a dif fer ent not e, as sert ing,
? We know t hat no reli gion is immune from forms of in di vid ual
delu sion or ideo log i cal ex t rem-
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ism...But t here is anot her t empt at ion which we must es pe cially
guard against : t he sim plist ic reduct ion ism which sees only good
or evil,? Pope Fran cis also addressed t he idea of reli gious t ol erance. There has been out right discrim i na t ion of I slam ever since
t he rise of t he non- West ern
world, recent ly wit h t he ex ample
of t he 14- year- boy Ahmed M ohamed who got ar rest ed for bringing a clock t o class t hat was mist aken for a bomb. Fur t her more,
Pope Francis condemned t he sale
of weapons of mass dest ruc t ions
(W M Ds) t o t hose who plan t o inflict suffer ings on individuals and
so ci et y. Sadly, t he t rut h behind
t his inhumane act , as we all know,
is sim ply money: money t hat
would soon be drenched in blood,
of t en in no cent blood. Decry ing
t his deed, ?I n t he face of t his
shameful and cul pable si lence, it
is our dut y t o con front t he problem and t o st op t he arms t rade.?
A re cur ring t heme t hrough out
Pope Francis?s speech: dreams. I n
his opin ion, dreams are t he driving force of t he Amer ican people
and are ?t he rich ness of your cult ural her it age.? To him, it was
and st ill is t he Amer i can Dream
t hat brought t he nat ion t o it s current st at us. I t is t hrough dreams
t hat he urged changes be made t o
im prove issues men t ioned above.
And wit h t hat no t ion, he ended
his speech wit h t he unmist akable,
un for get t able ?God bless
America!?