The U.S. awaits Pope Francis

(Vatican Radio) While Pope Francis continues his Apostolic visit to Cuba, last minute preparations are underway in the United States for the next stage of his journey, which will see the Holy Father address the US Congress in Washington, speak to the United Nations in New York, canonize a saint, and lead the culminating celebrations of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia which opens on Tuesday (22nd September).  Vatican Radio's Chris Altieri is awaiting the Pope in the U.S and reports on expectations ahead of his arrival.

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Pope Francis is coming to the United States of America.  The visit will be rife with historical firsts: the first time a Pope will address a joint meeting of the US Congress (not a joint session – a technical precision perhaps significant only to parliamentarians, but one that is there nonetheless); the first time a Pope will speak to the United Nations during the annual general session of the General Assembly; the first time a Pope will canonize a saint on US soil.

Everyone is on tenterhooks, waiting to hear just what the Pope will say: from climate change, to immigration, to religious liberty, to the right order of society with respect to marriage and the family – this last being the almost forgotten keystone and centrepiece of the Holy Father’s visit, which on September 26th and 27th will see him in the US city of Philadelphia to lead the culminating celebrations of the World Meeting of Families.

The issues are the same ones everyone – including the Pope - has been talking about for months and years and even decades: so, do we really expect him to say anything new?

This reporter has no crystal ball, nor – as of this filing – has he seen the advance copies of the prepared speeches. There is, however, something perhaps to be gained from paying attention to the register in which the Holy Father has been talking, and comparing it to the register in which pundits and commentators have been talking in their turns.

Pundits talk about policy: Pope Francis talks about people – real, flesh-and-blood human beings, whose lives and livelihoods are the object of and the reason for whatever policy political leaders may choose to advance. Whatever he shall say, it is to real people he shall address himself, even and especially when he addresses himself to political leaders on the US national stage and on the global level at the United Nations.

“A moral leader” and a “voice of great moral authority” are some of the turns-of-phrase by which the Holy Father has been described by several of the principal actors in world politics, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, in an exclusive interview with Vatican Radio ahead of the Holy Father’s arrival.

First, and finally, however, Pope Francis is a pastor: his concern as a shepherd of souls who happens also to be a global citizen is rather with making us sensible of and sensitive to the need to take better care of the created order over which we have been set as stewards. As the Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd, he has been, and we may fairly expect he will be at pains to remind us of the duty we have to welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead; the duty we have to teach the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the afflicted, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offences willingly, to pray for the living and the dead – especially our enemies, and – yes – to admonish the sinner – for it is no slight to mercy to remind people they are in need of it; expect that in these regards he will remind us that from those to whom much has been given, much is required – and that there will be a heavy reckoning to make before the judgment seat of the just and living God.

So, whoever you are, and whatever your political leanings, your convictions in religion, your estimation of the content and contours of a just and rightly ordered society: pay attention, and be prepared to be uncomfortable.