Pope marks second full day in Washington, DC and NY

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis made history on Thursday, when he addressed a meeting of both houses of the US Congress – the first time a reigning Pontiff has ever done so. While that event was historic for the mere fact of it, and remarkable for the content and masterful craftsmanship of the address itself, it was neither the only nor the most significant event of the day.

Vatican Radio's Christopher Altieri sends this report from New York City.

Immediately following his visit to Capitol Hill, Pope Francis went to St. Patrick’s parish soup kitchen, where he blessed the facility and the guests, and took a moment to recall the greatest work of mercy ever wrought: when God took on human flesh, and was later born, and lived, and suffered, and died, and rose.

That, as far as Pope Francis was concerned, was the real story – the one worth telling – the one in and through which all our stories make sense and have a chance to become great and noble.

Then he travelled to New York, where he was greeted by a teeming multitude of humanity: they cheered him welcome with genuine enthusiasm, exuberant and unaffected. In another church – this one a great cathedral  – dedicated to St. Patrick, Pope Francis presided over the Church’s official praise of God in the evening, and spoke of the twin spirits of joy and diligence, which must animate the life of every one of Christ’s disciples and especially of every shepherd of souls in Christ’s fold.

Joy and diligence: the central themes of the Holy Father’s Vespertine homily were also the characteristic qualities of his public activity throughout the day – and the lodestar of his Apostolic visit to the United States, which on Fridaysees him first at the United Nations for another major address, then at the September 11^th memorial, then at an historic elementary school that has served immigrant populations in the city for more than a century, and finally at Mass in the Madison Square Garden arena.