Papal politics

Pope’s U.S. itinerary designed to include visits to national power centers

Pope Francis caresses a baby at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. The pope will visit the powerful and the poor during his trip to the United States in September.
Pope Francis caresses a baby at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. The pope will visit the powerful and the poor during his trip to the United States in September.

People have become accustomed to seeing the affable-looking Pope Francis mingling with the disenfranchised, but his trip to the United States in September will include appearances at America's elite power centers: the White House, the United Nations and Congress -- the first time a religious leader has ever been invited to address a joint meeting, congressional historians say.

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AP

Pope Francis is expected to draw large crowds during his visit to the United States in September.

photo

AP

Pope Francis blesses the faithful as he arrives last month in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican as an audience with participants of Rome’s diocese convention. The pope visits the United States in September, when his is expected to visit the White House, Congress and the United Nations.

The address is thrilling people who want to see morality preached to members of Congress and worrying others who see it as a dangerous cocktail of religion and politics. But the pope's itinerary, released on Tuesday, reveals his plans to speak repeatedly about the plight of immigrants, including at Our Lady Queen of Angels School and Independence Mall park in Philadelphia before tens of thousands of people.

The Argentine pope will often speak in Spanish during the trip, the itinerary shows, highlighting the origins of the Catholic Church's first Latin American pontiff and the fact that the U.S. church is one-third Hispanic -- and quickly becoming more so.

The itinerary is the result of months of lobbying and debate about where the world's most popular faith leader should go, what he should say and how he should say it. Between his decision to come to the United States from Cuba, and to accept the congressional invitation, many see Francis seeking to play a more muscular role in global affairs -- even if as a pastor.

His decision to release a major teaching document last month about the environment, specifically just ahead of a global meeting on climate change, was seen similarly, as theologians could not recall another encyclical timed to a secular process in that way.

"He doesn't pretend to be Angela Merkel or Winston Churchill. I think he sees himself as a pastor -- but a pastor

to the world. I think he is pained personally by the troubles that people experience in the world: exclusion, poverty, migration," said an American knowledgeable about the planning of the trip. "It's a moral authority, not a political authority he's positing. But can moral authority have political influence? Sure."

The planning process for the trip mirrors the debate about the role of modern Catholicism, a faith community in great flux around the world. Should Francis use the trip to boost traditional families by focusing on church doctrine, or on outside forces that affect family stability, such as the economy? Should he jump into policy debates -- such as those on global warming or economic theory -- as a way to engage and evangelize, or stay in the spiritual realm? What is the proper role of the pope? Of the church?

There has been intense lobbying for the pope's time while he is in the United States. There were efforts to get him to the U.S.-Mexico border, debates about what kind of prisoners to highlight (migrants? single mothers? addicts?) and whether canonizing a California priest who converted American Indians was too controversial. When he speaks onstage at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia about the challenges Catholic families face, what kinds of families should he speak to? People dealing with gun violence? Divorce? Poverty?

The prison he will visit on his final day, according to the itinerary, is the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia.

Charities and corporations alike want a connection to the most retweeted person on the planet. Comcast and food services giant Aramark will be sponsoring church events that week. Dozens of shelters, schools and treatment centers and parishes reached out for a visit, including St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, where church leaders are in the midst of trying to raise $180 million for renovations. He will celebrate Mass there, according to the itinerary, and greet New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as hundreds of young people.

"One guy came up to me in D.C. and asked: 'Would he bless my boat?'" said one American involved in the planning.

Francis' decision to accept an invitation to address a joint meeting of Congress -- the first extended to a religious leader, congressional historians say -- has been well-publicized. The itinerary shows he will deliver at least part of that address in Spanish. Some are enthralled by the prospect of the first Latin American pope addressing in his native tongue a body gridlocked over immigration; others are concerned it would be inappropriate in such a forum.

The pope is not fully comfortable in English, and those close to the process say Spanish is preferable for a man who likes to speak extemporaneously.

FRANCIS THE DECIDER

The pope's U.S. visit has also been a way for some Francis critics to show their displeasure with the pope.

Several typically reliable, high-level donors to major church events will not answer fundraising calls or are giving less due to their displeasure about Francis' various comments -- including in his environmental encyclical -- about the freedom and value of markets, said one prominent conservative Catholic leader.

"I've heard there is a real concern about his statements on free markets," said the person. "I have no doubt the same thing happened with John Paul and Benedict on the other side."

Others say they are afraid that political and policy stops that were added later could overshadow the reason Francis agreed to come to the United States: the World Meeting of Families, a once-every-three-years meeting of the church focused on shoring up church programs and teachings to support the family unit.

"What this does is dilute the focus on the family," said the Rev. Robert Sirico, a priest who founded the Acton Institute, a faith-based group that promotes conservative policies. "It's like an American going to Europe for the first time; they think they can see everything."

Pope Benedict XVI was the one who initially committed when he was still in office to going to Philadelphia, an event that dovetailed nicely with Benedict's focus on the breakdown of traditional families.

Once Francis confirmed he was coming, the full-court-press lobbying began from every corner. And slowly dates were added -- House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., invited Francis to address Congress. President Barack Obama asked him to the White House. The United Nations offered the pope the chance to speak to its 70th anniversary gathering. The requests started pouring in from nonprofit leaders and others.

The inner circle of those shaping the trip is not large. It includes the Vatican's envoys to the United States and the United Nations, staff from its equivalent of the secretary of state's office and archbishops of the three cities he is visiting: Cardinal Donald Wuerl in the District of Columbia, Cardinal Tim Dolan in New York and Archbishop Joseph Chaput of Philadelphia. Francis is also said to be very close to Cardinal Sean O'Malley in Boston and has sought his input on the schedule.

A small group of these men and a few others met in January in Washington, where they had gathered for the annual March for Life on the Mall. In February and March, two advance teams from the Vatican came, including Alberto Gasparri, the papal travel agent.

However, Francis is known for keeping his own counsel. Vatican experts say he carries a little planner and whips it out to make his own dates rather than work only through a secretary.

In a lecture in May, papal historian George Weigel called Francis "the decider -- on steroids." He said, "The filter through which decisions happen [with Francis] is much narrower in this pontificate than in any of its predecessors" for two centuries.

SIMPLE MAN OF FAITH

There is concern about guarding Francis' image as the simple, man-of-the-slums priest as he hopscotches from one East Coast elite power center to the next. And then there are the big corporate donors, who are making particularly large contributions in Philadelphia, which, of the three U.S. cities, is expected to have the biggest price tag because of two open-air public events.

"If the only images of the pope are at the White House, at the rostrum in Congress, speaking at the U.N., all of those images would communicate a message that is very un-Francis. These venues are not 'the peripheries,'" said Michael Sean Winters, a fellow at Catholic University whose National Catholic Reporter column is widely read by bishops. "I am reasonably certain we will see him visiting not only the halls of power but the people he most loves, the poor."

Then there is the first making of a Catholic saint on U.S. soil -- Junipero Serra, an 18th-century priest whom Francis will canonize during a Mass in Washington. The event is controversial in part because, while some praise Serra for being instrumental in bringing Catholicism to the United States, via California, some American Indians compare his conversion efforts to genocide. Because logistically Francis could not get to California on this trip, the canonization will be held on the East Coast, a part of the country where the church is seen as shrinking and more out of touch.

Thousands have signed a petition calling for the canonization to be abandoned.

Aside from impromptu stops the pope makes, perhaps the most watched event will be his historic address to Congress. Some Catholics note it has been only 55 years since Catholic candidate John F. Kennedy had to promise not to take orders from the pope. They also note Americans' deep ambivalence about the blending of religion and politics.

Calls to Boehner and Pelosi staff members went unreturned, but people familiar with head of state visits to Congress say Capitol Hill offices this summer will be focused on logistics: Which presidential candidate gets close and who doesn't? How much time should he spend in Boehner's office and with whom? Will lawmakers stand and clap for lines they support and remain seated for those they oppose? Those are all elements under discussion.

The lobbying for access will continue until the last moment -- from politicians, pundits and the many do-gooders for whom a papal moment could mean the difference between closing up or survival for their good works.

"It's the Good Housekeeping seal, the spotlight, the Olympic gold medal; I've had people lobbying me for months," said Rocco Palmo, a Philadelphia-based journalist whose whispersintheloggia blog is a must-read for church insiders. "My whole family, as much as I love them, I keep saying: 'I don't think there's anything I can do for you.'"

Christie Storm contributed to this report.

Religion on 07/04/2015

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