Addresses United Nations
Francis addresses the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He talks about the “grave offense” of economic and social exclusion:
A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged.
He calls on government leaders to ensure their people enjoy the minimum material means needed to live.
In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labor, and land.
He also urges leaders to fight human trafficking and ban nuclear arms, and work on environmental issues.
Addresses Congress
In the first ever address of a Pope before a joint meeting of Congress, Francis calls upon lawmakers to participate in efforts to to address climate change, the Syrian migrant crisis, and the decline of the American family.
Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics.
On religious extremism:
A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject. Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice.
On immigration:
We the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners…We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our “neighbors” and everything around us.
White House welcome
Francis is welcomed formally to the U.S. by President Obama. In an English speech he introduces himself as the son of the kind of “immigrant family” on which America was built. He also talks about family values, and climate change:
I would like all men and women of good will in this great nation to support the efforts of the international community to protect the vulnerable in our world and to stimulate integral and inclusive models of development.
Obama:
Holy Father, we are grateful for your invaluable support of our new beginning with the Cuban people, which holds out the promise of better relations between our countries, greater cooperation across our hemisphere, and a better life for the Cuban people.
The president and Pope meet for one-on-one talks in the Oval Office, with the Pope receiving a sculpture of an ascending dove made from metal taken from the Statue of Liberty and wood which once grew in the White House garden.
Releases climate change letter
Pope Francis blames human selfishness for global warming in his long-awaited encyclical calling for action on climate change. In the letter, he urges the rich to change their lifestyles to avert the destruction of the ecosystem. In excerpts from the 184-page document:
What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? The question not only concerns the environment in isolation; the issue cannot be approached piecemeal…Today, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
Nature exploitation ‘sin of modern times’
The Pope brands the destruction of rain forests in South America and other forms of environmental exploitation as a sin of our time. He calls for more respect for nature and urges the attendees of his address at the University of Molise to convert themselves: to a type of development that knows how to respect creation.
This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to her give us what she has within her.