Pope Francis on Thursday (24
September) made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint
session of the United States Congress. In his wide-ranging address that was
frequently interrupted by applause, the Pope touched on many themes including
the need for politics to serve the common good, the importance of
cooperation and solidarity, the dangers of fundamentalism, the refugee
crisis, abolition of the death penalty, the need for courageous acts to
avert environmental deterioration, the evils of the arms trade and threats
to the family from within and without. During his speech he also mentioned
four great Americans from the past, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King,
Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton,
saying that each of them helped build a better future for the people of the
US.
.....
The full text of Pope Francis' address to the Joint Session of the
United States
Congress:
Mr Vice-President,
Mr Speaker,
Honorable Members of Congress,
Dear Friends,
I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session
of Congress in "the land of the free and the home of the brave".
I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of
this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward
which we share a common responsibility.
I would like to mention four of
these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who
labored tirelessly that "this nation, under God, [might] have a new
birth of freedom". Building a future of freedom requires love of the
common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity...........
A century ago, at the beginning
of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a "pointless
slaughter", another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source
of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography
he wrote: "I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God,
I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness,
in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture
of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to
love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory
hungers". Merton was above
all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time
and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of
dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.
.....From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the
efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked
to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help
all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries
which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue - a dialogue which may
have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons - new
opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and
daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader
is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a
spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to
initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium,
222-223). ........
Being at the service of dialogue
and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long
term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to
ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to
inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as
we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often
innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is
our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.
Three sons and a daughter of this
land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther
King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice
and the rights of persons; and Thomas
Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.
Four representatives of the
American people.
........I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will
take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout
my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family
has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our
support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family,
which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without.
Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very
basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and,
above all, the richness and the beauty of family life. ......
In particular, I would like to
call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the
young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities
beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a
hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our
problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk
about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down
in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live
in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because
they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents
others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a
family.
A nation can be considered great
when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which
enables people to "dream" of full rights for all their brothers
and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for
justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless
work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the
contemplative style of Thomas Merton.
In these remarks I have sought to
present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of
the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop
and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in
a land which has inspired so many people to dream.
God bless America!
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