Pope Francis on Wednesday urged the United States to help tackle climate change and touched on other divisive US political issues such as immigration and economic inequality on his first visit to the United States.
In a speech on the White House South Lawn, the Argentine pontiff lauded President Barack Obama’s efforts to reduce air pollution, months after Francis made the environment one of his top issues by issuing a landmark encyclical letter to the church.
“It seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of history,” the pope said at a welcoming ceremony.
In an era of renewed racial tensions in the country, the 78-year-old Pope invoked America’s best known civil rights leader, the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to make points about the environment and equality.
Speaking later to American bishops, Francis acknowledged the sexual abuse scandal that has tainted the US Church for years by saying that these “crimes should never be repeated.”
As Washington’s streets were closed and federal workers stayed home, about 15,000 people gathered in bright sunshine on the South Lawn. They heard the pope depart from his usual practice and give a speech in English.
He again made a gesture of simplicity, pulling up in the small black Fiat car he used for his arrival in the US capital on Tuesday.
Francis is a frequent critic of the damage caused to the world’s poor and the environment by capitalism’s excesses.
The pope also commented on immigration and religious freedom, issues that were on the US political agenda in the run up to the November 2016 presidential election.
Obama, whose plans for a climate change bill were thwarted in Congress early in his presidency, said he shared the pope’s concerns about the environment.
“Holy Father, you remind us that we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet – God’s magnificent gift to us. We support your call to all world leaders to support the communities most vulnerable to a changing climate and to come together to preserve our precious world for future generations,” Obama said.
Francis and Obama held talks in the White House, where they also discussed refugees. Both men see eye-to-eye on climate change and defence of the poor but hold different views on abortion rights and gay marriage.
Francis gave his support to traditional marriage, pointing out that he will travel to Philadelphia later in his six-day visit to the United States for a meeting of Catholics “to celebrate and support the institutions of marriage and the family.”