Pope Francis landed in Philadelphia on the final stop of his tour of the United States, calling for a more active role for women and the laity in the church in his first public remarks in the City of Brotherly Love.
The pontiff, on his first visit to the US, flew from New York to Philadelphia on Saturday morning turning his attention to ordinary Catholics after three days of speeches to politicians and world leaders.
He stumbled up the steps of the charter plane at New York’s JFK Airport before making his way up to the aircraft and flying out.
The pope arrived at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul by motorcade, passing streets lined up with thousands of people amid a heavy security presence that has shut down downtown Philadelphia.
The pontiff again travelled modestly in a small black Fiat from Philadelphia as crowds waved and cheered from behind barricades.
He was welcomed to Pennsylvania's largest Catholic church by former Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett and delivered his homily in Spanish before representatives from 219 parishes of local dioceses.
Appealing for greater involvement of ordinary people in a church which has lost millions of Americans, Pope Francis recalled the words of Pope Leo XIII – "What about you?" – in encouraging local 19th-century heiress Katharine Drexel to devote her life to God as a nun.
“It means valuing the immense contribution in which women, lay and religious, have made and continue to make to the life of our communities,” he told about 1,600 people gathered in the cathedral.
The pontiff has previously called for greater involvement of women in the church, though he has stopped short of permitting women priests.
"We all have a responsibility to take care of the world and make it a better place for the next generation," said Sr Agnes Clare (28) of the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia near Philadelphia's City Hall who travelled from Nashville, Tennessee with other nuns to see the pope.
The pope is in Philadelphia to attend the World Meeting of Families this week, which brings together more than 18,000 people from around the world. He will say Mass to more than one million people on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia's main avenue, tomorrow.
Religious freedom
Today, he is speaking on religious freedom and immigration at the birthplace of US independence, Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were adopted.
The pope will deliver his address from a lectern used by Abraham Lincoln when he delivered the Gettysburg Address, the famous civil war speech that redefined the conflict as a struggle for human equality.
At a press conference, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi declined to say whether the pope would meet with victims of clerical sex abuse in Philadelphia, saying that it was policy not to announce such meetings in advance. There has been speculation that he will meet victims privately while he is in the city in between public events.
The pope has been criticised for not speaking directly or apologising to victims publicly during his visit in addressing a scandal that has shaken the church in the US and alienated many Catholics.
In an address to US bishops in Washington on Wednesday, the pope mentioned the scandal but spoke about the pain felt by the US clergy rather than the victims, remarks that were roundly criticised by many groups representing the survivors.
He praised the US church’s “generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.”
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, told The Irish Times that the courage of abuse survivors to come allowed the church "to reach out and heal".
“The Holy Father talked about healing,” he said.
“He was mindful very much of the people who needed healing. Even as victim-survivors who desperately need healing are healed, we are also healed ourselves.”
