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Pope Francis Speaks to Congress. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 24, 2015 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:01] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I never quite witnessed to see somebody who clearly seems to be nervous and emotional. That we've seen before.

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: OK. John Boehner and Joe Biden, they're getting ready. They will be right behind the Pope as the Pope delivers his remarks. And he will be speaking in English.

We're told that this speech should last approximately 30 minutes or so. The Pope obviously wants to make some critically important points. Not just on religion or -- but also getting into some of the issues that have been so concerning to him.

As we await -- as we await the Pope, and momentarily he should be coming forward, the -- Father Timothy Kesicki, the president of the Jesuit Conference of the United States in Canada is with us as well.

This is a moment for this Pope, who is after all, as Delia points out, a son of the Americas.

FATHER TIMOTHY KESICKI, PRESIDENT, JESUIT CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED STATES, CANADA: Yes. The first Pope of the Americas. And I think he would like to see the Americas as one. He's very excited to engage government in this particular way. As we know, he communicated well with government when he was a Jesuit provincial in Argentina as well as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

BLITZER: So there they are. They're all standing. They're getting ready for the Pope to make this historic speech before a Joint Session, a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress. The Pope is about to be introduced. And let's listen in as we get ready for history to unfold.

Pope Francis is about to walk through that door, we're told, any second now. And we want to be able to hear this introduction.

POPE FRANCIS: Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, honorable members of the Congress, dear friends, I am most grateful for the invitation to address this joint session of Congress in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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[10:05:31] 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. Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your one 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.

A political society endures when it seeks as a vocation to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always best to take of the (inaudible) people.

To this you have been invited, called and convicted by those who elect you. Yours is a walk which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of people to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus, to the threshold of dignity of the human being.

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Moses provides us with a good synthesis of your work. You are asked to protect by means of the law the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human life.

Today, I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Here together with the representatives, I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest days work, to bring home the daily bread, to save money, and one step at a time to build a better life for their families.

[10:10:04] These are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way, sustain the life of society. They...

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... they generate solidarity by their actions and they create organizations which offer helping hand to those most in need. I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience and who seek in many ways especially through -- for (inaudible) work to share their stories and their insights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active. They keep working to build up this land.

I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are working to realize their great and noble aspirations -- who are not led astray by factide (ph) proposals and face difficult situations, often -- often as a result of immaturity on the part of many others. I wish to dialogue with all of you and I would like to do so

through the historical memory of your people. My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and imitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice, some at the cost of their lives, to build a better future.

They shared fundamental values which endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts while always finding the resources to move forward and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing an imperfect reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired even amid conflict and in the here and now of each day to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.

I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.

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[10:15:02] This year marks the 150th 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 (ph) and solidarity.

All of us are quite aware of and deeply worried by the disturbing and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities committed even in the name of God and of religion.

We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. 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.

(APPLAUSE)

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. The contemporary world with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization, which would divide it into these two camps.

We know that in the attempt to defeat of enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of (inaudible) and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you as people reject.

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Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice.

We are asked to summon the courage and intelligence to resolve today's many geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world, the effect of unjust structures and actions are all too apparent.

[10:19:53] Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward, however, as one in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.

(APPLAUSE)

The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents and resolve to support one another with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.

(APPLAUSE)

In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continues to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery born of great injustices which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.

Politics is instead an expression of our compelling need to live as one in order to build as one the greatest common good, that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.

(APPLAUSE)

Here, I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to Montgomery 50 years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his dream of full civil and political rights for African-Americans.

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FRANCIS: That dream continues to inspire us all and I am happy that America continues to be for many, a land of dreams...

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[10:25:13] ... dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment; dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of the people (ph).

In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent are now fearful of foreigners because most of us...

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... because most of us were once foreigners.

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I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descendants from immigrants.

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Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation. Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but we know that it's very difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present.

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Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appears to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past.

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We must resolve now to live as nobly as -- and as justly as possible as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our neighbors and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity in a constant effort to do our best. I'm confident that we can do this.

Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This present us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunity. If it's not what we want for our own children...

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