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Pope To Address Over 100 Seminarians; Live Coverage Of Pope Francis's Visit. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired September 26, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

(MASS CELEBRATION)

[12:08:22] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Beautiful mass celebrated by Pope Francis, the first event he has held here in Philadelphia, coming to the basilica, really directly from the airport, upon arriving here after spending the night in New York, after two days in New York City. He has a very busy day ahead of him today and certainly tomorrow, as well.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRSEPONDNET: And as we talk, let's remember that we're listening to the beautiful pastoral music inside the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, while outside we're listening to slightly more percussive music as they prepare with their p.a. system for the big festival of the families later this evening.

So if you're hearing a lot of noise, it's all about the pope and his visit here today. He has said, he spoke today about a whole array of things in his homily. He spoke also about the challenges facing the church. Let's put a little bit of what he said, and we'll talk to him with our experts.

[12:10:01] COOPER: The pope has come back into the vestibule to change and will soon be leaving the church. From here, he's going to go rest. You can see he is in a fair amount of pain.

His sciatica, which something the church has been very public about, clearly we can see, as he was walking up the steps, even coming down, he was being helped.

But that apparently has been flaring up and from what we hear, he hasn't been getting physical therapy while he's been on this trip, Father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it certainly hasn't dampened his zeal. Going back to the homily, he began with a sucker punch. He said this is a beautiful building you've invited me to. Beautiful, wonderful basilica, but the church is not about building walls, but about breaking them down and going to the peripheries.

So it's nice it's a nice church that's here, but this is not what we are about, again, speaking to his priest and religious bishops. He began with his theme, it's not about the structures, it's not about the institution, break them down and go to the periphery. COOPER: And that's something we're going to see, particularly here tomorrow, he's going to visit a prison to actually talk to people who are in prison, many of whom who are actually awaiting trial, cannot afford bail, and that's the reason they're there.

AMANPOUR: And also in terms of breaking down walls, he's going to be addressing immigration. He'll make a big speech this afternoon at independence hall on that. And he's also got to talk about the people he's trying to recruit, back into the church.

And we were talking before they do face challenges, because, according to the statistics, the American parishioners, the Catholic parishioners, are not as conservative as their bishops and priests. So he has to figure out a language that is going to talk to them. That's the big challenge, isn't it?

BRUCE FEILER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think so. And I think we saw it here in this service. I think the woman singing, the symbolism are great. But you see here the sort of seams of discontent within the church. He spoke about Catherine Drexel, for example. It's a great story, OK.

Her father was a millionaire. He made his with JP Morgan. She went to Europe in the 1890s and met Leo XIII. He introduced the idea of the social gospel, in some ways, the intellectual ancestor of Francis.

And she said, look, there's problem with Native Americans, African- Americans, they didn't use those terms, and he said, why don't you go and fix them.

And she became a nun and started this, the Blessed Sacrament division of the nuns and became a saint, the first American-born saint. So you have that.

This is a whole service in honor of Mary, and yet look what we saw, dominated by men, dominated by older men, and we're talking -- you're talking about this idea of recruiting young people.

What are women interested in? They're interested in, you know, lean in, they're interested in sexual assault on college campuses and they're going to have to find a way to speak to what they're doing and bringing women into the fold is a key part of that.

AMANPOUR: And before we go to break, Father Beck, your take on that? Because, again, that is the whole mission of the church, presumably, this is a transitional moment for the church. Pope Francis is a transformative, maybe a transitional pope, who knows, but he knows that he has to attract the younger ones.

FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION CORRESPONDENT: And speak to women, a very definite inclusion. A native Philadelphian, but also whom did she minister to? Native Americans. Where did we just have the controversy about another saint, about Native Americans. This woman ministers to the people that we're critiquing, Juneau Perra Sarah (ph), so a very deft conclusion. COOPER: It's interesting though with this pope. He's trying to find a third way, without changing Catholic doctrine, which is something that he really has not changed at all in terms of what his predecessors believe. He believes the same thing and supports the same thing. But it does seem where the emphasis is on mercy and on flexibility for pastors, that is where this pope seems to be --

BECK: And many would say, that is Catholic doctrine, Catholic doctrine is not about sin. It is about mercy and serving the poor and the oppressed. And if you lose your way and get too tied up in sin, that's not Catholic. Catholic is about mercy and forgiveness.

COOPER: We saw the celebration of communion, and one of the things Pope Francis has said about communion, it's not a reward for the perfect. It's medicine for the sick and I think there's something very telling in that.

BECK: That's a great quote.

FEILER: To quickly add a thought to what you said, Anderson? What is the third way? The third way is the family. In other words, the doctrine inside the walls, but the family is where this is going to have to live, people, parents saying, carrying the Catholic message, not in the institution, but around the kitchen table.

[12:15:03] AMANPOUR: But what a changing family we have, less and less marriage, we're dropping off marriage, more and more divorce, same-sex families, single mothers, single fathers, IVF families, it's all changing, isn't it, and faces quite a lot of division from within the church. So, let's face it, Archbishop Chaput is not necessarily spearheading the line of reform.

BECK: That is very true. He has been a sometimes critic, not direct critic, but certainly his conservative theology and some of what he thinks is important does not always align with the direction of what Francis is doing.

COOPER: We want to bring you Pope Francis as he heads to a seminary to get some downtime. We'll take a short break. Our coverage continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back to our continuing coverage of Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia. He has completed the celebration of mass at basilica here in Philadelphia. And as you can see, he is still inside changing. He will be emerging shortly from the basilica.

From there will proceed to the St. Charles Boromeo Seminary where he will be greeted by some 150 seminarians who will be seeing welcoming him there. You can see he's clearly in some pain with his sciatica, which we saw as he really -- you see, he's walking up steps and walking down.

[12:20:11] We're joined by Vatican correspondent, Delia Gallagher, and bestselling author, Bruce Feiler, and Christiane Amanpour and myself, Anderson Cooper. Thank you very much for joining us.

AMANPOUR: And for our viewers in the United States and around the world, even though the archbishop of Philadelphia said this was a time when he could easily see changing the name of this city to Francisville, it is not all happy clappy.

The pope did talk about a lot of challenges. He talked about, you know, how to reinvigorate the church, how to make the church follow its original mission, that of ministering to the people, ministering to the poor, ministering to the least advantaged and least powerful amongst us.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: What was interesting about what the pope said in his homily, and I think gives us a little insight about where he wants to go in that direction, he brought up Katherine Drexel from Philadelphia.

She was an heiress, she had millions of dollars from her father inherited and she gave them to support the missions out in New Mexico. She went to Rome and met with Leo XIII, the pope at that time and she said we need staff there. We need people to do something.

And he turned to her and said, want you? And indeed she went on then to found convents and founded Xavier University, which is the first Catholic university for African-Americans in the United States.

But the point about that is that the pope pointed out that to say that Pope Leo XIII, a wise pope, said this to a woman. So he gave it the onus on a woman and a laywoman, not a nun, to say, what are you doing?

That was his message today, I think, to say to all of the people in the church, not just nuns or priests, what is it that you're doing? And perhaps an insight to what he thinks, because of course there's a problems with vocations, with staffing of church schools --

COOPER: In fact, let's show some of what he said about the challenges facing the church. What you're looking at are some of the seminarians outside where the pope will be visiting and staying. They are practicing right now, when he does actually get there, they will welcome him. We'll bring that to you live. But let's play some of what he said during the homily about the challenges facing the church.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): One of the great challenges facing the church in this generation is to foster in all the faithful a sense of personal responsibility for the church's mission and to enable them to fulfill that responsibility as missionary disciples as 11 of the gospel in our world.

This will require creativity in adapting to changed situations. Caring for the legacy of the past, not primarily by maintaining our structures and constitutions, which have served us well, but above all, by being open to the possibilities, which the spirit opens up to us and communicating the joy of the gospel daily and in every season of our life. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And back with Delia Gallagher and Bruce Feiler, that's one of the key challenges as the pope sees it.

GALLAGHER: Yes, opening ourselves up to the possibilities of where the spirit may lead us so, again, throwing it up in the air. We know that there's an issue of authority for women in the church. There are two questions about women priests.

The priesthood is probably not an option under Francis, but there is the question, since John Paul II, of more authority for women for church. Is there another way to do it?

Because obviously right now you have to be a priest in order to be a bishop or cardinal or the pope, but there's a kind of constant refrain that hasn't been put into practice, but let's find another way to have women in positions of power.

COOPER: And that was one of the things that disappointed some people about the mass in Madison Square Garden yesterday, at masses all around the country, you often see women involved in it on the -- at the front of the church, deeply involved in the service.

FEILER: Here's the unspoken subtext to this, which is rarely spoken out loud. And that is, we are in an age where religion is a choice, okay? It's not just that you pass it on, you take the religion from your parents and you have to do it.

[12:25:03] Half of Americans will change faith in the course of their lives, 40 percent of Americans are in an interfaith marriage. You're not just Catholics, you're Catholics by choice.

And so the churches have to evangelize even to its own people to get them to engage. The two things we've heard are, remember the poor, the destitute, that's what he said on ground zero, and go forth. That's what he said in the mass in Washington. Take it upon yourself as Leo XIII said to Katharine Drexel, why not you.

AMANPOUR: And before we go to break, do you have a story?

FEILER: My favorite story, when he became archbishop ten years ago, he was a little bit sick. They called in a Chinese acupuncturist, which says a lot about him that he would do that, and they distinguished the most distinguished Latin American acupuncturist came to see him.

He disrobed, and the acupuncturist said, I couldn't believe his clothes had holes in it. That such a mighty person would be so humble that his formal vestments were showing the humility of the life and his message.

COOPER: We'll take a short break so we can show you the motorcade as the pope heads to the seminary. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Anderson Cooper here with Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent.

You're looking outside the seminary where Pope Francis will be heading shortly. He is still in Philadelphia, in the basilica, where he has just celebrated mass. He has been changing his garments.

He will shortly be emerging from that basilica, and we want to bring you his route, as much as we can, to this seminary, where you can see, about 150 seminarians have gathered. They have been practicing their singing, they plan to great him in song. We of course we'll bring that to you live as well.

[12:30:15] I want to check in with our Carol Costello who joins us live from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Carol what's the scene where you are?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well by 7:30 tonight Anderson Cooper there will be about 700,000 people. That's how many people that are expecting I suppose motorcade goes by. And as the big stage production that starts of Aretha Franklin suppose to serenade the pope.

But I want you to take a look around, this is the world families festival, sponsored by the Vatican. Take a look around and especially notice all of the young women in attendance.

You are talking about women and the church. And this is the big concern that the Vatican has about Catholics of America, especially catholic women in America.

Only 16 percent of women between 18 and 29 in this country identify themselves as catholic. For the first time in history women, young women are more disengaged than their males' counterparts. And as one wise person told me when you lose women, he lose the faith because women bring their children to church, they teach their children to pray. Catholics need women.

Come over here I want to introduce to a few people. All of these people are from (inaudible) Institution in Emmitsburg. And they stayed with Jim and Janet over there. They hosted 16 people and I want to bend down here and talk to you.

So do the Catholic Church wants to attract young women back to the church? How can they do that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think, just by having young women the kind of vibrant witnesses to the faith and for us not to be afraid to share our views. And to be involved I think, yes just having that, that living witness to like within our parents because I know and we were like we've done college ministries, so reaching out to women and empowering them to kind of live a life of faith and know that they have freedom to live within those means.

COSTELLO: Do you think Pope Francis is, at least beginning to empower women in the church.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think so, yes. I mean I think when we have good like male figures I think women can really embrace who they are in their femininity in a better way when we have like true masculinity and like fatherhood from the pope especially it allows us to feel, I think more calls in our natures who God created us to be as women.

COSTELLO: You were telling me, before what intrigue you about Pope Francis, tell me again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, well -- I mean just by evidence by what you see here, there's something about him that draws people to him. And I think a lot of people don't even know why, but just kind of unexplain attraction to see this man.

And I think it's because what you see in Pope Francis today, live expression of the gospel. And what do to that, we're all attracted to that gospel, attracted to Jesus who is at the heart.

And what we get in Pope Francis is a living expression of that, so I think.

COSTELLO: Thank you both so much I so appreciate it. I heard a couple of cheers. I know Jumbo Trans here -- on here Anderson and everyone where here to catch a glimpse on the pope because they know, they won't take a glimpse until twilight tonight.

COOPER: Yeah, Carol it does seem like there -- the motorcade is now on route to the seminary, often time as the motorcade frankly gets close to cameras and cameras actually go a little haywire because of some security systems that are in place. It ends up actually kind of jammers, which end up jamming the cameras, so that's why you see the transmission sort of breaking down depending on what sort of transmission it is.

But Delia Gallagher I want to play something the pope said about women, during the homily. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPE FRANCIS, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): More challenge today is to build all those solid foundations and to foster the sense of collaboration and shared responsibility in planning the future of our parishes and institutions.

This does not mean relinquishing the spiritual authority with which might have been entrusted, rather it means this serve you and employing wisely the monophobias which the spirit pours out up on the church.

And in a particular way, it means value bring the immense contribution which women lay and religious and made and continue to make to the life of our communities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:35:05] COOPER: And Delia an extensive comments there from Pope Francis.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly to the point of what we were saying. It doesn't mean relinquishing the spiritual authorities, that they have been given. That means the priesthood, yet it involves extending, creatively finding ways for women to be involved in the authority of the church that's specifically refers to that part of the conversation.

Of course the additional part is women and the family. And, you know, with Pope speaks of his grandmother Rosa is being fundamental in passing on his faith.

And I think he's also playing to that part. But particularly when he talks about not relinquishing spiritual authority that means the authority of priesthood.

COOPER: We're going to take a quick break because we want to be able to bring you his arrival at the seminary and the songs by the seminarians.

We'll take a short break, our coverage continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And here's the Pope Francis arriving St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in lower Merion Township, where he's going to be greeted by about 150 seminarians in song. They'll be singing Domine salvum fac, let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:43:14] COOPER: Probably exciting time for these seminarians obviously to have Pope Francis visiting and Delia, telling (ph) them to sing Happy Birthday.

GALLAGHER: He looked like he turned around and said to them, let sing happy birthday to the archbishop, and the Archbishop Chaput's birthday.

So I think that was a nice gesture on the part of the pope and the Archbishop (inaudible).

BRUCE FEILER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: And good news they don't have to make copyright on it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So he's going into the seminary have so much needed rest well deserved rest. And then he's going to basically come back here later this evening. So if you're wondering where we're sitting and what all the noise and immediately is because they getting ready for the P.A.'s for the festival and concert right behind us later tonight.

But in the interim he'll also be going in about 4:30 to independence hall to make a big speech on immigration.

COOPER: Immigration, yeah. Explain to me a little bit, I mean as the day progresses, so he's going to be down for several hours resting.

GALLAGHER: Yes, he had lunch here. This is where he staying by the way while he's in Philadelphia to the seminary.

And so they'll have lunch, and have a little bit of rest time and then an important talk on immigration into the Hispanic community in particular at independence hall.

Of course immigration being one of the big things for this pope and making the connection that immigration breaks up families. So that's why in addition to a lot of other, that's why he's placing it here in the context of the family.

And then tonight prayer service interest first with testimonials from families and of course singing from lots of famous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aretha Franklin, Andrea Bocelli...

COOPER: Yeah, there's a lot to discuss, we've heard certainly a lot during the homily to discuss from Pope Francis.

[12:44:54] We're going to take a short break and our coverage continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome back to our coverage where the pope in Philadelphia.

Just moments ago he went in to the seminary where he stay. You can see those preachers and all those seminarians accompany him into that building where he will spend sometime having lunch and so much needed rest before his next formal event which is at independence hall where he'll be giving a major speech on immigration.

And of course remember this is Philadelphia it's the city of America's founding father, founding freedom. And he will use the lectern that Abraham Lincoln used to deliver Gettysburg Address when he makes those comments about immigration.

I'm here with Anderson Cooper, with Bruce Feiler, Delia Gallagher, we're all here together and all politics and local.

[12:50:05] For this church he's talking about immigration not just because of the social justice elements of it but because the Hispanics and Latinos in this country are the fastest growing members of history.

He has to be able to appeal for those people and statistics show that half, more than half of the young American Catholics underway by are Hispanics.

FEILER: And the history is very nuance because you are basically, it presents Catholic in America as more or less stay the same 22 or 25 percent for a century. But a third of native born Catholics have left the church, that jack has been filled by Hispanic immigrants but also by also Filipinos and others.

But here's the thing that is that the younger Hispanics are leaving the church in the same numbers.

OK, so if you're second or a third generation Hispanic you're leaving at the same pace as the greater Catholics were.

So the -- you can't just rely on the Hispanics to fill the kiosk and to fill the campers and to fill the sort of the dynamism at the church because they're drifting away as well.

COOPER: And we've heard repeatedly from Pope Francis on this visit, he identify himself as the child of immigrants and also a child of this continent.

GALLAGHER: Yeah, and I think that's why in a certain sense he has a special affection towards the Spanish thinking community in the United States. In addition to wanting sort of bring the numbers of I think it's a kind of a genuine out pouring from a Latin pope to Latin American culture.

COOPER: There had been initially reports they hid actually wanted to come from Mexico in to the United States.

GALLAGHER: He said it himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said it on a plane.

GALLAGHER: He said on the plane, that I wanted to come from Mexico. But I realize that I wouldn't be able to go and see Our Lady of Guadeloupe, I won't be able to do the Mexico part of it properly, and then Cuba came up and so he went through Cuba to show the importance of immigration or migration.

And also I think to remind Americans as he did often in Cuba that it they're not isolated, they're not alone, they have neighbors to the south.

COOPER: It's also interesting when you consider the time we were add in politically and how the issue of immigration and other, it's a legal immigration is something which is very much in the forefront here. This trip was planned long ago so he kind of been planned out this way but it certainly a timely visit and timely words from this pontiff.

GALLAGHER: And think of what's going on in Europe as well.

COOPER: Of course, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we want to go to Miguel Marquez who's actually sending outside independence hall bed to preview the speech that the pope was going to deliver. And what is going there now, people gathering already Miguel? MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, hey they've been gathering for hours. It has been a -- it's a celebration down here for many reasons.

One, because 8-year-old Francis here, he turned 8-years-old today, happy birthday.

I know you guys are ready for the pope?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE/FEMALE: Yeah.

MARQUEZ: They've been lining up for hours here, we have hours to go before the pope gets here. I want to give you a sense of the big crowd out here. It's going to be about 50,000 people. The National Museum of American History, we have a camera up there, if you got to get us scope of the number of people out here. They'll be lining the roots that the pope will take down here and we'll have probably 50,000 perhaps more in this area along for the pope.

I want to bring in somebody who the pope is going to speak directly to today. Fernando Torres, you came here as a young man from Venezuela on a tourist visa, you over stayed it, you were illegal, you're now a citizen and a rocket scientist. No, you're an aerospace engineer, rocket scientist.

What do you expect to hear from this pope today?

FERNANDO TORRES: Well first of all welcome to CNN family to Philadelphia when it is all began, we where all the freedom began. So we're in front of the independence hall but hopefully the pope message is about, we need to be united.

Somehow we have some political figures that chose to go against us. We weren't car, I work my way, especially myself for the college from Washington D.C. until it's was all the way to become a aerospace engineer.

It is not just of what we did, more important, what we're going to do next to help extenuations.

MARQUEZ: But because of your personal history what is like to have the number one catholic on the planet, God's voice on earth, talking directly to you.

TORRES: He has this, he has no -- it has no words that we can express. He's a Latin pope too, so on top of that he's so special to us of Latin people as immigrants who have the leader of our catholic church in our home.

MARQUEZ: You've been in Philadelphia for ten years, very tough times for Philadelphia for the (inaudible) sees here, very tough time for Catholics in this place because of the sex scandal, because of budget problems, because everything, did you question your faith?

TORRES: I do got to be honest, yes, I did question my faith with the sexual scandal that was something that really does a lot of us. MARQUEZ: And has this pope, change that somehow?

TORRES: Significantly, he reenergize us, he open up his heart whether the best message that he has. He got a good human-being, who am I to judge? And the forgiveness and the unity, so it is incredible when you have the energy, even though his 78-years-old, he's incredible, the energy that he brought to us.

[12:55:04] MARQUEZ: How excited are you to see him?

TORRES: I can't express it, this is a dream come true. I'm hoping that he's really going to help unite us as Americans that we are. And hopefully also help my people in Venezuela because we're going through a small dictatorship over there.

And we need to -- actually the United States need to open up as well. Hope we have any.

MARQUEZ: So much hope, so much promise, I think that everybody here, did you hear you this, I think you think the same, that he's change things for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE/FEMALE: Yeah.

MARQUEZ: That the level of promise that had hope at this pope has brought to the people, specially the young people that I talked too, is extraordinary. So we look forward it again.

I heard Carol say earlier they expecting a 700,000 people tonight at the vigil that the pope will give just incredible turnout here. If Washington was big politics and New York was big city, this is big, big crowds.

Back to you guys.

COOPER: We'll it's also starting just how personal this visit is for so many people and so many different ways.

GALLAGHER: Yeah, you heard this young man from Venezuela. I mean and talking about an authoritarian government and hoping that the pope could help out in that. And that's also connected to immigration and to the very important applicable religious freedom which is what pope will also concentrate on his talk.

COOPER: Well our coverage of course is going to continue throughout the day here on CNN.

We're going to take a break. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)