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Pope Calls For Defense Religious Freedom; Pope to Immigrants: "Never Be Ashamed". Aired 5-6p ET

Aired September 26, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] POPE FRANCIS (through a translator): -- Whatever religion have tried to serve the God of peace by building cities of brotherly love. By caring for our neighbors in need, by defending the dignity of God's gift of the life in order to stages, defending the cause of the poor and the immigrants. Much too often those most in need from everywhere are unable to be heard. You are their voice and many of you men and women have made their cry heard. In this witness, which frequently encounters powerful resistance, you remind American democracy of the ideals for which it was founded. And that society is weakened every time that in justice might prevail.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

A moment ago I spoke about the trend in a globalization. Globalization is not bad in itself. On the contrary. The trend to globalize is good. It unites us to what can be bad is the way to do it. If a globalization tries to make everybody even as if it was a sphere, that globalization destroys the richness and the specificities of each person and each people. If a globalization tries to unite everyone but does so respect respecting each individual, each person, each richness, each specificity, respecting each people, each richness, each wealth of each specificity, that globalization is good and it enables us to keep on growing and takes us to peace. I like to use geometry here.

If globalization is a sphere where each point is equidistant from the center, it voids, it isn't good. If globalization unites, unifies, where everybody is united but everybody can keep his or his own identity, it's excellent because people may grow and it gives dignity to every man and woman and gives and grants rights. Among us today there are members of America's large Hispanic population. As well as representatives of recent immigrants to the United States. Thank you for opening the doors.

Many of you have emigrated. I greet you with my heart. And many of you came to this country at a great personal cost, but with the hope of building a new life. Do not feel discouraged by all the challenges and hardships you might face. I ask you not to forget that like those who came here before you, you bring many gifts to this new nation of yours.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[17:05:18] Please, do not feel ever ashamed of your traditions. Do not forget the lessons you learned from your elders. Which can bring an enrichment to the life of this American land. I repeat, do not be ashamed of what is part of you, central part of you. You are also called to be responsible citizens.

You are called to be responsible citizens and to contribute like others with so much resilience before you to contribute fruitfully to the lives of the communities in which you live. I think in particular of the vibrant faith of which so many of you possess in the deep sense of family life and all those other values which you have inherited. By contributing with your gifts, you will not only find your place here, you will also help to renew society from within.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Do not forget what happened here. Over two centuries ago. Do not forget that declaration which said that all men and women were created equally to be equal and given by its creator certain un-transferable and unchangeable rights and that governments exist to protect and defend these rights. My dear friends, I thank you for your warm welcome and for being here with me today. Let's keep freedom protect, take care of liberty, liberty of conscience, liberty to religious freedom. Liberty of each person, family, people, which is the one that yields rights. May this country and each of you thank for all these blessings and liberties that you enjoy, that you may be able to defend these freedoms, especially the freedom of religion that God has given you. He will bless you all and, please, do pray a little bit for me. Thank you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And there you have it, just enormous applause. Everyone rising to their feet as Pope Francis finishes those remarks there at Independence Hall. Let's listen in again.

POPE FRANCIS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The Lord be with you.

(Crowd): With your spirit.

POPE FRANCIS: May almighty God bless you all.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[19:10:35] HARLOW: And there you have it, prayer, saying bless you all, following his remarks there. Largely on religious freedom and immigration at Independence Hall, speaking from the same lectern where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. We want to welcome our viewers both here in the United States and around the world to our special continuing coverage of Pope Francis' Trip to America.

I am Poppy Harlow live here in Philadelphia with my friend Jake Tapper.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: We are joined by CNN religion commentator Father Edward Beck. CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen. And in Washington, Father Thomas Reese, a senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter. We want to dive in and explore what exactly the Pope just said. But let's start with some crowd reaction from CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto who's at Independence Hall.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Jake, you're hearing a bell being rung as the Pope leaves here. What more can we say, the leader of the Catholic Church speaking before Independence Hall, where our country was founded on the principles of all men and women are created equal. Speaking then from behind the podium that Abraham Lincoln used at the Gettysburg address near the end of the war that ended slavery and with a message here about religious freedom, but also as you and Poppy mentioned about immigration, and I'll tell you, he went off script a number of times to further highlight and emphasize his point celebrating diversity in America, the diversity of culture. And with this crowd here of some 50,000 people, largely or many of them Latinos, many of them immigrants, it was during those lines, it was on those lines that they erupted with cheers and emotion.

Towards the latter half of the speech and I was watching it, following the copy, Jake and Poppy and I noticed he was going off script to emphasize with real energy these points. He said and repeated, do not be ashamed of your differences, celebrate your peculiarities, your idiosyncrasies. With each of those line you heard people stand up here and cheer and chant Francesco for Pope Francis, Papa Francesco. That was his audience here today, the religious freedom certainly an essential part of the speech, but I'll tell you, when he got to that message about inclusiveness, reflecting on the history really of our country going back to the founders, the history of Abraham Lincoln and then to today, that is when this crowd erupted.

And I sense from him the greatest energy as he was delivering those lines. Many of them again off the cuff delivered and repeated with emphasis. Really a remarkably powerful message today and I'll tell you the people here felt that. Just one thing I would note at the end, that our father prayer, that was off script, as well, and then he blessed the crowd. And then you felt the crowd go to silence as it accepted that blessing. You heard -- we heard Miguel Marquez speaking earlier of the Catholic lottery when those parents there had their children kissed by the Pope. I feel like people here just to be in that presence, to receive that blessing even from a distance, felt like they were very lucky, as well -- Jake and Poppy.

TAPPER: Any images of people in the crowd from Philadelphia and from all over the world, people from 100 countries at least are here at this summit on families. Many of them moved to tears.

John Allen, to talk for a second about the religious liberty, the religious freedom aspect of this, there was a part where he talked about various forms of modern tyranny seeking to suppress religious freedom. He was in Cuba, a place where there is literal modern tyranny. He spoke very forcefully about siding with the Catholic Church, siding with the bishops when it came to the contraception mandate in ObamaCare when he was at the White House and then went to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor, who are the public face of the lawsuit against the Obama administration. Was there any one specific kind of tyranny he was addressing do you think or was it all of them?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Well, I think it's all of them and more. Because what you just mentioned were church state tensions vis-a-vis a government. And you're right, in Cuba it takes a very certain form than it does in the United States, but tensions both places.

TAPPER: That's literally a tyranny as exact to figure it out.

ALLEN: Metaphorical tyranny, sure.

TAPPER: Yes.

[19:15:02] ALLEN: But I think what he says various forms, he doesn't just mean government imposed. And that's where I think one of those moments he went off script was so critically important, that reflection he gave us on globalization. Remember, this is a pastor from the developing world, who feels like he's been on the receiving end in some ways of the way globalization works in the early 21st Century, and so when he made that plea, let's not have form of globalization that means we all have to be the same, because in practice what that means is we all have to be like the west.

HARLOW: Right.

ALLEN: Okay. And this is a pastor who comes from the global south saying, no, let's preserve the diversity, the riches of cultures. I think he would say a kind of globalization that imposes one model of life for everybody, which is a cultural process, and that he would also say that's one of the various forms of tyranny.

TAPPER: Interesting, Father Beck, you were studying, following, making note of any time he went off script. What struck you? What was most important to you about this speech?

FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: I thought it was fascinating is, what he emphasizes is that religious liberty is not a subculture --

HARLOW: Right.

BECK: But it's part of every people and nation, but this Pope knows that in our constitution, freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. And at every stop he has said if you don't believe, if you can't believe, still pray for me. He's being inclusive to everybody. I think what's remarkable here is he brings up the Quakers of all people. No structure, no hierarchy, they believe everybody's a priest. So, I mean, what I'm saying is that --

TAPPER: A big part of life in Philadelphia, though, the Quaker. The Quaker tradition. BECK: Definitely. But for him to accentuate them as a religious

group, a Catholic pope, I mean, it's remarkable to me in the context of religious freedom that he talks about the Quakers and he talks about the ways in which it's not a subculture, but a part of every people and nation, once more a very liberating message I would say.

TAPPER: This pope acknowledges atheists more than most American politicians do.

BECK: Yes. Absolutely. His very first serious interview he did as Pope was with a left wing atheist journalist in Italy by the name of Eugenio Scalfari, and the two have actually become friends. And I think that was a deliberate tone setting movement. Face it, 22 percent now categorize themselves as an atheist, agnostics, or nothing. Twenty two percent. Big part --

TAPPER: Right. So, if you're not in dialogue with them, you're not in dialogue with a big chunk of those population.

BECK: Exactly.

HARLOW: I also want to bring in Father Thomas Reese, the senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter to this conversation. And Father, your take on the end of his remarks, and he went along script, but what he said certainly struck me. And he said, speaking to many of the immigrants in front of him, you bring many gifts to your new nation. You should never be ashamed. And then once again he repeats that word, I repeat, do not be ashamed of what is part of you, your life's blood. And that goes to where he went off script talking about how globalization is not bad, what can be bad is if it is in the form of taking away the richness of our individuality and making us all the same. What did that mean to you?

FATHER THOMAS REESE, SENIOR ANALYST, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER: In defense of immigrants, defense of religious freedom, but then he flips it and talks about the contribution that immigrants make to American society, the contributions that religious groups make to American society. So it's not just, you know, a demand for rights, it's also a call to recognize the gifts that these -- that religion gives, brings to American society, that the immigrants bring to American society. I love the line where he talked about religious groups' call to conversion, reconciliation, concern for the future of society, self- sacrifice in the service of common good, and compassion for those in need.

It's not just that religious groups have to have freedom so that they can worship and do whatever they want, but that very religious freedom allows us to have the pluralism of religious groups in this country, which is so enriching. And in the same way, the freedom and the acceptance of immigrants in this country enriches us so that we're not -- we're in unity, but we're not in uniformity, and then he applies that to the whole world in terms of globalization. I think that this was an extremely well-crafted speech.

HARLOW: A speech filled with warmth and filled with moments many of us were not expecting. We weren't exactly expecting that he would go off script and he certainly did at points. A lot more to talk about ahead. We want to get a quick break and we'll be back in a moment live from Philadelphia during his historic speech from Pope Francis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:23:15] TAPPER: Welcome back to CNN's Live Coverage of Pope Francis in America. And welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

Let's go out to the crowds where CNN correspondent Miguel Marquez is live in the teeming masses there. Miguel, what was the response for the Pope's speech about mainly focused on religious liberty, but also touching on immigration and, specifically, in a note that seemed to attract a lot of applause and cheers, immigrants.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this was a very specific message for a very specific audience. When he said thank you, and he spoke mostly in Spanish. There was translation on the screens, but most people were speaking Spanish here, but you did hear the Spanish speaking audience here erupt at certain points when he said I thank you for opening doors. That was one of those moments and then to see everybody pray with him at the end, the "Our Father," was very, very touching, as well. I want to bring in Evangelina Avalos, and your two children Juliana and Fernando --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ulandra.

MARQUEZ: Ulandra, I'm very sorry, thank you very much. You're from Mexico. Did you -- you came here on a tourist visa, you overstayed. That was 20 years ago. Where are you now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where I am?

MARQUEZ: Where are you in the process of becoming legal now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we apply -- my sister applied for us, so then we're waiting for, you know, for that. They take long time, very long time.

MARQUEZ: So you are in process. To hear this Pope come here and speak directly to you, what did that feel like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amazing. I think my boys is here, you know --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heard, thank you. Because all of us who come like that way, we just in the dark. I mean, they know that we're here, but they don't count us like we're here.

MARQUEZ: It makes you feel like you matter, like you count?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, it make me feel that way.

MARQUEZ: And you've never heard that from a pope before, you've never heard that from your church? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, we do hear it from the church, but it was

very impressed to hear from him. I mean, especially in our language, Spanish.

MARQUEZ: In Spanish, very important, yes? Philadelphia's had a tough time with the Catholic Church since you've been here in the last 20 years, certainly the last ten years because of the scandals that they've had here. Was your faith shaken? Has this pope brought you back?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In my particular case, I don't think my faith was shaken, but to see the Pope visit here, it was amazing. It was like -- that was one of the reason why I come here, I think. You know, so I can be able to feel the presence of God no matter what.

MARQUEZ: Fernando, there was one part of this that really spoke to you. What did he say that really touched you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your tradition and always believe in what you believe.

MARQUEZ: Why was that so important to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, most people come here and learn new traditions, but you also need to keep what is true to you so you remember from your experience in the past.

MARQUEZ: I take it you believe you are the new America, the new face of America. What is it like to be in this place where the declaration of independence is kept and all the documents and the liberty bell and for him to speak directly to you and to your family?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I normally don't feel so important or, like, that I've been anywhere really important, but now I sort of get this rush of a feeling that I'm here, that I was so close to the Pope.

MARQUEZ: How old are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eleven.

MARQUEZ: And you get that? The message that this pope sent to this audience was not lost. The people here understand it and they are going to take it home. And I think you guys are going, you've been here for what, eight hours and you're going now on to the next venue. These two are very excited about that, I'll tell you. She just wants dinner. They may never get any rest. But this is a community that loves this pope and he is certainly changing the church and the message. Back to you.

HARLOW: I can tell you, Miguel, they have a great show waiting for them. Jake and I have been listening to them preparing and and preparing --

TAPPER: Yes. A lot of sound checks.

HARLOW: A lot of sound checks. But certainly, the message resonating with that 11-year-old girl, her entire family, him speaking to a crowd of 40,000, many of them Hispanic immigrants, but really representative of the 30 million Hispanic Catholics, or some of them at least, in this country -- Jake.

TAPPER: Well, let's be honest. I mean, there's a very strong debate going on in politics in this country right now about illegal immigration and some of the language being used by commentators and others when talking about illegal immigrants has offended some members of the Latino community.

HARLOW: And those outside of it.

TAPPER: And yes, for an 11-year-old girl to hear from her, you know --

HARLOW: Feel encouraged.

TAPPER: Yes, it probably means a great deal amidst some of the uglier language out there, I would think.

[17:28:36] HARLOW: With us again, CNN religion commentator Father Edward Beck, CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen. To you both, when you look at this, he's certainly not the first pope to speak about immigration. I mean, you heard it from Benedict, you heard it from Pope John Paul. What is it about the way that he speaks about it, that he's different, or is it in the context of the time this country's in and the political debate this country's in?

BECK: I think part of it is he speaks from his experience. He has said, I am the son of immigrants, and so he brings a certain authenticity to it because of his own experience, and I think this is a man that keeps saying of the people, but he likes -- he worked with immigrants. I mean, he welcomed those people into his own parish and his own parish communities. And so, I think because he lived that experience, it becomes much more significant for him.

TAPPER: And think about the people that he is focusing on, on this trip to the United States, people that most of us walk by, the homeless, don't think about too much unless it's in the realm of politics, immigrants. Tomorrow he's visiting a prison, as Poppy so wonderfully profiled in her piece earlier in the show. These are people that are literally marginalized by society and that is who he wants to focus on.

ALLEN: Yes, and that's not just something he's trying out here in the United States. I mean, that has been a hallmark of his papacy, really from well before he became pope.

[17:30:05] I remember after shortly after he was elected I went down to Buenos Aires to do reporting on the pope and went in one of the slums and asked the pastor there, OK, this thing about the new pope being the bishop of the slugs, is that PR or is that reality? He said to me, don't take my word for it, go out into the street and ask people.

So, I went out and stopped five or six people at random, what can you tell me about the new pope and before they verbalized an answer, what they'd do is run back into the tin shacks or wooden shacks that they call home and come back and show me these prized family photos of the new pope baptizing their children or confirming their nephews or sitting in their living room consoling them when their husbands had died, because that's where he spent his time.

So, this love and this outreach for everyone, but certainly for the most vulnerable, the most marginalized, the most excluded is not just a hallmark of this pope, it's a hallmark of this man.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So, it's one thing to come to this country and send this message over and over again, whether you agree with all of his message or not, he has done so well communicating to the people and being fully understood and accepted. He's a brilliant communicator.

Now what? When he leaves, when he boards that plane and goes back to the Vatican, now what for this country is the question.

FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: It is a question, and again, I think he's going to take it step by step. I mean, each leg of the journey that he makes, not only here, but in Cuba and now where he'll go from here, he seems to drive home the same points. Like these transcend culture, they transcend religious denomination, he's trying to say he's a universal themes that need to be applied everywhere.

This is not the center of the universe for Pope Francis. We may think the United States is center of the universe, but this is the first pope from the new world, the global south, and he's saying -- remember when he said, I'm an American too?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

BECK: A South American, don't forget about us. It's not just about you.

He wasn't chiding us, but he's saying remember it's bigger than you. He says that wherever he goes, it's bigger than you.

TAPPER: We're going to --

ALLEN: Very, very briefly, you asked about our hopes for the fallout from this trip. Jake, you and I were talking about how it's impossible to come up with a single American politician who's with the pope on every issue.

TAPPER: People on Twitter were, I challenged, and they kept throwing me answers like, nope, nope, nope.

ALLEN: Here's my hope, pope who stood both for religious freedom and for compassion for immigrants and as a bonus gave us a critique of globalization. My hope is that both sides of the political divides in America maybe won't start to agree with one of another, but maybe a little bit of spirit of Francis will enter them and they'll stop demonizing one another. That'd be my -- TAPPER: Well, from your mouth.

We're going to take a very quick break. Thank you so much, John Allen and Father Beck.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:47] TAPPER: Welcome back.

Moments ago, Pope Francis delivered a very candid speech on immigration and on religious freedom. He was standing at Abraham Lincoln's former lectern at Independence Hall here in beautiful downtown Philadelphia.

HARLOW: And he spoke directly to many, many, many Hispanic immigrants in this country. We want you to listen to part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): A moment ago I spoke about the trend to a globalization. Globalization is not bad in itself. On the contrary, the trend to globalize is good. It unites us.

What can be bad is the way to do it. If a globalization tries to make everybody even as if it was a sphere, that globalization destroys the richness and the specificities of each person and each people. If a globalization tries to unite everyone but does so respecting each individual, each person, each richness, each specificity, respecting each people, each richness, each wealth of each specificity, that globalization is good and it enables us to keep on growing and takes us to peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Big applause for the pope when he said that. Let's bring back our panel to discuss this further.

Rachel Campos Duffy, she is the national spokeswoman for the Libra Initiative, and CNN political commentator Maria Cardona. We're also joined by CNN religion commentator, Father Edward Beck, and CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.

But, Rachel, let me go to you first. What do you think that meant, the pope going off script there and talking about the worth of each individual and the need of immigrants to stay true to who they are? What did that mean, do you think, to people in the audience?

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, LIBRE INITIATIVE: Well, as a practicing Catholic and a mom of seven children, what it said to me was for us to hold on to our Hispanic culture, which is very steeped in Catholicism, very steeped in faith, very centralized on the family. You know, the pope said, and that's why he's in Philadelphia, that the greatest threat to society right now is the demise of the family. And so, he's telling us, yes, America's a great place, but don't --

you know, be able to resist the secular forces that are trying to homogenize us into a culture that really is devoid of God and of religion, which is why he made religious liberty such a big part of that speech.

[17:40:02] And I would also say that it really dovetails really nicely with the other message that I thought he brought to America, which was about poverty.

We know Hispanics are facing an over 50 percent out of wedlock birth rate. We know that the greatest way to fight poverty is to have a mother and father in the home. The greatest predictor of poverty is when there is not a father in the home. So, he's asking us as Hispanics to protect family, to call for an enforcement or a protection of marriage and to encourage that in our culture.

HARLOW: Maria to you, we heard the pope and his remarks by twice saying you should never be ashamed of your traditions. Basically, embrace who you are, do not try to hide it. Do not try to be like everyone around you, even if you -- even if you feel uncomfortable at times. Then we heard Miguel Marquez speak to an 11-year-old girl of a family who's immigrated to this country and say for the first time she felt encouraged.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that was such an incredibly key moment, Poppy, because it really underscored what the message of the whole visit of the pope is about, and I got to tell you, I was completely overwhelmed as a Catholic Latina immigrant from South America, I really felt that he was talking to every immigrant in this country and telling them that they should be proud of all of the contributions that they have been making to this society. That they should never feel denigrated and I really believe he was saying that to juxtapose, frankly, the incredibly denigrating hate speech that has been coming from the extreme right wing in this country towards the immigrants.

But what also struck me is that he also essentially telling the immigrant community -- you are called upon to be responsible citizens like those who came before you, to essentially continue contributing to this country and to this society.

And you know what? That is what the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country are dying to do, sometimes literally dying to do. All they want is to be able to come out of the shadows and really contribute to this country, to pay taxes, to go to college, and to serve this country the way that they believe this country has served them, by giving them a second chance.

But one other thing that really struck me was when this pope talked about religious freedom, religious plurality, and essentially saying that no matter what god you serve, you are called upon to serve society and to serve those that are marginalized.

Let's remember that this pope talked about how the Koran had the same valid teachings as the bible, so hopefully Ben Carson is listening to that.

TAPPER: Let's go back to Independence Hall, where we'll find our national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, who had one of the best seats in the house.

Jim, what are you hearing from people who attended the speech and how did they take it, how did they receive it?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Jake, I'll let go Maria there before me to say the way the message was taken in this crowd was Latinos, other immigrants should embrace their differences, but also, in effect, the country, this country should embrace those differences.

The biggest applause lines were things when he said like I asked you not to forget like those who came before you, you bring many gifts to this new nation. When he said, I greet all of you with particular affection, speaking to the immigrants in the crowd, they took it as a different message, frankly, than they've been hearing certainly in the public political discourse here from some of the candidates, and I think it was intentional. Because I'll tell you, Archbishop Chaput invited the pope here to give a message about religious freedom here at Independence Hall, which he did.

But I sensed his energy really jump when he got to the moment where he was getting into this message about immigration, differences in this country, a reminder even at the very beginning as he stood in front of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Constitution ratified, when he said that a nation must constantly reaffirm its values. It was something of a reminder not just to the crowd, but to all Americans that these are the values you are founded upon, but you can't let those survive just by chance. It happens through hard work.

Those messages, I'll tell you in this crowd here, those were the times not only when the pope's energy jumped, but when this crowd's energy jumped and you heard that in the applause here. That's the message they certainly took from Pope Francis today.

HARLOW: Absolutely, Jim, and it reminds us what he had said time and time again, fight against consistently this globalization of indifference in so many different ways.

We have to get a quick break in, Jim Sciutto, thank you, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Maria Cardona.

[17:45:04] We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We are covering the pope's visit to the United States, specifically right now, today to Philadelphia.

HARLOW: Jake's hometown.

TAPPER: My hometown.

Let's go to CNN's Carol Costello. She's on Ben Franklin Parkway for us.

Carol, tonight's events that you're hearing a little bit of behind us right now, it's supposed to dwarf the crowd at Independence Hall, roughly a million people expected. It's an event that's also going to include entertainment with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and the Philadelphia orchestra performing.

What are people out there saying about tonight's event?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDNET: Oh, my goodness, Jake, oh, my gosh, the excitement is building. I want you to take a look behind me and take a look at all those people. They are awaiting the pope's arrival.

And we heard a little rumor, Jake, that the pope might make a double loop around Ben Franklin parkway. In other words, he might go up and down and up again and down, that will delight the crowd.

And so much different than Washington, D.C., right, where the pope did a 15-minute parade and that was it. Maybe the pope wants the City of Brotherly to definitely see that.

Come along with me. I want to take you through what's happening.

[17:50:01] So you see here, the stage is in front of me, that's where the pope will be.

Hi, everyone, are you excited? Whoo! All right!

If you look behind here, the media will be set up on risers where they can see what's happening on the stage as well. You can see in front of me, Secret Service is in force. Come around here, jay, take a look up here. You can see that Secret Service will be stationed above the crowd as well. Just to keep an eye on things. In fact, they were manning their post a short time ago.

But I'm telling you, excitement is palpable here, Jake Tapper. I know this is your hometown. You should be very proud. This event has been very organized and people are very nice. I just want to give another big cheer from the crowd.

Hey, excited for Pope Francis? Yay!

With that, I'll throw it back to you, Jake and Poppy.

TAPPER: Wow, Carol, crowd loves you as well.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back to our viewers both here in the United States and around world as we continue our coverage of the Pope Francis' visit here to the U.S. and as he comes down to Philadelphia. What day has been so far.

Father Beck is with us now. Final thoughts of the speech he delivered the Independence Hall.

BECK: I wish he'd go off script more. He's so animated with so determined when they goes off script.

He went off about globalization here. What is it about? Globalization is about international investment in trade. He has said, it favors the rich. It favors the powerful at the expense of the poor. He got the most animated talking about.

So, how he went off crypt, he said, you're calling me a socialist and Marxist -- he didn't say this -- but globalization is not bad if it respects dignity of the individual.

[17:55:01] He's saying it doesn't and it needs to and that's where he got most animated about.

HARLOW: Wow, remarkable.

TAPPER: Something that I think you're absolutely right, he's best when he's excited and he's just speaking from his heart, not from this script.

In about 45 minutes or so, the pope is going to start heading down Ben Carson Benjamin Franklin Parkway here, to the festival of families. And we're going to bring that to you live.

HARLOW: Yes, beautiful, beautiful. Our coverage continues. I'm Poppy Harlow, thank you for being with us. Good to be with you, my friend, Jake Tapper. Chris Cuomo will be next.

And you'll have --

TAPPER: Yes, I'll have complete coverage tomorrow about the pope's visit on "STATE OF THE UNION" starting at 9:00 a.m. Eastern and then, again, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern through 1:00.

You're watching special coverage right now of Pope Francis in America, only on CNN.

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