By Zackary Nichols
Courier Staff Reporter
Pope Francis arrived in Washington DC from Vatican City last week, becoming the seventh papal to visit the United States, and the third to visit the White House.
Earlier this year Pope Francis helped restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. The Pope’s visit to the United States came immediately after a visit to Cuba.
On his first day, the Pope spoke to a crowd of over eleven thousand people on the White House South Lawn, where his discussed climate change and religious and racial tolerance.
Later the Pope visited Congress, the first time a Pope has ever done so. The Pope electrified the room with a speech calling for action on poverty, capital punishment policy, and climate change. Pope Francis also called for equality and for people to follow “Golden Rule.”
Throughout the speech the Pope drew a large amount of applause from Democratic officials, while Republicans seemed hesitant. One exception was Speaker of the House John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, who broke into tears from the sheer emotional nature of the speech.
While speaking to Congress Pope Francis also earned standing ovations when he discussed immigration policy. “We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.”
So what do Logan Students think about the Papal’s visit to the States?
“I agree with his stance on homelessness because it’s a problem everywhere and a lot of those people are really nice and good people. Homeless people are human and they should be treated like humans.” said President of Youth Alive Christian Club Jan Tamondong.
“I find it funny how a lot of conservatives think that since he’s anti capitalist, he’s automatically ‘Stalin 2.0.’ Also, he really stressed the issue of military spending and I agree with his stance on that. The United States spends more money on the military than like the next ten countries combined, I find that to be unacceptable.” said Bill Peralta
“I’m not Catholic or Christian or anything so it doesn’t affect me like that, but he seems really chill for a Pope, like he ate with the homeless instead of Congress. He seems nice to gay people and he said dogs go to Heaven, so I like him.” said Lily Ngo.
“I really agree. We should be treating the environment as we treat others because what we do now to the environment will affect our future children and future generations,” voiced AP Environmental Studies student Jacob Galuego when asked about the Pope’s opinion on climate change.
The Pope has returned to Rome, and there are currently no plans as to where he will visit next.
After returning home the Papal showed his appreciation to the American people over Twitter.
“With my heartfelt thanks. May the love of Christ always guide the American people! #GodBlessAmerica.”
