Washington – Tomorrow Pope Francis will arrive in here in the Nation’s Capitol and he will be welcomed to the United States by President Barack Obama. The pontiff is a true friend and supporter of both climate control and of the reestablishment of relations between the United States and Cuba.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis is in the United States at a time when his presence can help conservatives on two major issues same-sex couples and for abortion foes who want to cut off federal money for Planned Parenthood, which are in line with the teachings of the church.
Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday — a first for a pope — at the invitation of Speaker John A. Boehner, a Catholic Republican from Ohio.
According to the New York Times Pope Francis arrives at an important time in American politics, it is also a time when Catholics play an outsize role at the highest levels of government. Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic, as are 31 percent of the members of Congress, compared with 22 percent of the overall adult population. Joe Biden Jr. is the nation’s first Catholic vice president; if he were to run and win next year, he would be the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy.
Six Catholic Republicans are already running for president, more than ever before: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, George E. Pataki, Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum. A seventh, John R. Kasich, was a Catholic altar boy who was nicknamed Pope because he aspired to the Vatican before migrating in adulthood to a Protestant church. Martin O’Malley, a Democratic candidate, is also Catholic.
So while clearly Pope Francis falls in line with two key points of President Obama on climate control as well as Cuba. He could help the GOP in their abortion battle and perhaps in the marriage equality fight as well.
