Mr. President,
I am deeply grateful for your welcome in the name of all Americans. As
the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this
country, which was largely built by such families. I look forward to
these days of encounter and dialogue, in which I hope to listen to, and
share, many of the hopes and dreams of the American people.
During my visit I will have the honor of addressing Congress, where I
hope, as a brother of this country, to offer words of encouragement to
those called to guide the nation’s political future in fidelity to its
founding principles. I will also travel to Philadelphia for the Eighth
World Meeting of Families, to celebrate and support the institutions of
marriage and the family at this, a critical moment in the history of our
civilization.
Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics
are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and
inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities,
and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless
other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to
build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns
and their right to religious liberty. That freedom remains one of
America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United
States Bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant,
precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from
everything that would threaten or compromise it.
Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution.
Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is
a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it
comes to the care of our “common home”, we are living at a critical
moment of history. We still have time to make the changes needed to
bring about “a sustainable and integral development, for we know that
things can change” (Laudato Si’, 13). Such change demands on our part a
serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may
be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living
under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part
of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today
powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies. To use a
telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it.
We know by faith that “the Creator does not abandon us; he never
forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still
has the ability to work together in building our common home” (Laudato
Si’, 13). As Christians inspired by this certainty, we wish to commit
ourselves to the conscious and responsible care of our common home.
The efforts which were recently made to mend broken relationships and to
open new doors to cooperation within our human family represent
positive steps along the path of reconciliation, justice and freedom. I
would like all men and women of good will in this great nation to
support the efforts of the international community to protect the
vulnerable in our world and to stimulate integral and inclusive models
of development, so that our brothers and sisters everywhere may know the
blessings of peace and prosperity which God wills for all his children.
Mr. President, once again I thank you for your welcome, and I look forward to these days in your country. God bless America!
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