VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 164
DATE 25-09-2015

Summary:
- The Pope at the United States Congress: political activity must promote the
good of the person and be based on human dignity
- The Holy Father: there is no social or moral justification for homelessness
- Vespers with the clergy and religious of the Cathedral of New York: gratitude
and hard work are the two pillars of spiritual life
- Notice

___________________________________________________________

 The Pope at the United States Congress: political activity must promote the
good of the person and be based on human dignity
 Vatican City, 25 September 2015 (VIS) - The United States Congress, which met
yesterday in joint session (an assembly of both the House of Representatives
and
the Senate) was addressed by a Pope for the first time in its history. Francis'
arrival was announced by the speaker of the House of Representatives and
Republican house leader John Boehner, and by the vice president of the United
States, the Democrat Joe Biden. The extraordinary session was also attended by,
among others, the dean of the Diplomatic Corps, the Supreme Court, and the
secretary of State John Kerry.
 The Pope was greeted with a standing ovation and delivered a discourse in
English, published in full below, in which he underlined that all political
activity must serve the good of the human person and be based on respect and
dignity. Francis referred to four great Americans: President Abraham Lincoln,
"guardian of liberty", the political activist Martin Luther King, whose "dream
of equality continues to inspire us all", Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic
Worker Movement, whose "social activism, passion for justice and the cause of
the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel", and the Cistercian monk Thomas
Merton, "a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and ... a man of
dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions".
 The following is the full text of the Holy Father's address:
 "I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of
Congress in 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'. I would like to
think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent,
from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common
responsibility.
 "Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social
responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable
this
country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of
its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the
dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the
common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society
endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating
the
growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater
vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the
people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected
you.
 "Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On
the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolises the
need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just
legislation.
On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the
transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides us with a good
synthesis
of your work: you are asked to protect, by means of the law, the image and
likeness fashioned by God on every human face.
 "Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people
of the United States. Here, together with their representatives, I would like
to
take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who
strive each day to do an honest day's work, to bring home their daily bread, to
save money and -one step at a time - to build a better life for their families.
These are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes,
but in their own quiet way sustain the life of society. They generate
solidarity
by their actions, and they create organisations which offer a helping hand to
those most in need.
 "I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who
are
a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways,
especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their insights. I
know that many of them are retired, but still active; they keep working to
build
up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are
working to realise their great and noble aspirations, who are not led astray by
facile proposals, and who face difficult situations, often as a result of
immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue with all of you, and
I
would like to do so through the historical memory of your people.
 "My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are marking
the
anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the
reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their
many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice -
some at the cost of their lives - to build a better future. They shaped
fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American
people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and
conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so
with
dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality.
In honouring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the
here
and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.
 "I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin
Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
 "This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination
of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who laboured tirelessly
that 'this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom'. Building a
future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit
of subsidiarity and solidarity.
 "All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social
and
political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of
violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of
God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of
individual
delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially
attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other
kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name
of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding
religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is
another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic
reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and
sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of
our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarisation
which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be
freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To
imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to
take
their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.
 "Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice.
We
are asked to summon the courage and the intelligence to resolve today's many
geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world, the effects of
unjust structures and actions are all too apparent. Our efforts must aim at
restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting
the
well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward together, as
one,
in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for
the
common good.
 "The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of
cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the
United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges
demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one
another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.
 "In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to
building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past,
the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and
love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society.
Such
cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms
of slavery, born of grave injustices which can be overcome only through new
policies and new forms of social consensus.
 "Here I think of the political history of the United States, where democracy
is
deeply rooted in the mind of the American people. All political activity must
serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his
or her dignity. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. If
politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it
cannot be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an
expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the
greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests
in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social
life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage
you in this effort.
 "Here too I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to
Montgomery fifty years ago as part of the campaign to fulfil his 'dream' of
full
civil and political rights for African Americans. That dream continues to
inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of
'dreams'. Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams
which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.
 "In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their
dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are
not
fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to
you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended
from immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us
were not always respected. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart
of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation.
Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but it is difficult to
judge the past by the criteria of the present. Nonetheless, when the stranger
in
our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the
past.
We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate
new generations not to turn their back on our 'neighbours' and everything
around
us. Building a nation calls us to recognise that we must constantly relate to
others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal
subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can
do
this.
 "Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second
World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On

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