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   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)