Pope Francis urged the United States not to turn its back on undocumented immigrants, to reject the victimization of religious and ethnic minorities, to overcome income inequality and to save the planet from climate change, citing Scripture and the nation's founding ideals in a historic address to Congress Thursday.
Using the podium of the House as a pulpit, he repeatedly couched the most politically divisive issues in U.S. public life in the context of the lessons of the Bible and the example of American heroes, including Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, to encourage his audience to live up to the country's highest ideals.
While he referred to traditional Catholic priorities like opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion in passing, he argued that the faithful also had a duty to be engaged on other politically controversial social issues, like opposing the death penalty and forging a more equitable society to benefit those "trapped in a cycle of poverty."