US President Barack Obama (right) welcomes Pope Francis to the United States as the Pontiff shakes hands with dignitaries upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. — Reuters photo
WASHINGTON: Pope Francis arrived in the United States on Tuesday for his first visit – a historic six-day trip during which his focus on consumerism, poverty and the marginalised risks appearing as a criticism of American society.
The 78-year-old Argentine pontiff stepped onto US soil for the first time at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where he was greeted by US President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters, after making a tour of communist-ruled Cuba.
US Catholic leaders and a select crowd of several hundred well-wishers were on hand to greet the pope, who wore his traditional papal whites and waved to the crowd, who chanted: “Ho ho, hey hey, welcome to the USA.”
A small group of children from Catholic schools in the Washington area were brought forward to welcome the pontiff.
Obama will host the Jesuit pope at the White House on Wednesday.
“When the president sits down with Pope Francis tomorrow in the Oval Office, the president will not arrive at that meeting with a political agenda,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
“This is an opportunity for two men who have so many values in common to talk about the efforts that they are making in their respective and quite different roles to advance those shared values.”
Asked at a briefing why Obama has gone to ‘these lengths’ to greet the pope, Earnest said “Pope Francis, we have seen, has really struck a chord in people not just across the United States but around the world. He serves as a source of inspiration not just for Catholics but of people of frankly all religions around the world.”
Francis will make two key speeches during his visit, addressing Congress today and the United Nations on Friday.
On the plane from Cuba to the United States, the pope told reporters that he would not specifically raise Washington’s embargo on Havana in his speech before American lawmakers, but expressed his opposition to it.
“The Holy See is against this embargo, but it is against all embargoes,” he said.
Other topics in his addresses will include critiques of the dominance of finance and technology; a condemnation of world powers over the conflicts gripping the planet; appeals to protect and welcome immigrants; and climate change, according to Vatican sources.
On Tuesday, he traveled in a Fiat 500 to the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Washington, where he will be staying, eschewing larger, more polluting vehicles.
The visit will take place under tight security, with US authorities on top alert to handle the complexities of protecting a pope who insists on traveling in an open vehicle to be closer to the masses.
Authorities are facing a particular security headache in New York, where Francis plans to criss-cross Manhattan at a time when 170 world leaders will be in town for the UN General Assembly. He will preside over an inter-faith ceremony at Ground Zero, visit a Harlem Catholic school and greet crowds on a procession through Central Park.
He will wrap up his trip Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia at an international festival of Catholic families.
The pope arrives in the United States after four days in Cuba, where he said three masses before adoring crowds and met President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel, the men who have ruled the island since its 1959 revolution.
The pontiff, the first from Latin America, played a key role in brokering the recent rapprochement between Washington and Havana, which resulted in the restoration of diplomatic ties in July after more than half a century. — AFP