Pope Francis deployed a deft political touch in his Washington charm offensive, pushing his agenda on finance, climate change and immigration without offending American sensitivities.
The cheering crowds who lined the streets of the US capital gave him a warm welcome, but even before Shepherd One had touched down in the city many conservative voices had spoken out against the pontiff.
The first pope from Latin America, Francis was charged with being a "leftist" bent on dismantling capitalism, throwing open America's borders and bridling her industry with environmental controls.
These very same ideas have seen Francis endear himself to younger and more liberal Americans, so often turned off by the Church's traditional teachings on sexuality, abortion and family values.
All these topics are subject to bitter debate in America's notoriously polarized political marketplace but somehow Pope Francis' visit and forthright views did not ratchet up rancor.
Instead, as he addressed a huge crowd gathered in front of the US Capitol, he was flanked by a beaming Democratic vice president and a Republican House speaker so overwhelmed he was openly weeping.
In his carefully judged speech to Congress, Francis had been at pains to cite American sources for his ideas, starting with Abraham Lincoln, the US president who most symbolizes national unity.
- 'Little bit leftie' -
He also paid tribute to Martin Luther King, a protestant pastor who led the black American civil rights struggle, and to social activist Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933.
He was careful not to offend Congress by repeating some of his most violent language against the "new tyranny" of capitalism and couched his support for immigrants in the language of the American dream.
"In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom," he said.
"We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners because most of us were once foreigners."
On board his plane on the way to Washington, Francis insisted his US critics had misunderstood his attitude to the market economy and exaggerated his difference from his more conservative predecessors.
"Maybe there's an impression I'm a little bit more leftie, but I haven't said a single thing that's not in the social doctrine of the Church," he reportedly told journalists.
US social conservatives were looking to the pope to reassure them that the Church is not moving away from its traditional opposition to abortion, a hot-button electoral topic in America.
Francis' spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters the pope urged US churchmen to keep up the fight and, although he did not use the word "abortion" in his address to Congress, the theme was there.
"Let us remember the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'," he said.
"The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development."
- More friends than enemies -
The pope managed to cross another minefield in his canonization of an American saint, the Franciscan friar Junipero Serra, who led the conversion of California to Christianity in the 19th century.
He remains a revered figure in the Catholic church but a bugbear to Native Americans who associate him with the violent suppression of their own culture and brutal deaths of many of their ancestors.
Francis did not halt the beatification process, begun under conservative predecessor John Paul II, but acknowledged the complaints and met a delegation of native Californian leaders.
Perhaps the one group of American critics that Francis did not manage to dodge, disarm or at least mollify were campaigners for the rights of victims of priestly child abuse.
The pope refused to meet their representatives and, while he warned US bishops the scandal must not be repeated, he was attacked for hailing their "generous commitment to bring healing to victims."
Nevertheless, as the pope's tiny Fiat 500 rolled back up to his plane at Andrew's Air Force base ready for his flight to New York, he left Washington after making more friends than enemies.
Pope Francis deployed a deft political touch in his Washington charm offensive, pushing his agenda on finance, climate change and immigration without offending American sensitivities.
The cheering crowds who lined the streets of the US capital gave him a warm welcome, but even before Shepherd One had touched down in the city many conservative voices had spoken out against the pontiff.
The first pope from Latin America, Francis was charged with being a “leftist” bent on dismantling capitalism, throwing open America’s borders and bridling her industry with environmental controls.
These very same ideas have seen Francis endear himself to younger and more liberal Americans, so often turned off by the Church’s traditional teachings on sexuality, abortion and family values.
All these topics are subject to bitter debate in America’s notoriously polarized political marketplace but somehow Pope Francis’ visit and forthright views did not ratchet up rancor.
Instead, as he addressed a huge crowd gathered in front of the US Capitol, he was flanked by a beaming Democratic vice president and a Republican House speaker so overwhelmed he was openly weeping.
In his carefully judged speech to Congress, Francis had been at pains to cite American sources for his ideas, starting with Abraham Lincoln, the US president who most symbolizes national unity.
– ‘Little bit leftie’ –
He also paid tribute to Martin Luther King, a protestant pastor who led the black American civil rights struggle, and to social activist Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933.
He was careful not to offend Congress by repeating some of his most violent language against the “new tyranny” of capitalism and couched his support for immigrants in the language of the American dream.
“In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom,” he said.
“We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners because most of us were once foreigners.”
On board his plane on the way to Washington, Francis insisted his US critics had misunderstood his attitude to the market economy and exaggerated his difference from his more conservative predecessors.
“Maybe there’s an impression I’m a little bit more leftie, but I haven’t said a single thing that’s not in the social doctrine of the Church,” he reportedly told journalists.
US social conservatives were looking to the pope to reassure them that the Church is not moving away from its traditional opposition to abortion, a hot-button electoral topic in America.
Francis’ spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters the pope urged US churchmen to keep up the fight and, although he did not use the word “abortion” in his address to Congress, the theme was there.
“Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’,” he said.
“The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.”
– More friends than enemies –
The pope managed to cross another minefield in his canonization of an American saint, the Franciscan friar Junipero Serra, who led the conversion of California to Christianity in the 19th century.
He remains a revered figure in the Catholic church but a bugbear to Native Americans who associate him with the violent suppression of their own culture and brutal deaths of many of their ancestors.
Francis did not halt the beatification process, begun under conservative predecessor John Paul II, but acknowledged the complaints and met a delegation of native Californian leaders.
Perhaps the one group of American critics that Francis did not manage to dodge, disarm or at least mollify were campaigners for the rights of victims of priestly child abuse.
The pope refused to meet their representatives and, while he warned US bishops the scandal must not be repeated, he was attacked for hailing their “generous commitment to bring healing to victims.”
Nevertheless, as the pope’s tiny Fiat 500 rolled back up to his plane at Andrew’s Air Force base ready for his flight to New York, he left Washington after making more friends than enemies.
