Transcript provided by ABC News 2015
On Wednesday September 23, 2015 Pope Francis had quite the day in the US, especially for his first full day!
For one thing, he arrived to the White House in a Fiat car with trumpets blaring in the background (click here for full video).
After brief comments on his joy of being in America, the anticipated World Meeting of Families in Philly, and the principle human right and founding US right of religious liberty he continues by saying:
“Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution. Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our “common home”, we are living at a critical moment of history. We still have time to make the changes needed to bring about “a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change”.
We must care for our “common home”. For those of you who haven’t been following the encyclical as close as we have, Pope Francis’ latest encyclical–which is also our foundational piece of our Vocation of the Agriculture Leader symposiums—Laudato Si’s subtitle is caring for our common home. Pope Francis is intentionally priming the listeners and readers of his speech for what he has been saying for months and what the Church has been saying for decades;
“Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies. To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it.”
The exact notion of our common home is that it is a matter of equality and equity. It is our common home, just as we are called to advance the common good. What are you doing to advance the common good in your day to day life? How are you embracing the call to honor our promise to those least among us? Ensuring we are caring for our common home includes care for our earth and each other.
Let’s send you off with his perfect conclusion to this potent yet brief speech,
“As Christians inspired by this certainty, we wish to commit ourselves to the conscious and responsible care of our common home. Mr. President, once again I thank you for your welcome, and I look forward to these days in your country. God bless America!”
Also, bonus picture of the Pope petting one of the best animals to have on a farm—a dog!
L’Osservatore Romano via AP
