WASHINGTON (CNS) — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will welcome Pope Francis to the White House Sept. 23.
“During the visit, the president and the pope will continue the dialogue, which they began during the president’s visit to the Vatican in March 2014, on their shared values and commitments on a wide range of issues,” said a statement released March 26 by the Office of the Press Secretary at the White House.
Those issues, it said, include “caring for the marginalized and the poor; advancing economic opportunity for all; serving as good stewards of the environment; protecting religious minorities and promoting religious freedom around the world; and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities.”
The statement added, “The president looks forward to continuing this conversation with the Holy Father during his first visit to the United States as pope.”
Last year, in their first encounter, Pope Francis received the president at the Vatican for a discussion that touched on several areas of tension between the Catholic Church and the White House, including religious freedom and medical ethics.
During an unusually long 50-minute meeting, the two leaders discussed “questions of particular relevance for the church in (the U.S.), such as the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection as well as the issue of immigration reform,” the Vatican said in statement afterward.
While in Washington, Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress Sept. 24, making him the first pope to do so.
The Archdiocese of Washington said it would host the pope for his visit, but did not announce dates. On his flight from the Philippines to Rome in January, Pope Francis said he would canonize Blessed Junipero Serra at Washington’s Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
On March 18, the United Nations announced Pope Francis will visit there the morning of Sept. 25 to address the U.N. General Assembly. The pope also will meet separately with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and with the president of the General Assembly. The pontiff also is scheduled to a town hall gathering with U.N. staff.
In a statement, Ban noted that the pope’s visit came during the United Nations’ 70th anniversary, in which its members would make decisions about sustainable development, climate change and peace. He said he was confident the pope’s visit would inspire the international community to redouble its efforts for social justice, tolerance and understanding.
The United Nations did not release the detailed itinerary for the meetings, part of a larger papal visit to Washington, New York and Philadelphia. The Vatican is expected to release the official itinerary about two months in advance of the trip, unless local officials release it earlier.
Pope Francis already had announced his participation Sept. 26 and 27 for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
During his pontificate, St. John Paul II visited the United States seven times — two of which were fuel stopovers — making the country his most frequent foreign destination after his native Poland. He addressed the U.N. General Assembly in 1979 and 1995; Blessed Paul VI did so in 1965 and Pope Benedict XVI addressed the assembly in 2008, during his one U.S. visit as pope.
