Pope Francis delivered a speech in English to Congress today that included an audience of VP Biden and Speaker of the House Boehner. Pope Francis is the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress.
The speech touched on issues commonly addressed by Pope Francis, nicknamed “The People’s Pope.” According to the New York Times:
In particular, Francis beseeched a nation that generates a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth to not let money drive its decisions at the expense of humanity. “If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance,” he told a joint meeting of Congress in an address that cited American icons like Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one, the greatest common good.”
However, the Pope also defended religious liberty, perhaps referencing Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for denying marriage certificates to same-sex couples despite a Supreme Court ruling gay marriage legal.
Watch the full video above.
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