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The Guardian
Americans eager to hear Pope Francis liberalize tenets of the Catholic Church “risk being very disappointed” by his historic visit to the United States, the archbishop of Philadelphia told the Guardian ahead of the pope’s stay in his city.In an interview, Archbishop Charles Chaput said that although the pope’s plain-spoken style contrasts with that of his predecessors, the church’s teachings have not changed. “His vocabulary and emphases are different, like his personal style of leadership,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean a change in content. People risk being very disappointed if they imagine it does.”
Chaput is no stranger to the culture wars – he is an outspoken proponent of immigration reform and a critic of abortion – he also repeated a criticism of Barack Obama’s administration that he made earlier this year: “The current White House is the least friendly to religious freedom in our history.”
McClatchy DC
WASHINGTON Religion matters less and less in American politics today.Candidates thrive when they preach tolerance. Voters want politicians with strong religious beliefs, but they don’t necessarily have to share those beliefs. People welcome the visit of Pope Francis to the country’s most venerated government institutions, with little talk that his unprecedented address to a joint meeting of Congress has improper religious overtones.
That’s why, when Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said the United States should not elect a Muslim president, he ignites a bipartisan firestorm. He’s going against the American mainstream.
"What we’ve seen is actual denominational affiliation doesn’t matter as much as it used to," said Daniel Cox, research director at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute.
NPR
President Obama is taking some heat over who's been invited to attend Pope Francis' large arrival ceremony at the White House this Wednesday. The list includes the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, an activist nun and a transgender activist — guests the Vatican reportedly objected to, according to the Wall Street Journal.And the Obama administration also has critics on this side of the pond — the latest is presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
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White House spokesman Josh Earnest responded to the criticism Monday, saying "there is no theological test that was administered prior to giving out tickets to stand on the South Lawn Wednesday morning."
An estimated 15,000 invitations have been issued for the event, which will take place on the South Lawn of the White House. The Obama administration issued some invitations itself but also partnered with faith organizations including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archdiocese of Washington and Catholic Charities.
Earnest declined to respond directly to Huckabee's "anti-Christian" claim but said more generally that
"The president's approach is to welcome the pope warmly to the United States and to eagerly anticipate and participate in a discussion about their shared values.
New York Times
In New York, Roman Catholic officials have walked Pope Francis’ expected path through the National September 11 Memorial and timed it at five to seven minutes.In Washington, studios for television news anchors are being erected on the roofs of the Catholic University of America.
In a quiet corner of Philadelphia, the buzzing epicenter of papal-preparation madness, there stands, carefully guarded, a lectern newly wrought of burnished black walnut, the product of thousands of dollars in labor and materials, that is just a stand-in for the one the pope will use.
Even the humble chair the pope will sit in at Madison Square Garden, built largely of plywood by immigrant day laborers in a two-car garage, caused a few headaches.
Steve Cohen, the production designer for the Garden Mass, said that when he heard about the chair, he thought, “This is all fine and good, but it’s got to work and it’s got to be comfortable and it’s going to be seen by a billion zillion people.”
Taking no chances, he arranged for a backup chair from a scenery company. He drove up to the garage workshop in Port Chester, north of the city, to see the laborers’ work. (To his relief, he said, it was “absolutely amazing.”)
Reuters
A narrow majority of Americans have a positive view of Pope Francis, who makes his first visit to the United States this week, with more than one of four neutral on the Roman Catholic pontiff, according to a poll released on Monday.Some 51 percent of respondents to an MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll said they had a positive view of the Argentina-born leader of the world's 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church. Just 9 percent reported a negative view of the pope, with 27 percent of the 1,689 adults polled Aug. 26 through Sept. 9 saying they had a neutral view on him.
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Some 49 percent of poll respondents said they wanted to hear Francis address social and economic issues, while 36 percent said he should focus on religion and faith. The poll had a margin of error of 2.4 percent.