Pope stands up for planet, poor in U.N. speech
Powerful mar earth, he says
NEW YORK — Sweeping through the landmarks of America’s biggest city, Pope Francis on Friday offered warnings to world leaders at the United Nations, comfort to 9/11 victims’ families at ground zero and encouragement to schoolchildren in Harlem.
In his speech at the U.N., the pope decried the destruction of the environment through a “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity” that has led the powerful to ravage the earth and exclude the weakest and most disadvantaged.
Speaking in his native Spanish, he demanded immediate access for the world’s poor to adequate food, water and housing, saying they have the right to what the official translation called the “three L’s” — lodging, labor and land.
Francis’ speech, the fifth by a pope to the U.N., was a distillation of his recent encyclical — or teaching document — on the environment. He is hoping to spur concrete commitments at climate-change negotiations in Paris later this year.
The pontiff made clear his belief that there is a “right of the environment.”
While his remarks focused on the environment and the economy, Francis also affirmed the church’s doctrine on life issues: He called for the “absolute respect for life in all its stages” — including
the unborn. He cited “moral law written in nature itself” in insisting there is a natural difference between men and women. The Catholic Church has been on a campaign to denounce “gender theory” and the idea that people can choose their sex.
And he repeated his denunciation of the “ideological colonization” of the developing world — a reference to how Western ideas about contraception and gay rights are often imposed on poor nations as a condition for development aid.
The Vatican later said his declaration that the environment itself has rights was a new development in the church’s social teaching.
Francis was greeted on his arrival at the U.N. by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. As part of the visit, the Vatican flag was raised at the U.N. headquarters for the first time. The General Assembly recently agreed to allow the U.N.’s two observer states, the Holy See and Palestine, to fly their flags alongside those of the 193 member states.
Francis’ speech received repeated rounds of applause from an audience that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousefzai, the young Pakistani activist shot and gravely wounded by the Taliban.
GROUND ZERO
The morning’s remarks contrasted with the moment of silent prayer during the pope’s visit later in the day to ground zero for an interfaith tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After the cheers of celebration and thanks subsided, the crowd at ground zero fell silent as the Pope looked out upon the waterfall pools that mark the spot where the twin towers once stood. Francis spent several moments in silence before meeting with about 20 relatives of the 3,000 victims whose names are inscribed on the water’s edge.
“In the depths of pain and suffering you also witnessed the heights of generosity and service,” he told a multifaith audience of about 700 clergy members at a ceremony inside the memorial museum that records the history of the attacks. “Hands reached out, lives were given.”
Among the victims’ relatives on hand was Monica Iken-Murphy, whose husband, bond trader Michael Patrick Iken, died in one of the towers.
“It’s very appropriate that he should come here where so much pain and suffering happened, to this sacred and hallowed place, as someone who represents hope and peace,” Iken-Murphy said.
“This is where loved ones lost their lives … and this is the way we are going to honor them by having someone who is holy, closest to God, Pope Francis, come here and bless this site,” she continued. “I couldn’t be prouder to share this memorial and museum with him.”
Joining the pope at ground zero were religious leaders from across the spectrum, including Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh representatives.
“I trust that our presence together will be a powerful sign of our shared desire to be a force for reconciliation, peace and justice in this community and throughout the world,” Francis said.
Vincent Palmer, 61, awaited Francis as a gesture of respect for his brother Orio Joseph Palmer, a Fire Department battalion chief who made it to the 78th floor of the South tower and can be heard on audio
recordings as he attempted rescues of trapped people until the building collapsed.
Palmer was one of about 1,000 people invited to stand outside the memorial to get a look at the pope and receive a blessing from the pontiff before the interfaith service.
The pope’s visit, Palmer said, “was a spiritual act that that offers us some comfort and recognizes that almost 3,000 souls were lost here on this site of mass murder. His presence offers some limited comfort and is part of a healing process that will never be over.”
The pope was greeted at the museum by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, who is chairman of the memorial foundation and who accompanied the Pope inside to the service.
CATHOLIC SCHOOL VISIT
Francis’ afternoon schedule reflected the penchant of the “people’s pope” for engaging with the public, starting with a visit to Our Lady Queen of Angels School in the heavily Hispanic neighborhood of East Harlem.
After the morning’s solemn activities, the pope clearly perked up when he got to the Catholic school. He joked around with the children, chatted happily with them in Spanish, shook hands and posed for a few selfies. A security guard intervened when one girl gave him a big hug.
The pope — who says he hasn’t watched TV in decades and doesn’t know how to work a computer — even got a lesson in how to use a touchscreen from fourth-grader Kayla Osborne, 8.
The crowd in the gym included about 150 immigrants and refugees.
In his remarks, Francis recalled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, saying: “His dream was that many children like you could get an education. It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able to fight for them.”
In the early evening, he led a jubilant parade through Central Park past a crowd of about 80,000 and celebrated Mass at Madison Square Garden, usually the site of basketball games and rock concerts but this time the scene of a solemn service celebrating New York in all its diversity.
“Living in a big city is not always easy,” Francis told 18,000 people at the Garden. “Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world in the diversity of its cultures, traditions and historical experiences.”
As Friday’s Mass came to a close with a sustained and thunderous roar of applause, the toll of the long day seemed evident as an exhausted Francis walked with assistance down the stairs of the altar. The Vatican spokesman said Francis, who suffers from sciatica and a bad knee, is feeling the effects of missed physiotherapy appointments while he’s been on the road, but still has energy for the final two days of the trip.
Earlier, Francis smiled as he
rode slowly in his open-sided Jeep past a cheering crowd and a sea of arms holding cellphones aloft. Those lucky enough to score a ticket were not allowed backpacks, chairs or selfie sticks.
“As he passed by, you passed a cool, refreshing peace, as if he were spreading a huge blanket of peace through the crowd,” Ruth Smart of Brooklyn said
of the procession in Central Park. “Even though the crowd exploded in a roar, it was pure joy.”
Denise Villasenor, 27, a Columbia University graduate student from the Philippines and a Catholic, practiced capturing a selfie with the pope ahead of the procession.
“The pope’s positions always revolve around compassion and love — you know, being a person for others,” she said. “Immigration, the environment, it all comes to being compassionate, for others.”
He drew huge, adoring crowds while also managing to connect one-on-one with countless New Yorkers, despite extraordinarily tight security that closed off many streets and kept most spectators behind police barricades.
The pope is scheduled this morning to fly to Philadelphia for a Vatican-sponsored rally for Catholic families. As many as 1 million people are expected for his closing Mass on Sunday, the last day of Francis’ sixday, three-city visit to the U.S.