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The Pope is coming to the end of his longest foreign tour, a nine-day odyssey, first to Cuba and then on to America. Last night, he celebrated Mass at a packed Madison Square Garden in New York. Earlier, he became the first pontiff to address the joint houses of Congress. Throughout this trip, Pope Francis has been greeted by huge crowds of cheering, sometimes weeping, well-wishers. Caroline Wyatt has been travelling with him.
It's one of those soft autumnal evenings in Washington D.C. when the warm air feels like a caress as I emerge from the hotel and wander towards White House. On the way in the park, a small group of people, young and old, sit on the grass under a darkening sky. Some are holding candles, tiny glimmering lights in the darkness. Then, first in Spanish, next in English, they begin to recite a prayer. A Franciscan friar, with a kindly face, is standing next to me. So I ask him what's happening and he explains.
100 women have walked 100 miles to the capital to pray for Pope Francis to intervene with the US government to help illegal immigrants here and push through a law to let them stay. Illegal immigrants like Jacqueline who snuck into the US from Bolivia and who for years has worked in the shadows without documents, living in fear of the knock on the door from immigration. They'll send her back to the poverty and the violence she sought to escape.
To me, she says, this pope means "love" and "perseverance". I want him to fight for us and I hope he enters the hearts of the people in Congress. | 
发表于 2016-10-8 17:21:52