WASHINGTON — When Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday, he’ll be speaking to a lot of his followers: 31 percent of the House and 26 percent of the Senate are Catholic, CBS Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes told WTOP on Wednesday morning. And whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, they’re likely to hear something with which they disagree.
“While he sides with Democrats on issues such as climate change and immigration and income inequality, he sides with Republicans on abortion and traditional marriage,” Cordes says.
One House member, Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, is a Catholic, but he’s sitting the address out, saying he “doesn’t want to be lectured on climate change,” Cordes says.
That said, no one is sure what Francis will tell Congress. It’s presumed that he will address come of the hot-button issues he’s taken stands on.
“He’s sort of at a place of maximum influence to do that,” Cordes says, but “no one really knows what kind of tone he’s going to take.”
CBS Nightly News Anchor Scott Pelley spoke with Pope Francis in Rome last week, and got no clues.
“The pope told him, ‘I will say whatever the Holy Spirit moves me to say.’”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, a former Jesuit missionary, tells WTOP that he’s not sure what he’ll hear either, but the important thing is to go in with an open mind — “not looking to grab on to the one or two things we agree with and hold those up and say ‘See? We’re right about this.’
“I think the pope is not a politician, and he’s not gonna speak about politics, and I don’t think he’ll speak about issues, but I do think he’ll speak about values. And it would be helpful for us to hear a speech about that.”
Kaine adds that he hopes Francis will speak about the importance of leaders being servants. “He is really setting a leadership example that if you want to be a leader … you have to serve others.”
He also hopes Francis inspires Congress to make tough choices and make big moves. “It doesn’t all have to be about delay, kicking the can down the road, avoiding hard votes, blaming inaction on the other side.
“We’re put in leadership positions to do things; we have a unique opportunity to do things. And I hope he sets high expectations for us, rather than the low expectations that we often set for each other.”
The members of Congress are rarely thought of as a restrained bunch, and measures are reportedly being taken to ensure that protocol is being followed. That doesn’t mean they’ll work, Cordes says.
“They’re a bunch that is difficult to control, and so the question is, will they be jumping up and cheering at things that they like? Will they sort of be respectful and hold their applause until the end? We’ve seen before, leaders can advise them, but at the end of the day they’re going to do what they want to do.”
Among the Catholics in the House is Speaker John Boehner, who tried for months to get the pope to speak to Congress during his U.S. visit. Cordes says it’ll be a big moment for Boehner when the pope addresses Congress, and especially when he speaks to a crowd of thousands from Boehner’s balcony afterward: “It’s really going to be quite a spectacle.”
