coordinate they're speeches. >> in reality, you have to wonder what that means, just talking about the question of religious freedom. we've been talking a lot about this clerk in a county in kentucky -- let me pause so we can see this wave, this moment. this moment. [applause] just another remarkable photo op we are seeing, pope francis wave from the south balcony with the first lady and president obama. and photo ops aside patrick i

have to say one of the most memorable is him getting out of that fiatt in front of this elaborate ceremony. >> a perfect symbol stephanie for the way this pope approached his office, to set aside some trappings of power and to be humble and to be authentic and not stand on airs of any sort. you can tell when he was listening to president obama speak he was paying very, very careful attention. during the ceremonial parts he seemed a little bit more tired and seemed like he wanted to get to the main meat of the matter to bring the message about justice, religious liberty and climate change and the trip shows up a little more in the address than we will see in some more religious ceremony like the masses and prayer services. >> what will happen from here is he will sign the guest book that mike was talking about and a sort of exchange of gifts. is that usually a symbolic gift? >> it's a tricky one. if you are the president of the

united states what do you give the pope? that is a difficult one for anybody's christmas list. in the past they have given books. president bush gave i believe a collection of american music to pope benedict knowing his love of music. often times these gifts say something about the message one wants to give to the other one but the messages as you said seem so well coordinated and religious liberty comes up with both. >> as i was saying before we went to the shot of the wave at the colanade there is this country is having this debate about religious freedom versus a discrimination and the rights of, say, gay people that want to get married. and so was in the pope's way of sort of wading into that debate? >> kind of. i wrote down attention in the pope's remarks and spoke only both sides of that issue in a sense and said we should reject every form of injustice and discrimination and then he praised the u.s. bishops for

saying quote vigilant to p preserve religious freedom and they don't always line up because that is exactly where the tension is, if a form we are rejecting is against lbgt people and that goes against the bishop's religious freedom or a civil clerk's religious freedom that is a very difficult needle for the pope to thread during his visit. >> has he been threading the needle and not coming down clearly one side or the other? with same sex marriage he is not advocating it but says civil unions are okay. >> he did when he was archbishop and it's whether if they should oppose gay and same sex marriage as a civil act as it has been enacted here in the united states and the question is the pope going to argue for something like conscious

exceptions where those who religious beliefs don't permit them to sanction a same sex union or same sex marriage to get out of that. this is where it gets so difficult, the question of how do you preserve religious freedom when at the same time religious people are often in roles in government and civil society. >> how do you talk about tolerance and inclusiveness in the church when women are still not a part of the church hierarchy? >> absolutely, a major issue. i know there are women who are participating in the women's movement who are there, outside the white house, watching pope francis. one of the other things that i think is going to come up in this context is the extent to which the pope supports the rather aggressive approach that some u.s. bishops have made on these religious freedom issues saying this is a major moment to preserve and protect religious freedom in the u.s. and the question is if the pope will support that or encourage the bishops to be more like him emphasizing justice and mercy and not being so much on the

offensive. >> i want to bring in mike again from the south lawn of the white house. mike, i just want to get your take on the pope's speech and when he said a lot of speculation again about whether it would be more pastel or spiritual message to me this very clearly delved into some political issues we have been talking about. >> you know, i think we have to be careful here because we and i have a tendency working in washington for so long to look through the prism to see everything left to right republican or democrat, conservative or liberal. i'm not entirely certain and perhaps patrick can weigh in here the pope has the same prism. the pope looks through a spiritual prism and is cognizant of the political fights in washington, one would assume he is at any rate. but let's take it at face value that the pope believes that this is a spiritual matter that is consistent with church doctrine, it is consistent with scripture,

that the earth is something that is the responsibility of humans to take care of. it just so happens that it jogs with the political agenda of the president who is obviously speaking very forcefully on this issue, trying to push congress on that. similarly with income and equality and it's the same story with perhaps the most volatile political issue domestically in the united states which is immigration. one other point the pope gave an interview in the spring and considered coming to the united states in a very unusual route with a mexican journalist and said he was considering coming through the border between the united states and mexico and going through an immigration check point. make no mistake and the pope talked about this talking about migrants and refugees and those who are searching for a home and for religious freedom for economic freedom what have you that this is something that is dear to his heart, at the top of his agenda, there is no question he has demonstrated that over the two years of his papasy.

>> the first line of his speech was as the son of an immigrant i'm happy to be a guest in this country built by these families and it was the first time we heard the crowd burst into applause and al jazeera america special coverage of pope francis and america continues and stay with us through the day as he continues his visit to washington d.c. we will be right back. ♪

as the son of an immigrant family, i'm happy to be a guest

in this country which was largely built with means. >> that was pope francis speaking in the last hour, the president formally welcoming the pontiff in a ceremony at the white house, the first official event of the pope's u.s. visit and welcome back to special live coverage of pope francis in america and i'm stephanie in new york and they are about to hold a private meeting after the welcoming ceremony on the south lawn of the white house where we find mike and both leaders spoke during the ceremony for about ten minutes each, what did they have to say? >> you know, it was interesting all throughout the course of the week leading up to the visit we heard the white house stress the common themes and common goals of president obama and pope francis of course they had met once before last year in rome, certainly that was evident today. their message is dovetailing on many volatile and political

issues including climate change and immigration and this is a little of what the president had to say on global warming. >> hole fly father you remind us we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet, god's magnificent gift to us. [applause] we support your call to all world leaders to support the communities most vulnerable to changing climates and to come together to preserve our precious world for future generations. >> as it happens it is a beautiful day here in washington, a beautiful fall day. the pope and the president bathed in sunlight as they addressed some 11-15,000, the estimates are varying on the south lawn. one thing that is interesting here stephanie it was 50 years ago this year in 1965 when pope paul the 6th became the first pope ever to step foot in north america and the united states and we prepared a retrospective

here on papal visits to the u.s. >> when he touched down in new york in 1965 he made history. >> coming to america, the first pope to step foot upon your land, blesses you with all he has. >> reporter: then as now it was a time of change for catholics, the second vatican council opening the church making it more accessible for lay catholics and allowing mass in native languages, not just latin. it was the height of the cold war. at the u.n. pope paul called for an end to the arms race. >> listen to the lucid words of a great man john kennedy who declared four years ago mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. >> reporter: the u.n. general

assembly is perhaps the world's biggest stage and pope francis like paul the fourth will use it to sends his message around the globe. >> they are saying there is something bigger than hearts and concerns and something bigger than our national concerns and there are concerns that effect all of humanity. >> reporter: in october 1979 pope john paul the second made the first of his seven trips to the u.s. visiting six cities. his final stop on that trip was washington where he met with president jimmy carter, becoming the first pope to visit the white house. john paul was back in 1987 meeting with president reagan and polish born pope and cold war president staunch anticommunist. >> it was the second visit to poland in october of 1979 to which many attribute this start of the fall of the wall in berlin and john paul the second played a tremendous role in that and that was one of ronald

reagan's favorite causes. >> reporter: in the visits to the united states john paul called an end to legalized abortion and when aids was ravaging the gay community, in san francisco he hugged a four-year-old afflicted with the disease. when pope benedict arrived in 2008 outrage over the long-running church pedophile scandal was boiling over, speaking to an outdoor mass in washington he expressed remorse. >> no votes of man could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. >> reporter: like his predecessors pope francis arrives in the u.s. at a time of turmoil and change for the church and millions of catholics and nonbelievers alike will be watching and listening closely to his message. we've talked a lot about the state of the church in the last few days, the state of church and losing members and finances

and closing and younger people in particular are walking away from the church so a lot of differences between the strength and influence of the church in 1965 and 50 years later in 2015 but one thing is certain pope francis still leads millions of american catholics, 1.2 billion catholics around the world. when he speaks particularly in a venue like this people are listening. >> yeah, absolutely, mike, great point and mike is live for us at the white house and back to you in a second but i want to talk a little more about this sort of nexus between popes and presidents and, you know, awareness of pope francis clearly knowing who his audience was this morning when he spoke and what the impact actually is. >> absolutely so pope francis was delivering a spiritual message in a secular space and talking to secular political leaders just as he will be doing tomorrow in fronts of congress. one of the things we saw as a contrast between the president's approach and the pope's approach is both of them are talking about the same matters like

climate change but one is grounding that in god's creation and in a theology of creation first and for most. for the president he certainly talks about the earth being the lord's or god's and so on and so forth but his priority is in the nitty-gritty of politics and talking about similar things but using slightly different language to do that. >> just on the point of climate change when he speaks before congress on thursday you are talking about religious conservatives, catholics or otherwise who some of whom don't believe in the basic science of manmade climate change, is it going to be a tough crowd? >> one decided not for come and from arizona and who is a catholic and said the pope is peddling what he called the false science of climate change and as a result will miss this opportunity to see the first pope ever speak before the u.s. congress. i'm not sure that contributes to our own political debate in a constructive way but it just underlines how decisive these issues are among u.s. politicians. >> let's talk about some of the

issues that have not come up. >> sure. >> and did not come up in the pope's speech. he has railed against unfettered capitalism before and he didn't talk about women, he didn't talk about abortion. >> uh-huh, the capitalism piece, the economic justice piece was the one i was most surprised he did not bring up because when the pope talks about immigration he says people don't just flee violence, they flee poverty. when he talks about climate change he talks about the ways in which the current economic model creates climate change that penalizes the poor most of all and those are really common themes for him and didn't show up in the first speech. he has 17 major speeches to go by the time he leaves on sunday and i'm sure we will hear a lot about that. the question of women and the question of abortion, these are the tougher matters for this pope. we may hear more about them during the world meeting on families, maybe we will hear about them in congress if he is talking about some of the legislation that is coming up,

that would tighten abortion restrictions but i'm just not sure what we will see. >> also gets to the religious freedom debate which he did get into in the speech. you are looking at pictures from earlier. this was a little before 9:00 a.m. eastern this morning when the pope exited the residence he is staying at, the nuncature and went for the crowd and greeted a lot of young people there to shake his hands. not a lot of baby kissing, we didn't see that patrick and will expect to see it more in the coming days but this is the impromptu of the pope going in the crowd and i want to check with the crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of the pope hoping to in the next hour or so, what are you seeing and hearing where you are? >> well, as you can imagine massive crowds here that have been gathering since 4:00 this morning when the entrance points opened up and supposed to close

at 10:00 a.m. and just about closing and show you a little of the clouds if you take a look and you can see they have lined the streets here. this is the parade path that is pope mobile will be taken in just under an hour or so. you can also see there is a large contingency of security obviously as you would imagine, secret service, department of homeland security has officers out here, the national guard, there are canine units as well, so a lot of security here, a lot of people out here today. and they have been waiting for hours now for this moment, for the possibility of just catching a glimpse of the pope. we went out to the crowds just a short time ago, talked to a couple of people, some people came from argentina, all over the world and quick commutes from nearby virginia for example and some people have seen the pope before, others have seen other popes visit the united states like pope benedict and pope john paul but for everybody out here they really come here to hear him and to see him and you know it's really interesting to see a lot of people talking about what a beautiful day it is here out in d.c., it's sort of

perfect weather for the parade and looking at just under an hour or so stephanie before that is to begin and people excited and waiting patiently. >> where celebrity has become such a big deal around the world but particularly in this country, when you were talking to the people that have gathered there did you get a sense this is about celebrity or that this is -- these people really have been listening to what this pope has been saying and whether it be about climate change or inclusi inclusive intolerant society and have they been heeding to the messages? >> that is one of the big issues, obviously something that we have been talking about as you mentioned climate change is a hot button issue and something that has been talked for conservative in the catholic and they are looking at it and it

points to being largely manmade and something we have not seen from a pope before and using scripture, this is 184-page document talking about you know the responsibility that catholics and humans around the world have to try and do what they can to conserve and try and move away and that is the sort of topic and traveled and talked to catholics there who are trying to reconcile these political views and their livelihoods with the belief and what the direction that the pope has given them in terms of his views with climate change and people welcome the changes and welcome the discussion and again it's still you know has a political edge to it as well, so we are seeing as was mentioned you know republican congressman from arizona has decided to boycott or said he was going to boycott the address in congress but people here are trying to find a way to reconcile some new

views they are hearing from this pope and trying to see the substance of them and reconcile them and see if there is a way to bridge that divide between science and the church. >> yeah, great point. usher live for us and the crowds we will check back in with you in the next hour when we expect the pope will begin the parade and let's check in of what is happening at the white house, the pope and president obama went into the white house about 20 minutes ago. we are expecting to see them again in the next couple of minutes. patrick, you heard what usher was saying about sort of and what mike has been talking about, sort of the state of the catholic church and it has been losing some of its flock especially among the young people do we have data or do we know whether this pope has brought people that were maybe spurned by the church back in. >> a lot of sociologists are talking about the so called francis effect where people see the pope, they are attracted by

the pope and in theory they are meant to come back to the church. half of that has happened. we know from resent polling data in august and just in september that many people's opinions of the catholic church are much more favorable and people's opinions of the pope are much more favorable under francis than under predecessors but second part of the effect where they come back to church just hasn't happened yet and they are now in this country 13% of americans who describe themselves as former catholics and if they made a church just of themselves they would actually become the second largest religious group in the u.s. after catholics so the church has a significant problem on its hands at a time when almost every religious group in the u.s. is losing members in a somewhat similar way although in catholics it's a bit more dramatic. >> i hate to sound cynical is the pope's message kate --

catering to bring the church and increase the size of the church frankly in the united states? >> it's a good question and not that cynical but a difference between the message and medium on what we have seen pope francis do with predecessors if he changed the medium and the way he speaks and we saw him reaching in the crowd and hugging a young man in his late teens and early 20s the predecessors would never have hugged someone this that way. i think there is a message, not that popes don't hug people but he dives in the crowd. >> he gets in there. >> with enthusiasm and enthusiasm of life and it's the touch and humidity driving around in the fiatt those are the things that pope francis has changed for sure and changing the way some of the doctrines are talked about and what proportion of time is spent on that. >> what is emphasized. >> yeah, talking more about climate change and economic justice and even just yesterday on the plane he was asked does that make you a left wing pope and he says, no, i'm teaching what the church has taught and

he is right about that. >> famous words who am i to judge when he was asked a question about gay marriage. in some ways is he a pope for our times? you talk about authenticity but is he in some ways an outsider? we are in a political one and where we see frontrunners at least in the gop as outsiders and looking at donald trump and bernie sanders is he attune of that cultural phenomenon of the outsider. >> yes, before he was elected he never lived in rome and gone to visit a few times but unlike pope benedict he never had an office job at the vatican and never in the center of catholic politics in that particular way and he is an outsider in that regard but one of the things i think that confuses a lot of us is the way in which he changes the style and leaves the message intact. when he said who am i to judge he was talking about gay priests and gay priests have never been able to marry in the catholic

church. a large number of people think he supports same sex marriage when it's very clear he doesn't, at least not in the church. >> here they come out of the doors of the west wing. pope francis is the fourth pope to visit the united states, the third to visit washington and you can just see from the body language here, the affection these two men have for each other. >> they had a wonderful meeting at the vatican about a year ago as well and president obama has taken to quoting pope francis in some speeches and looking at issues of economic inequality and the pope said how can it be it's not a news item when a homeless person dies but news when the stock market goes down

and the president last year used the words attributing them to the pope and said this is someone we should look to. so the relationship between these two men is exceptionally warm and doesn't mean they agree on everything but clearly they have built a rapport and certainly the pope contributed to the normalization of relations between the u.s. and cuba, that has been something that the vatican and the u.s. had been very proud about. >> then you have the senior translator. remind me again who he is. >> yes, so he is the english translator from the vatican and one of the things that people forget about pope francis is english is not one of his most commonly used languages. he did a wonderful job i thought in those initial remarks and speaks with an accent and more slowly but he is more comfortable in spanish and italian and i think among seniors is there to make sure none of the nuisances get lost in the important conversation. >> such a beautiful shot you can see as they walk through the promanade of the white house, 78

degree first fall day here for this visit. and with symbolism. can you comments on the catholic, is that what it's called? >> the pope is the only clergy who wears a white one and this pope just wears the white one and people will remember pictures of predecessors like paul the sixth and mike's package wearing things that look like capes or hats or other garments and this pope slimmed down the wardrobe from the first day elected and he stepped out on the balcony at the vatican he was dressed just as simply as he is today. >> he doesn't wear the red shoes. >> he doesn't wear the red shoes. in the in-flight press conference he did the red shoes came up and apparently someone said to one of the cardinals he wasn't really a full pope because he didn't wear the red shoes and of course he seemed to have a lot of fun with that statement so he is a pope of a different color, no pun

intended. >> patrick horn beck the chair of theology at the university, thank you so much for your insights now. several days of big events are in store for the pope, one of the biggest from a religious point of view happens later today, the cannization of sarah and the most controversial events during this visit, and libby casey is now live from washington with a preview and hey, libby good to see you. >> i'm at the shrine where pope francis will come this afternoon to celebrate mass and indeed advance the cannization of sarah and this is america's first hispanic state and of course pope francis is our first latin american pope and this is a significant event but it is not without controversy as you mentioned. and he was a spanish missionary who came to california in the 18th century and converted many native americans.

unfortunately native americans wh who were on the missions in california were not allowed to leave after converted and they who did were penalized and floinged and a lot of native americans said this may not be a man who deserves cannization and that as side sarah is representative of positive aspects of the catholic faith according to the catholic church and specifically represented here at the bacillica behind me with stained glass where the pope will dress or vest and he will be underneath a stained glass image of sarah so someone who has been part of the story of american catholicism and will be a big event today. there are hundreds of people who have been waiting to get inside this morning to be on the grounds of catholic university to come here to bacilica and being allowed in now and we talked to folks waiting here