u.s. before. the previous two popes of been out of washington. none of them have done what we are going to see this time around. i'm curious, what took so long? why now? what took so long to do this? great question. the pope responded once the invitation was given. my understanding is that john boehner wrote on behalf of the house of representatives. together with senator mitch mcconnell, they agreed to make this an open invitation. it is my understanding that this is the first time he has been invited. it is a special privilege. we are happy that he will be on the public square. we are eager for him to come. >> i would love to hear a little

bit about the overall things you think he will strike. the question is how much of his address will be interpreted in light of being in the political season with the presidential election and hot issues. this is happening as congress returns from a long summer break later this month. how much will politics be seen to play in his address? guest: the question. i think we have to make room so that we can hear the message of our holy father. i don't have a text or anything of what he will say. we can certainly know from other visits that he has had where he is taught in the public square. that is a good direction to begin with. i believe that his primary coming is for the families saturday and sunday and thought of you. this joint meeting of congress, i suspect he will focus on

, ofes of the common good what it means to see the dignity of every human person. the great gift of our home, the earth. i suspect he will also take up themes such as what he calls the throw away temptation. the temptation for us to become so involved in consumerism that we miss the side of the person outside of ourselves. he is coming, i believe, as a pastor and a profit. ands coming to be present to serve others joyfully. the common good, and calling people to rise above differences , and especially simple self-interest, in order to look at the common good. that is the noble task of people elected to public office. to follow-up on a

question. the context of the visit, if you go back in history, there are times when the pope would have never been invited to speak to congress. the president was against catholics. there is also this issue of politics intersect in church and vice versa. when pope benedict was here last time, he didn't even attend a state dinner in his honor because he was being careful about that line. did you have any concerns about pope francis speaking before congress? any risk for the church and that? guest: i am trying to think of what the downside would be. in our own age in which we look for opportunities to communicate, pope francis in less than 2.5 years that he has served as holy father has not missed an opportunity to talk in the public square. he will also talk at the united nations on the following friday. for him, i believe these are opportunities to contribute to the common good.

right now, i don't see downsides. probably the biggest problem would be not letting his whole message come out. if they were too quickly to co-opt it, or interpreted to narrowly in political turns. -- terms. ofis coming as a prophet souls and not as a politician. by the way, i think the work you all did with the religious news association meeting in philadelphia 10 days ago, i think that was a good start to really preparing for the broad sense. host: to move onto another maybe some guest: of the other viewers are not >> maybe some of the other viewers are not aware that

there is meetings to discuss family issues. reporters and others are saying what will happen? what is it on the agenda? will could come out of it that is tangible? some of you and others will say the point of this is to be open. es,iously, over the centuri the church has changed its practices in many ways. are you open to church practice? do you think the church will see a change in its lifetime because of this? guest: let's face it. the two major areas we need to look at our being true to the teachings of jesus and true to the commitment of family, not only in the commitment of church but of society. the holy father has said over and over i am wanting to preserve doctrine. one of the areas we will need to parse would be that relationship between doctrine and part -- practice.

i think that is where the judgment will be. looking at the person, especially people who are hurting and people who need to be accompanied. mold be the short-term and long-term effects -- what would be? for people who are divorced and remarried, we will look at annulments and remove barriers that night not, in any way, affect doctrine. those things will be front and center. other areas, i will be participating in the discussion itself. i don't want to anticipate what the answers will be. host: you told the group that while you anticipated surprises from the pope, utah 100 themes

would be racial harmony. since his visit is coming at a time of year when have been so many high-profile shootings in this country, both of citizens and police, and racial tensions seem to be high as a result of that, what can one visit by one pontiff do to help mitigate some of the attention? -- that's tension? guest: we have to put that in the right context, not only what will be the immediate and also long-term effects. the holy father has said he wants to enter into a dialogue. is a great call for all of us not to give up the richness of our convictions, but rather to listen to one another. thatall for harmony doesn't know a racial divide, harmony that begins by looking at what is good for the other person. it begins with rights and responsive goodies -- and responsibilities as something we all take on. i think the holy father's

message can be a catalyst. the call of a pastor who is not in the political fray to make sure that we are bringing out the best in ourselves. i guess you are correct that we don't want to overestimate what one speech or one word would be. , even hisather symbolic actions themselves, can be gestures that take on a life of their own and bring out the best in others. i think his gestures will be a great thing. by the way, you probably know this past friday there was a special exclusive interview in our.h he had a virtual t in a sense he has already arrived virtually. people have already gotten a glimpse of the gestures and manner in which he treats people with great dignity. >> i actually went through

earlier this year, it was very interesting. basically, the judge threw up his hands on family life education and said we are in the middle of a lot of amazing changes. the best i can do, he essentially gave us speeches of the pope's remarks over the last year or so and said read these endless talk about them. right now, it is difficult to say were the church will be on these issues a year from now. two things out of that. some of the folks were eager about that. some folks were apprehensive. i am wondering what you are hearing when you are engaging parishioners, and what you will go into in the senate on those issues? guest: two things. first of all, it is important for us to hear not only what people are saying, but what information they are basing their decisions on. one thing i have recently written about is that media is our friend. we need to get beyond soundbites

. we need to be able to read the full article to get the whole message. when you look at the people who you interacted with in the precana gathering, we have to ask the question, have we done our job as a church to inform people? we also have to begin with what are some of the authoritative documents. senate, there is a working document. i tell people, be students, read the documents, understand what will be the starting points for the conversations. if people are confused and they think that everything is up in the air, they likely have not read the document. i encourage that. i think we need to be good students if we are going to be participants in the life of the church. >> switching to a slightly different topic about the actual visit itself, it says that the pope will deliver one of his

masses in spanish. we talk about not letting politics overwhelm the pope's visit, but some are certainly seeing that as a political statement in the middle of an the immigration debate. i had one friend say to me, what is it that the pope doesn't like about the u.s.? viewo you see the pope's of the u.s. and world affairs? what is the american role in world affairs? guest: i think we will find out more about that. our holy father sees our nation lessed andery b having great influence throughout the globe. heo, when i said earlier, saw the fact that we have to be careful with our consumers ism. that we don't turn in ourselves that we forget the common good. concerning spanish, i have met

with the holy father each year as part of the bishop's conference. he is most probable in spanish or italian. when he had ahat interaction with the young teenager in chicago, he broke into english and he did quite well. whenever he wants to make very refined points, and especially once he -- when he wants to interact, he is most temporal in spanish or italian. -- he is most comfortable. it anything, we are in the drivers seat not to politicize welcome, welcoming someone who is coming to our country. like i do for thanks giving, i want to make someone feel as comfortable as possible. host: we are at the halfway point. >> to follow-up up on that, a huge segment of the church in

this country is spanish-speaking. do you think that this trip will highlight the diversity of those views? what is it that you hear from latino catholics? their views about him, his priorities, where he fits in? guest: what i have found is that views about the church relate as much to the level of engagement that someone has within the church as opposed to what ethnic group or particular division they might fit into in the life of our country. what have found -- what i have found is that those who tend to be more deeply engaged tends to be much more with the church. they tend to understand the churches teachings, to reflect them in the behavior. those who are more distant from the church, who have stopped

going to church or feel somewhat hurt in some fashion by the church, they tend to have very different issues. i think our holy father, his message to us is listen. don't just deal with and talk with people who are already in the choir, so to speak, but go out. i think his message will be very much to reach out to people. what we are saying to people, give christ and give the church 's message a chance. if you have turned away, this is a great moment to come back. that is the primary answer i can give you. >> let me follow up a little bit about what you said. polls which show that catholics by certain barometers go to mass and are connected in some institutional way to the church tends to agree more with

traditional interpretations of church teachings. that is not entirely true. we saw that the polar came out from -- pewaw the big puloll from that showed that people have a more broad perspective on what they consider a family. do you think the united states as an outlier in this regard? the u.s. church is in debate with church teachings. do you think the church is saying that as the united states, we were kind of ignore that, or set a conversation the church has to have? -- is that a conversation? guest: having already interacted with people from every continent , i realize there is a great in every continent in our world. presentolic church is

present in the teachings of jesus in a faithful and customer away -- pastoral way. listening to how culturally those teachings of jesus and encounters with him become a live. it does not mean that the teachings themselves will change. our teachings are not based on polls or consensus. we are trying to remain fatal to the revelations we have received. i think it is important not just what is said, but also how it is heard. important forery me to listen to how something is heard. whether the person i'm listening to things the teaching these to change, i at least have the opportunity to enter into dialogue and begin by clarifying what the teaching is. often, there is a skewed understanding of what the richness of the teaching is. >> i want to ask you a couple of

specific public policy questions. at the beginning of obamacare when it was being implement it and after it was passed, the church saw some of the decisions being made as a real test between free exercise of a religion and what a number of folks thought was personal freedom, the ability to get health care. church preached from the pulpit about this and about this being a free exercise issue. i get the sense from polls that voters seemed to have come down on the other side of this this point. most people do this as a personal freedom issue and have rejected the free exercise part. i wonder how you see that and what the church plans to do on that? guest: thank you for asking the question. i think it was since 1919 that our church has favored reaching out and getting adequate health care to all individuals. what was painful for us and why

we were eager to support the affordable care act, there were three provisions that were lacking. one was a promotion, if you will, a lack of protection for withent life in the womb the abortion aspects of the health care. there was also a less than robust religious freedom. remember religious freedom does not flow from a large consensus but rather the great care with which we as a nation have withheld the individual conscience rights of people, even those whose conscience rights were running upstream to where the majority were. we him as a nation, have always held religious freedom very dear. the third was our efforts to make sure we are giving adequate care to people who are immigrants. the mandate that came after

that, that we feel is unreasonable in requiring institutions and individuals against their will to actually promote and provide care, it is a different issue than the care people are receiving. it is the issue of whether an institution or an individual or company is going to be required to participate in that. you are right -- there is a long debate. i tend to say that the sisters of the poor are the poster child of religious freedom. the vast majority of people, when they see because of the move sisters of the poor -- of the lourve sisters of the poor tend to be some pathetic. sometimes it is about how it is presented to people in terms of the polling you mentioned. church affiliated groups have had a number of victories in those cases. the courts have taken action. one thing i'm interested in is

the further development of this. the question right now is whether the certification of a religiously affiliated nonprofit doesn't want to provide contraceptive care as part of their health insurance, whether that mere certification makes someone unpleasant in sin. for a lot of americans, that might be a tough sell that the mere signing of a document makes them complicit. what are your thoughts on that? guest: our thoughts are very clear. it is, we are hoping, something that will be taken up by the supreme court. as you know, when you talked about victories, the efforts have been in creating a stay. while the appeal process goes to her, i have to go back to the fact that we in the united dear theld very

foundation of our nation of the ability of an individual to be live with deeply held religious convictions. that is really the issue we hope the supreme court will take up. stephen, i think you are right that the number of stays that having given in some of these court cases gives an indication that the supreme court will take that up. it is by no means an ended issue . we are hoping that during the session, that will be one of the things that we will hear, in fact i hope we will hear it very soon, the supreme court has agreed to take that up in this year's session. on it topic up related that stephen and i have been discussing, part of this issue has to do with the investments and the relationship that the government and the church has in one another and the reliance on one another in

partnership. do you have conversations with other bishops about trying to pull back on the relationship if it becomes too problematic? could you see the church saying we will not take this money anymore because it is to cover rising for us -- optimizing for us -- compromising for us? guest: you're asking someone who was for 20 years a director of the catholic charity in pennsylvania. i only saw the work of the catholic charity as being a partnership when we entered into a contract with government. certainly when we look at refugee services and care for troubled individuals, teenagers who have difficulties. we always saw this as a true partnership very i saw this as pluralism at its best. we were not seeking to impose our convictions on government or other people, but rather to say that there are people within our nation who really desire the

level of service and values that that service and bodies that we provide the catholic charities. we want to continue to that. marred,relationship is the losers will be the people we are serving. i cannot speak to whether these things will be anticipated. throughout the united states, you can look at every diocesan charity and agency, there are probably 180 of them, you would see a different relationship with how much they have insipated in -- participated governmental grants or funding. i will say that i worry about the people who are being served. a freedom wes not want to use for some special privilege. it is a freedom to serve others. that is, i guess, why i feel so strongly about trying to

persuade and coming on c-span to tell what i can i think is a worthwhile thing for people to hear threat the nation. let you get away without asking about a recent encyclical. one thing that was interesting about it is that there was a general part about protecting the environment was well scripturally reference. global warming and climate change was devoid of scriptural references. i am wondering if that means it has less moral authority, or how people should view that? guest: i would have to go back and talk about the scriptural reference, but i think the major scriptural reference the holy father has talked on his genesis 2:15, where god said to adam and eve, go and till and be productive, but also care for the earth. the holy father does not present

himself as a scientist. a pastorts himself as of souls, someone interested in the common good, and someone seeking to use the best scientific information available. in that regard, i have to say that in seminary, i used to think that one matters of life , always take the safer course. i, for one, take seriously the idea that we preserve our common home, the earth, for future generations. >> you told the religion writers that you hoped you did not get so caught up in the preparations that you didn't enjoy the pope's visit. host: thank you for joining us as part of your preparations leading up to it. thank you for your time. guest: thank you so much. host: let's turn to you. we have talked a lot about whether this visit will be politicized. despite the archbishop's hopes for it notimpossible

to. let's talk about john boehner and the attention between him and the white house and the extension of the invitation. is that all tied up now? >> the excitement and anticipation over the visit is certainly there. boehner'siquely john project. he makes this a big part of his public life. it is personally throwing for him. i am up at the capital every day. the excitement of there is very intense. there is a lot of eagerness. >> it will be interesting seeing nancy pelosi, his counterpoint, is also a practicing catholic. this is one time where they can come together. >> a practicing catholic who at this point is making more references to the pope's teachings. we talked about that is why this will be matched in politics any sorts of issues. erick wright are very eager about some of the teachings coming out of this pope, and use them for when the on the house and senate floor, for example.

hear on the hill people talking about the logistic of how the visit will work that the >> is any question about? >> there is a lot of discussion about this. members of congress get one or two tickets to have visitors and a viewing galleries for speeches. they are inundated with constituents who are dying for tickets. they try to work out how they can get as many people and the capitol grounds as possible. host: one of the issues we did not get to was the sexual abuse .candals the archbishop talked about gestures being important. we have learned that the pope will visit privately with some of the victims will he is here. >> i think this is a tough call. i think he has spoken eloquently about victims. as far as making concrete

changes in the church, i think there is a lot of dissatisfaction. some people would praise the things he has done. some would say it is not nearly enough. particularly the accountability of people who are responsible overseeing the abusers. i think he would have to do a lot more to satisfy people who feel that the church has not held accountable everybody involved in abuse in the past and accountability. the symbolism and the gestures -- there is a lot of theater and power in symbolism. he is such an influential figure, people seeing him, whether it is visiting publicly with people or the things he says to people, i think once he leaves, and will be changed unless practices are changed. host: another question about u.s. catholics.

countries,estern church attendance as been declining over the past few decades. is this pope and his enormous popularity in a change in that? are more people coming back to church? that is something that we religion reporters are always looking for information about. i was with the archbishop about this -- at this event, and a shared this large pew about american catholics and we called it the francis affect. things like church attendance, there is no sign of any change. there is obviously huge interest in the church. this is an old institution. they take the long view of his impact. one thing from calling that was pollingkable -- from that was remarkable was that 70% of people who left the church could not conceive of themselves returning. i think that is powerful. is a busymate, there religious marketplace in the united states. there is so much for people other to consume and consider.

it is tough for the church to bring people back in less it is willing to engage on a lot of these issues. the place of gay families, but also to the nature of chapter. -- of scripture. i think it is an uphill battle, even if people like to retweet the pope. host: they will have to find time to focus on that in the upcoming visit. thank you for being with us this week, both of you. next, cardinal donald wuerl talks about the pope's upcoming visit to the united states. after that, a hearing committee on the around nuclear agreement with ashton carter. following a speech with john kerry on the iran agreement.

>> this labor day weekend, three days of politics, books, and american history. a full day of special programs on c-span. here are a few of the features on labor day monday. aginning at 10 a.m. eastern, town hall in seattle discussing civil liberties. later at 6:30, a debate about how to reduce poverty between president obama and arthur brooks. cuban, bill, mark clinton, and george w. bush on leadership skills. at noon, a discussion with lynne cheney who will take your phone calls and tweets. later at 9:00 on afterwards, catherine heaton talks about how families from chicago to the mississippi delta are surviving on no income.

on labor day monday, beginning at 11:45 eastern, others like erik loomis, and culture share their thoughts on american football issues. "crowded out." the 1958 film addressing overcrowded schools following the post-world war ii baby boom. on labor day monday, our interview with billionaire philanthropist david rubenstein. get our complete schedule at c-span.org. >> on wednesday, cardinal donald wuerl elaborated on the pope's recent comments on abortion and forgiveness. he says what the pope is saying is that praise should have the ability to absolve those who have had an abortion without having to check with a bishop. he says this does not change the church is pro-life stance. his comments came airing a

christian science monitor event in washington, d.c. it is ian hour. bishop of washington talks about the upcoming visit to the us. this is about an hour. >> our guests today is his eminence the archbishop of washington. this is his 1st visit with our group and the 2nd time in the nearly 50 year history of posting these events that are guest has been a religious leader. the last such session was a breakfast 20 years ago with the dalai lama which a friend attended. welcome, your eminence. >> received graduate degrees from the catholic university of america, the gregorian

university in rome and a doctorate in theology the university of st. thomas in rome. ordained as a bishop in 1986 by pope john the 2nd. served his church in a variety of key positions including one seattle and in the bishop of pittsburgh for 18 years before being appointed archbishop of washington in 2006, elevated to the college of cardinals in 2010 and in 2013 he participated in the conclave elected pope francis. thus ends the biographical portion of the program. as always, we are in an electorate year. the filing of any kind on the breakfast is underway. there is no embargo in the session ends. to help you curb the relentless urge we will

email several pictures of this session to all reporters here as soon as the breakfast inns. if you would like to ask a question, please do the traditional thing and send me a subtle nonthreatening signal and i will happily call on one and all. we will start off by offering our guests the opportunity to make opening comments in the movie questions round the table. that will go to questions. thank you for doing this. we are honored to have you here. >> thank you very much. not only for the very gracious introduction, but for the welcome and the invitation to be here. i am truly complemented by the invitation. just a few words about pope francis, some of our marks going to make command questions i get asked all the time with regularity from people who are part of

the house, catholic or others as well. one of the questions that i think is a very significant one is what is the pope really like? what is he like? is he the way he appears? and i have to say, my experience with pope francis is the person that you see in public, the person you see in the pope mobile, the person you see going around the square, up more in the window on sundays is from my experience the exact same person you see when you said across the coffee table from him. i highlight coffee table because when he receives you in his quarters, and his living room is not sitting behind a desk, sitting across the hall, he sitting

on his chair across the coffee table where he usually has interesting things that he wants to comment on. i have found that this smiling, forthright, caring person that we see on television you see in the papers to me seen social media is the very person you encounter when you meet with him. >> is also the question about his popularity. one of the reasons i believe he is so immensely popular is because he offers in a very, very appealing way the message of his office, offering all of us to consider seriously relationship with god and does not in such an inviting

way. so many people are said to me that what they find so endearing is the way in which he takes the great challenge, thea great human challenge of having a living, working relationship with god, human divine relationship, he takes that and makes it something that we can feel comfortable with we feel invited. not all that long ago i was waiting at the carousel from a bag to come up at the airport. and a woman came across, we were on the same flight. d- which have only way for banks,.

you know, i think you might describe me as a fallen away i want you to no just made me feel like i was welcome. this is why tell the story. when i listen to him i realize that it is not all my fault. ..

>> but we have a place at the table. the next time you introduce yourself, why don't you say that you're an ex, i smiled, she smiled. he -- he's able to touch people across all religious lines. he is not just foe -- focused on

the members of the catholic faith. a while ago i was to visit the hospital, i went to visit one of our hospitals, as i was going in through the revolving door there was a woman who was coming out, she stopped and waited, when i went through the door she said -- she identified the church of which she was a member and she said to me, you know, i just love this pope. i think he is doing such a great job. we chatted for a few minutes. when i came back out after visiting the priest, the

security man at the hospital entrance said to me, my priest secretary had the car, i'm glad we had a chance to talk because you need to know, he identified the church that he belonged which was not catholic and he said, this pope, our pope is doing a great job. i find this not unusual to hear this type of response from people. i have a very dear jewish rabbi friend that reminded me that i need to be careful that i'm taking care of our pope. i think that he has the ability

to reach across all kinds of lines and touch people on something that is fundamental, absolutely basic and that is humanity and desire to live together in harmony, peace, respecting one other's faith convictions, respecting one another's, that's an area, a demographic that is usually identified as having drifted away or not particularly interested in faith issues, and yet, i'm finding the largest number number of people who are showing an interest once again in the light of the church is

demographic. i'll give you just a couple of examples. when i visit the camp minister program in campuses around washington, the number of young people at those meetings has increased dramatically and they have very good questions. one of the things that i find so particularly encouraging about all of this is, this is a generation that really searching, seeking, they don't come with baggage, they don't come with a lot of negative,

this pope is for real. they are seeing in him, they are finding in him something extremely authentic, real, they would say he walk the walk. i think we would say that he -- he simply reflects in a credible way in his life the message that he announces in his words. and that's a beautiful, beautiful thing to say. some of our young people, we opened a seminary four years ago. this month is the beginning of 50-year. that seminary is filled with college age and postcollege age young men and when i asked them about the impression of the holy father is very much along those same lines.

one of the young men said to me, he sounds like and he looks like meaning the way he acts, like the way i would envision jesus sounding, and somehow pope francis ability to cut down all stereotypes and baggage and all types of lenses and actually reach people in a way that he seems as real as credible as authentic. >> we've done about ten minutes of open, if you can summarize at the end because i've got a lot of folks who are -- >> ready to do that. i would just conclude then

because we do have to leave this open, that's part of the reason why we are here, i think we do have to recognize what we think he hopes to achieve. and i'm going to -- i'm not going to try to answer that now because that may very well be one of the questions that comes up, but the expectation of this visit that he's about to make. having said that, i will following the wise and sage direction of the chair, i'm going to conclude and open to questions; is that right? >> that's correct. we've going to my colleagues to start, mark shields, mike, john, from the dallas morning news and

demetri from the new york times. i'm wondering how a new pope with new views changes the life of a cardinal, in this change it changes dramatically because one of the things that pope francis is trying to do is engage what we would call residential issues, bishops to engage them in the work of the román, the only way is to go and be present for meetings. i find that the real impacts he had on my life is increaseing at meetings where the holey father is -- holy father is trying to

hear the voice around the world and not just the world around the puria. but there's another element. i think he's made life a little easier because he's the one who seems to be engaging to world, and so when we are invited in to discussions, there's already a disposition to the message because they've already, so many people find francis as i said earlier credible, inviting, and so our work is a little easier than now when you talk to someone who has already disposed to hear that message. those would be two areas that i would find have impacted me very greatly. >> mark shields.

catholic church in the united states and catholic universally has had human position on immigration, given the crisis in the world the failure to the united states to welcome any refugees specially given united states' role unrest in the middle east do you look for the church to provide some leadership and calling upon the united states to meet its responsibility while germany and some many of the northern european counties have opened their hearts to these poor souls? >> thank you for raising -- the voice of the church in the united states is articulated on matters that touch public policies. the united states conference of catholic bishops has a voice that we utilize to address

public policy issues, and for years we have been addressing the need for some some human way to deal with the issue of migrants, immigrant, and now displaced people in huge numbers because of the violence, of what we are experiencing, most of the people are coming from one particular part of the world, they are coming from the middle east where the violence particularly directed to minorities and cristian communities is horrendous. i find it shocking that there is so much silence about that, that we're seeing the slaughter of people and there isn't that type of outcry that one would expect

from parliaments, social media, that's one element and i believe violence is a big factor. there are those who remain silent while they are going on. there's been a history recently of this level of atrocity that has cost people, people that are drowning are fleeing the situation. people that are not clogged on -- people that are trying to make their way to train stations to get out of, that's the result, that's the result of what's happening in land where

they are and there doesn't seem to be the yet that worldwide commitment to do something about that and it means all of us finding a much more observant europe and much more observant north america to help receive the people who are -- who are fleeing for their lives. so part of the issue, i believe, is the church has spoken out over and over again for decades of the humane treatment, particularly those who come to our country because we all started that way, we all came here from some where else, we're the only country in the world that was really founded by victims and not the victors, we

should be aware and alert to the need of people struggling to share in all the promise that makes us a great country. >> thank you. i'm interested what wounds remain from the vatican's clash with the american nuns and what deeper challenges for the american whole as a church. >> i'm not sure that there are re-- residual to use your word, wounds, i think what was happening was trying to get different perspectives on the same issue addressed by everybody around the table and one of the things that has emerged from all of it and, i

think, it's because pope francis has been supportive of the idea that there's much more to be gained by all of the parties involved, listening to each other and trying to see where there might be differences of perspective. my understanding is that the sisters made it very, very clear they had not doctrine at all and the congregation at the conclusion of its studies said that the issues today are essentially resolved, it's a question of listening and hearing. >> we're going to emily wilkens. >> i wanted to ask about the vatican, priest will be forgiving abortions and one of the big stories in congress is

discussion about planned parenthood and the videos that have come out where it appears that officials have admitted to selling tissue. is this a prior prior priority e vatican to address or the pope to address? >> long, long standing position of the catholic church going back all the way to the second century articulated is that the destruction of innocent life in the womb is wrong. it's innocent human life. that's even more heinous when uses made of the remains of a child that has been destroyed in the womb, the church's position

is very clear that is not going to change. human life is the great gift of god. we have all received so many fundamentals gifts, it's the gift of life itself. we're stewarts on this, we really don't have the right to determine who lives and who dies when we are dealing with innocent. the church has been underlying recently that even in the case of someone who isn't innocent, for example, the dealt -- death penalty, the biased should be in favor of life because it's the fundamental gift. a lot of the things i found attractive if he says at the very heart of all of creation it's the human, you have to start to recognize the dignity

and value of the person. you have to recognize that human person as a hole that our common home is this either and we need to care for this earth, but then he goes onto say development, whatever development is going to take case has to take case with the awareness that it's the human being who needs to be the center of that development, and development has to be sustainable and has to be done in a way that the next generation and the generation after that will be able to enjoy the fruit of this planet. >> oh -- how hard is the church going to work to get catholics to washington, d.c. for the visit, if you want to make -- he

invited three spokes, why has pope traditionally shun the legislative branch in the united states? >> well, let me start with the beginning of that multifaceted question. [laughs] >> what are we doing by inviting people and preparing, you have to remember the holey -- holy father is coming to the united states, he's going to visit three cities. philadelphia is the place where he is going to be engaging the huge crowd. we were told the separation from the visit, that the idea of doing huge mall-type mass was not really what the holy father was when he was visited

washington, but that's going to take place in philadelphia because they've been preparing for years with the world meeting with families. that hasn't stopped people from asking, this is part of the challenge we are facing. i don't have to encourage anybody to come to this city, to come to the events. i found that i have far more dear friends than i ever realized i had and for every seat we had -- remember, we only have 25,000 seats at that mass, for every seat we have, i would say we have ten requests, so the balancing act is how do you get equitable distribution of those seats so that representation of everybody