Pope Francis blesses people from his popemobile as he travels to the Shrine of the Virgin of Caacupe, in Caacupe, Paraguay, in July 2015. (Jorge Saenz/AP) 
 
 Federal authorities are mobilizing one of the largest security operations in U.S. history ahead of Pope Francis’s arrival Tuesday, an effort that is straining law enforcement resources in Washington, New York and Philadelphia. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of onlookers are expected to gather in all three cities for a glimpse of the Catholic Church leader, whose unrivaled global popularity and proclivity to wade into public crowds has added to security concerns. Thousands of federal and local personnel will be deployed to keep the pontiff and the public safe. 
 
 The challenges are immense. 
 
 The pope’s five-day tour, his first in the United States, will include appearances at the White House and Congress, a parade on Constitution Avenue in Washington, a Mass at Madison Square Garden, a procession through Central Park in New York, and an open air Mass with up to 1.5 million people in Philadelphia. 
 
 Pope Francis is seen more favorably than his predecessors among Catholics and non-Catholics according to recent polls. However, when he visits the United States beginning Sept. 22 in Washington, D.C., he will be greeted by a Catholic community that has been losing members. (Jayne W. Orenstein and Julie Percha/TWP) 
 
 [Full coverage ahead of the pope’s visit] 
 
 His Big Apple visit coincides with the 70th U.N. General Assembly, where more than 150 foreign delegations are also expected, creating a virtual lockdown in portions of midtown. 
 
 Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has designated Francis’s stops in each city a National Special Security Event, a rare designation to streamline the federal response that had previously been used for presidential inaugurations, State of the Union addresses, political conventions, NATO summits, the 2002 Winter Olympics and Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. 
 
 The U.S. Secret Service is in charge of coordinating the massive intergovernmental operation on counterterrorism operations, crowd management, crisis response and air and vehicle traffic control. The FBI, Capitol Police, Coast Guard, Pentagon and Federal Emergency Management Agency are closely involved in the planning, along with local police departments. 
 
 Federal agencies in Washington are encouraging employees to work from home Tuesday through Thursday to cut down on congestion in the city. But further adding to the security planning challenges, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at the White House next Friday for a state visit. 
 
 “They’re standing up one of the largest security programs for an individual in U.S. history over three cities,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who assisted in security preparations for Obama’s 2013 inauguration. “The level of protection afforded to Pope Francis is equal to or exceeding that provided to the president of the United States.” 
 
 1 of 10 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Fascinating pope facts: How often he goes to confession and more View Photos What color are the pope’s shoes? Who makes the popemobile? How old does the pope have to be? The answers to those questions, and more. Caption What color are the pope’s shoes? Who makes the popemobile? How old does the pope have to be? The answers to those questions, and more. Vow of poverty The pope has no material possessions. As leader of the church, the pope owns nothing but is in charge of the church’s finances. Anything he needs is provided through the church during his tenure as pope. Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 [Here’s what it was like in Washington the first time a pope came to visit] 
 
 At a news conference in Philadelphia on Friday, Johnson said that federal and local authorities have been planning for months. Officials offered reporters a glimpse of the Multi-Agency Communications Center where up to 90 staff members from 50 agencies will gather around the clock to monitor video, radio and other communications. 
 
 “I want to stress the level of preparation and planning and coordination,” said Johnson, flanked by Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D). “We have worked hard to achieve what we believe will be a safe and successful event and visit by the Holy Father and a safe and successful time for all those who wish to be here and see him. We believe we have struck that right balance for the public.” 
 
 Threats to a pope’s safety are not theoretical. Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded while entering the Vatican square in May 1981. 
 
 Behind the scenes, the Secret Service has been mapping out a security strategy for a visit that is virtually unprecedented in nature. Pope Benedict visited the United States in 2008, and John Paul came several times, but Francis has cultivated a peculiar brand of personal popularity with his common touch. 
 
 Clancy and the agents who will serve as Francis’s protective detail leaders traveled to the Vatican this summer to meet with the Catholic Church’s own security division. They followed the open-air popemobile around the Vatican Square to observe his movements and met with the pope directly. 
 
 “We got a first-hand view of how things worked there,” Clancy said in a brief interview. “It was very beneficial for the detail leaders and for me.” 
 
 Secret Service protective teams — including counter-snipers and counter-assault agents — have drilled at training facilities, employing a replica popemobile. 
 
 Intelligence agencies have been monitoring foreign and domestic terrorist threat levels. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said publicly last weekend that the Secret Service had disrupted a plot related to the pope’s visit. But other federal authorities said they were not aware of the alleged incident. 
 
 Security experts emphasized that protecting the pope is uniquely challenging because of his penchant for mingling directly with spectators in large crowds. In 2013, a passenger vehicle carrying the pope was blockaded by frenzied crowds in Rio de Janeiro. Francis rolled down his window, touching those who reached into the car, and he even kissed a baby passed to him through the window, according to news accounts. 
 
 Secret Service agents said that in the past they have been instructed by Vatican officials not to manhandle the pope in rope lines; with U.S. presidents, agents are accustomed to holding onto a belt or suit coat to be able to evacuate him quickly. 
 
 Congressional leaders sent a memo to lawmakers this week instructing them not to reach out to shake hands or touch Francis as he walks through the House chamber to deliver remarks next Thursday. 
 
 “I was never more moved than by what I saw of the effects the pope has on people,” said Ralph Basham, a former Secret Service director who was assigned as the lead protective agent for John Paul’s visit to Denver in 1993. “It makes it very, very stressful and challenging for us. I’ve never been anywhere where there was more emotion than when I saw that in Denver. The only other time I did see such frightening emotion was in Egypt when [President] Nixon visited Cairo” in 1974. 
 
 The extraordinary precautions have prompted security experts to question whether the inconveniences could become extreme and counterproductive in some cases. 
 
 Scott White, an associate professor of national security at Drexel University in Philadelphia, called that city’s plan to close highways and bridges for the duration of the pope’s visit potentially unprecedented. Even visits by presidents require only temporary shutdowns, he noted. 
 
 “I don’t know what scenario they’ve strung together to come up with that plan of action,” White said. 
 
 Kurt L. Schmoke was mayor in Baltimore when John Paul visited in 1995 for a downtown parade and a Mass before 60,000 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. 
 
 Snipers were positioned on rooftops, mail and newspaper boxes were removed, and manhole covers were welded shut — and that was in an era before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Schmoke said in a recent interview that the elaborate security precautions were worthwhile. 
 
 “It was a major coordination between multiple levels of governments and security,” he said. “I don’t recall us shutting down the city. . . . The biggest issue was who was going to get tickets to the stadium.” 
 
 The enormous costs of the security operations have raised additional concerns within federal agencies and local law enforcement departments, whose operating budgets do not necessarily have sufficient contingencies for significant overtime charges. The federal government budgets $4.5 million a year to handle National Special Security Events, Clancy said, but officials did not clarify whether that was enough to cover the pope’s entire visit. It is unlikely to cover some fees incurred by local law enforcement agencies, experts said. 
 
 “The papal visit will be significant in the planning and scope, almost similar literally to an inauguration, perhaps even surpassing that,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine testified at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing in March. “That is a huge event and something frankly that goes above and beyond our budget.” 
 
 In the end, though, some believe the Holy Father’s safety might be in the hands of a higher power. Basham recalled flying on a Marine helicopter with John Paul in Denver when the pontiff began to make the sign of the cross and seemed to disappear into “a trancelike state.” 
 
 “All of a sudden, he went somewhere else for a minute,” Basham said. “Quite frankly, a couple times I was convinced he was having a private conversation with someone. I can only assume it was with God, I guess.” ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 WASHINGTON — Pope Francis will arrive at a military base outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon to open his first visit to the United States, and President Obama will be there to welcome him. It is a gesture the president has extended to virtually no other foreign visitor. 
 
 And little wonder. For Mr. Obama, there may be no more potent ally in the world in his quest to bend the arc of history, to use a favorite phrase, than a pope who helped him restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and who has spoken out on issues like economic inequality, immigration, climate change and criminal justice reform. 
 
 Yet if the pope’s visit seems likely to bolster Mr. Obama on some of his top priorities, it also comes at a moment of sharp focus on moral questions where the two differ. For conservatives assailing the jailing of a clerk who refused to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples and for abortion foes now mounting a bid to cut off federal money for Planned Parenthood, Francis and the teachings of the church offer a timely boost. 
 
 The conflicting interpretations underscore the hazards of trying to pigeonhole any pope into the binary left-right spectrum of American politics. At the White House and on Capitol Hill, leaders say Francis cannot be viewed in strictly political terms. But in Washington, where everything is political — including religion — both sides in the perpetual American argument hope to make the most of the pope’s three-day visit to the seat of power. 
 
 That will probably be easier for Mr. Obama and the Democrats. Just as Pope John Paul II was seen as more aligned with the anti-Communist mission of President Ronald Reagan, Francis is seen as sympathetic to Mr. Obama’s priorities. Some conservative Catholics refer to Francis derisively as “Obama’s pope,” while some Catholic Republican presidential candidates have expressed polite disagreement with the leader of their church. 
 
 “We are fully expecting that there will be some messages with which we may respectfully disagree or have differences, but that on many of the big-ticket items” the pope’s “essential messages will resonate very much with the president’s agenda,” said Charles Kupchan, an adviser to Mr. Obama. “And in that respect, we are hoping that his moral authority helps us advance many of the items that we take to be very high on our policy agenda.” 
 
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 The pope arrives after stopping in Cuba, highlighting the diplomatic opening he in part made possible. After the pageantry of a welcoming ceremony hosted by Mr. Obama on the White House South Lawn on Wednesday, Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday — a first for a pope — at the invitation of Speaker John A. Boehner, a Catholic Republican from Ohio. 
 
 All over Washington, fliers are urging people to “rally with Pope Francis in the call to moral action for climate justice,” a topic he will address at the United Nations after leaving Washington. During a stop in Philadelphia, Francis is expected to talk about criminal justice in a way that tracks Mr. Obama’s call to stop imprisoning nonviolent offenders for so long. 
 
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 His choice of issues could bolster Mr. Obama, said Peter Wehner, a conservative Catholic scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a White House official under President George W. Bush. “It probably favors Democrats more than Republicans,” said Mr. Wehner, who expresses admiration for Francis. “Let’s put it this way: I think Democrats are probably looking forward to his visit more than Republicans.” 
 
 Leslie Tentler, a longtime professor at Catholic University, said the pope’s recent encyclical on climate change indicated that it would be a central message during his visit. “Obviously he wants to influence opinion in the United States because we’re so large and important and we still pollute so much,” she said. 
 
 But Francis, who first met Mr. Obama at the Vatican last year, goes beyond the president in denouncing the sins of globalization and capitalism and has criticized American policy in Syria. He may weigh in on the fight over abortion, given his condemnation of what he calls the throwaway culture. 
 
 “I’m sure the pope will make everyone very uncomfortable,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, a Catholic Democrat from New York. “There will be some things that Democrats may not like to hear, and there will certainly be some things, I think, the Republicans will not like to hear.” 
 
 Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader from Nevada, even accused Senator Mitch McConnell, his Republican counterpart from Kentucky, of advancing a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy with Francis in mind. “He’s doing it because the pope’s coming here,” Mr. Reid said last week. 
 
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 If Francis arrives at a fraught moment in American politics, it is also a time when Catholics play an outsize role at the highest levels of government. Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic, as are 31 percent of the members of Congress, compared with 22 percent of the overall adult population. Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the nation’s first Catholic vice president; if he were to run and win next year, he would be the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy. 
 
 Six Catholic Republicans are already running for president, more than ever before: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, George E. Pataki, Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum. A seventh, John R. Kasich, was a Catholic altar boy who was nicknamed Pope because he aspired to the Vatican before migrating in adulthood to a Protestant church. Martin O’Malley, a Democratic candidate, is also Catholic. 
 
 Just as important, Catholics have become a decisive swing vote in presidential elections. Since 1972, when news media exit polls were first inaugurated, no presidential candidate has won the popular vote for president without the Catholic vote. 
 
 But breaking down that vote involves significant foreshadowing. While the overall Catholic vote has swung between parties, white Catholics are strongly Republican and Hispanic Catholics are strongly Democratic. Given demographic trends, that points to growing support for Democrats in years to come, a worrisome sign for Republicans. 
 
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 Even the pope is not immune to America’s divisions. While he has not changed fundamental Catholic doctrines, Francis has stressed the parts focusing on serving the poor and de-emphasized those reproaching abortion and homosexuality — what his biographer John L. Allen calls “his insistence on the primacy of compassion over judgment.” 
 
 The pope’s approach has divided Americans along ideological lines. While Francis enjoys support across the spectrum, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll, self-described liberals express 53 percent approval and 4 percent disapproval, compared with 29 percent approval and 15 percent disapproval among conservatives. 
 
 Those disparate perceptions play out on the campaign trail as well. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the populist seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly aligned himself with Francis on economic justice. Last week at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Va., Mr. Sanders quoted the pope saying “Money has to serve, not to rule,” and added, “I agree with him.” 
 
 Republican candidates, by contrast, were left to explain disagreements with Francis. Asked at a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire last week whether he would see the pope, Donald J. Trump, the Republican front-runner, answered dismissively, “Well, the pope believes in global warming,” he said before adding: “I like the pope, a lot of personality. Good man.” 
 
 On television on Sunday, Mr. Rubio, a senator from Florida, distinguished between his reverence for the pope on spiritual issues and his divergence on other matters. “I follow him 100 percent on those issues; otherwise, I wouldn’t be a Roman Catholic,” he said of theology on “This Week” on ABC. “The pope as an individual, an important figure in the world, also has political opinions. And those, of course, we are free to disagree with.” 
 
 Similarly, Mr. Christie, the governor of New Jersey, faulted Francis for encouraging Mr. Obama’s diplomatic rapprochement with Cuba, noting that Havana harbored fugitives, including the killer of a New Jersey police officer. “I just think the pope was wrong,” Mr. Christie said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “The fact is that his infallibility is on religious matters, not on political ones.” 
 
 At the same time, Mr. Obama must also proceed carefully. Already, some reports have accused him of trying to politicize the visit by inviting critics of the church to the White House arrival ceremony. The White House responded by noting that it expected 15,000 people, including those with a diversity of views. 
 
 “The pope has to assume that he’s going in and people are going to use him,” Mr. Wehner said. “I think President Obama will try it. It’s up to the pope not to let that happen.” ||||| From his private meeting with President Obama to giving the first-ever papal address before a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis did not shy away from politics during his three-day stop in Washington, D.C. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post) 
 
 From his private meeting with President Obama to giving the first-ever papal address before a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis did not shy away from politics during his three-day stop in Washington, D.C. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post) 
 
 Pope Francis, making history’s first papal address to the U.S. Congress, on Thursday implored America’s leaders to accept those born in other countries as their own children, urging lawmakers to set aside political differences and embrace people who “travel north in search of a better life.” 
 
 The pope wrapped traditional Catholic teachings into a celebration of American icons including Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., drawing lessons from their work to gently but firmly push Congress to move beyond the partisan paralysis that has blocked progress on immigration reform, climate change and other issues. 
 
 “Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility,” the 78-year-old pontiff said in heavily accented English. “Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation.” 
 
 President Obama watched the speech on television, according to White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “Pope Francis made the appropriate observation for the United States to live up to the high standards that we set for ourselves,” Earnest said. 
 
 [LIVE UPDATES: The latest on Pope Francis in America] 
 
 1 of 51 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Highlights from Pope Francis’s second full day in the U.S. View Photos The pontiff became the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress. He also paid visits to St. Patrick’s Church and Catholic Charities before departing for New York. Caption The pontiff became the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress. He also paid visits to St. Patrick’s Church and Catholic Charities before departing for New York. Sept. 24, 2015 Pope Francis at the U.S. Capitol. Bill O'leary / Pool/European Pressphoto Agency Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 The Capitol Hill call to action kicked off a second full day of gleeful crowds and emotional visits to Catholic institutions. The faithful gathered at the Apostolic Nunciature, or Vatican embassy, to greet the pope when he emerged. More lined the streets as his motorcade traveled to the Capitol, where thousands waited on the Mall to watch his speech on giant screens. 
 
 After his address to Congress, the pope went directly from the grandeur of Capitol Hill to the spare St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in a neighborhood that has flipped over the past decade from marginalized to magnet. He prayed with people who variously wore suits and torn T-shirts, and he blessed the meals of more than 300 homeless people. 
 
 Upon arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the pope traveled by helicopter and motorcade to a very different St. Patrick’s, the soaring cathedral on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, for an evening service. 
 
 There, the pontiff began his homily by expressing “my sentiments of closeness” with Muslims after the tragic stampede that killed more than 700 pilgrims near Mecca on Thursday, the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest Muslim holidays. “I unite myself with all prayers to Almighty God, the merciful,” he said. 
 
 He spoke directly to nuns and women in the church, saying, “What would the church be without you?” He also referenced the clergy sex scandal for the second time on this visit, lamenting “the shame” caused by “brothers who harmed and scandalized the church in the most vulnerable of her members.” 
 
 The pontiff will carry his message to world leaders Friday when he speaks at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. 
 
 In his speech to Congress, Francis crafted an address saturated in American references, with special praise for the nation’s role as “a land which has inspired so many people to dream.” 
 
 He was pointed at times, urging the abolition of the death penalty and the end of arms trading, and warning of the dangers of religious extremism worldwide. And he was oblique at points, never directly mentioning abortion or the United States’ rapid embrace of same-sex marriage, saying only that the family is being threatened and that “fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.” 
 
 [Read the pope’s speech] 
 
 He saved his most specific prescription for combating climate change, a cause on which he said the United States has a special obligation to lead. 
 
 “I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps, and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity,” the pope said. “I am convinced that we can make a difference — I’m sure. And I have no doubt that the United States — and this Congress — have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies.” 
 
 The pope, who helped broker a diplomatic opening with Cuba, offered himself and his example as a pastoral link between opposing points of view. “It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same,” he said. “A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism.” 
 
 Although members of Congress largely avoided the ostentatious displays of partisan cheering that have come to characterize the president’s annual State of the Union addresses, an ideological divide was apparent at times. In response to Francis’s passage about climate change, Democrats mostly stood and cheered, while some Republicans stayed seated and applauded mildly, if at all. 
 
 But the response to the pope’s passionate words about embracing immigrants seemed to strike a bipartisan chord. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a presidential candidate and son of Cuban immigrants, wiped away tears as the pope called himself “the son of immigrants.” 
 
 [Pope Francis: ‘I always was interested in politics’] 
 
 Pope Francis tempered his call for action with a statement of support for the role that business plays in society, calling it “a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world.” 
 
 “The creation and distribution of wealth,” he said, is a vital element in the fight against poverty and climate change. 
 
 Those looking for signs of this pope’s political direction could find evidence in the speech’s repeated references to a pantheon of liberal heroes, from Dorothy Day, who dedicated her life to a battle against poverty and war, to Thomas Merton, whose “Letters to a White Liberal,” written in 1963, urged Christians to follow their faith and join the fight for civil rights for black Americans. 
 
 The pope praised King for his focus on “liberty in plurality and non-exclusion,” Day for “social justice,” and Merton for “dialogue and openness to God.” 
 
 [6 reasons the pope’s speech could be awkward for some lawmakers] 
 
 Francis implored Congress to “reject a mind-set of hostility” and embrace the immigrants who come “to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom.” 
 
 The pope, noting that many in Congress are also children of people who made the risky journey to America, said the nation must follow the golden rule and “treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated.” 
 
 “We must not be taken aback by their numbers,” he said, “but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.” 
 
 Francis’s emphasis on immigrants is a matter of self-interest for a U.S. church that is rapidly becoming majority Latino. Parishes across the white Northeast are shuttered while many in the West and South are bursting with ­Spanish-language Masses. 
 
 That focus also dovetails with the major theme of his American trip so far, a series of reminders that his papacy is very much about renewing the church’s focus on the poor and the powerless. The pope this year opened a 30-­bedroom homeless shelter just steps from the Vatican. He had showers set up for homeless people in St. Peter’s Square, and he invited about 150 homeless people to a private viewing of the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 In New York, he will get a direct look at inner-city Catholic education when he visits a school in East Harlem and meets with immigrants and refugees. In Philadelphia, where he will end his U.S. visit, the pope will visit a prison to meet with inmates. In Washington, his visit at St. Patrick’s immediately — and pointedly — followed his hour in the majestic House chamber. The plain sanctuary of the 220-year-old downtown church was filled with people who need basic life services. But as Francis noted, “In prayer, there is no first or second class.” 
 
 “I need your prayers, your support,” the pontiff said, standing at a simple wooden podium before a reverentially silent flock. “Would you like to pray together?” 
 
 The hush broke like the uncorking of a bottle: “Yes!” 
 
 Americans are largely supportive of the pope’s engagement on economic, social and environmental issues. But American Catholics, who make up about one-fifth of the U.S. electorate, remain deeply divided over their church’s directives. 
 
 [Poll: Americans love this pope. His church? Not as much] 
 
 One Catholic congressman, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), skipped the pope’s appearance to protest Francis’s advocacy for strong action against global climate change and what Gosar sees as the pope’s failure to speak out “with moral authority against violent Islam.” 
 
 The many lawmakers who were inside the chamber on Thursday emerged with bipartisan agreement that the pope’s central message was simple: Just get along. 
 
 On the Capitol lawn, many of those who watched the pope’s congressional address on giant video screens came away convinced that Congress should — but probably won’t — take his message to heart. 
 
 “I was not expecting him to address the bipartisan divide,” said Emily Warn, 62, a writer from Seattle. “It’s as if he was trying to heal Congress.” 
 
 In a country where the old-line Catholic population is diminishing because many families are having fewer children — though a wave of Hispanic immigrants is partly making up for that decline in numbers — the pope spoke to young Catholics, especially those who are “disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.” 
 
 They will have children, he said, only if the nation provides them with a greater sense of “possibilities for the future.” 
 
 After the address, Francis walked through the Capitol’s second floor to Statuary Hall and paused at the statue of Junípero Serra, the California missionary whom he had canonized on Wednesday. 
 
 The pontiff then joined Vice President Biden, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other congressional leaders on the speaker’s balcony overlooking the West Front of the Capitol, greeting an enthusiastic crowd that numbered in the thousands. He said a few words of thanks in Spanish and then, to great cheers, switched to English: “Thank you very much, and God bless America!” 
 
 steve.hendrix@washpost.com 
 
 Sarah Pulliam Bailey, DeNeen L. Brown, Pamela Constable, Jessica Contrera, Ed O’Keefe, Michael E. Ruane and Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.
– Pope Francis sets foot on US soil at 4pm today (full schedule here), and officials in DC, New York, and Philly are scrambling to ensure a smooth, safe stay. Here are five of the more unusual details of his visit: The visit has spurred one of the largest security operations in US history: The pope's five-day visit has received the rare designation of "National Special Security Event," the Washington Post reports, and the Secret Service-led security operation also involves the FBI, Coast Guard, Pentagon, and other agencies. Adding to the challenge: the pontiff's "proclivity to wade into public crowds," and the doubling-up of events. The 70th UN General Assembly and Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit are also on the docket. President Obama will meet him at the airport: When he arrives at Joint Base Andrews just outside DC, Obama will be there to greet him. This is actually a big deal. "It is a gesture the president has extended to virtually no other foreign visitor," observes the New York Times. No congressional handshakes: The pope's attendance at Thursday's joint session of Congress is a "sold-out" event, and those members who will be attending have received a "Please Behave Yourself" notice co-signed by John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, the Post reports. "Out of respect for the Pope's schedule and the expectation of a timely address, we respectfully request that you assist us by refraining from handshakes and conversations along and down the center aisle," the memo reads. There's a saintly sticking point: According to social media (and Vocativ), there's one major sticking point about Francis' visit to DC that's causing a ruckus: his expected canonization tomorrow of Junipero Serra, a controversial 18th-century missionary who's accused of enslaving and wiping out indigenous Native Americans and forcing conversions in California. More than 10,000 signatures have already been gathered on a MoveOn.org petition asking the pope to ditch his sainthood plans. There's a rookie at the social wheel: Deesha Dyer is the "rookie" planning what the New York Times calls "the 'Super Bowl' of social planning." The new White House social secretary, 37, is an ex-hip-hop reporter tasked with organizing not only every detail of Obama's visit with Pope Francis tomorrow, but also the meeting and state dinner with Xi later in the week, followed by a presidential appearance at the UN in New York.