Pope Francis on Thursday exhorted the United States to summon a “spirit of cooperation” to help the poor, save the climate and address the “unjust structures” that he said are afflicting the globe. 
 
 Delivering the first-ever papal address to a joint session of Congress, Francis lived up to his reputation as a provocative figure, at one point denouncing the global arms industry as being fueled by “money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.” 
 
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 Invoking Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Francis made an impassioned plea for the refugees fleeing Syria, saying the crisis is “of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War.” 
 
 Noting his own status as “the son of immigrants,” the pope pivoted to a more sensitive subject: The flow of illegal immigrants across the United States's southern border. 
 
 He urged compassion for immigrants, warning not to repeat “the sins and the errors of the past” by turning them away. 
 
 “On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, 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 said, according to his prepared remarks. 
 
 “Let us remember the golden rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ ” he added. 
 
 “This rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves.” 
 
 Several Democrats applauded as Francis declared, "We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners." 
 
 
 
 Most Republicans did not join in the applause, with GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioRubio unveils bill to strengthen security at Cuban airports Dem senator calls on Congress to oppose Trump's pick for NASA chief Jeff Flake knows the GOP is in trouble, and so does the base MORE (R-Fla.), a son of Cuban immigrants, among the exceptions. 
 
 At the outset of his address, Francis urged lawmakers and the tens of thousands watching from the National Mall to reject a blind adherence to ideology, be it religion or capitalism. 
 
 “We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. … A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.” 
 
 Citing heavily from his June encyclical on climate change, Francis argued that lawmakers have a responsibility to take steps to address global warming. 
 
 “In Laudato si’, 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 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 climate remarks drew a moment of partisanship into the chamber, with many Democrats jumping to their feet to applaud and most Republicans staying in their seats, silent. 
 
 Francis’s decision to only briefly mention climate change may have fallen short of some lawmakers’ expectations. Rep. Paul Gosar Paul Anthony GosarGOP lawmaker spars with CNN reporter over Charlottesville conspiracy theories Flake's exit gives GOP new hope in Arizona Ex-Arizona GOP chair inches closer to bid for Flake's seat MORE (R-Ariz.), a Catholic, announced last week that he would boycott the speech to protest the pope’s views on climate change, arguing that Francis is acting like a “leftist politician.” 
 
 Capitol Hill gave Francis a rock-star welcome Thursday morning. The complex was buzzing with activity well before sunrise as security personnel, staffers, reporters and guests gathered well ahead of the pope’s arrival at 9:15 a.m. 
 
 Before the speech, Francis met privately with Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerThe original Tea Partier exits, stage right A tyranny of the minority is raising your health care costs Rivalry on right emerges between ‘the two Marks’ MORE (R-Ohio), a Catholic and the person who had extended the invitation to address Congress. 
 
 “Your holiness, welcome, really glad that you’re here,” John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerThe original Tea Partier exits, stage right A tyranny of the minority is raising your health care costs Rivalry on right emerges between ‘the two Marks’ MORE told Francis, eyes welling up as the pope returned the sentiment. 
 
 The Speaker told Francis he wore a green tie for the event at the urging of his staff. Through an interpreter, the pope replied, “It’s a tie with the color of hope.” 
 
 “I need a lot of hope today,” Boehner replied. 
 
 Francis strode to the dais in the House without stopping to greet individual lawmakers, though he did stop to shake the hand of Secretary of State John Kerry John Forbes KerryBrent Budowsky: Trump debases the nation Time to put Hillary to bed Susan Rice responds to praise of Trump's Iran deal speech: 'BS' MORE. Lawmakers had been advised before the speech that the pope must initiate all handshakes. 
 
 The Vatican kept a remarkably tight lid on the contents of Francis’s address despite the anticipation leading up to the event. Some Republican lawmakers had hoped Francis would mention abortion as Congress debates defunding Planned Parenthood while trying to avoid a government shutdown next week. 
 
 Before arriving in the United States, Francis told reporters it is a mistake to view him as “leftish.” Yet two issues where the Republican Party is in step with the Vatican — opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage — received only a passing mention from Francis. 
 
 “The golden rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development,” Francis said, reiterating the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty. 
 
 Referring obliquely to same-sex marriage, the pope also said he cannot “hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. 
 
 “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.” 
 
 Francis, who played an important role in reestablishing ties between the U.S. and Cuba, made no direct reference to the normalized relations between the two countries. His address came two days after he visited Cuba, before his trip to the U.S., which includes stops in New York City and Philadelphia. 
 
 And while the Vatican had offered an endorsement of the Iran nuclear deal earlier this month, Francis did not make a pointed reference to that controversial accord. 
 
 “I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same,” he said. 
 
 The pope's sharpest rhetoric was aimed at military-industrial complexes across the world that he argued are using war for profit. 
 
 “Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? 
 
 “In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade,” he said. 
 
 Francis did not use one particularly sharp line in his prepared remarks, which had warned politics cannot be a "slave to the economy and finance.” 
 
 Throughout his address Francis referred back to the “fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people.” 
 
 “Politics is ... an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: That of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. 
 
 “I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves,” he added, “but I encourage you in this effort.” 
 
 After the speech, Francis ascended a platform to address the crowd gathered on the Capitol's West lawn, with Boehner and Vice President Biden at his side. 
 
 "I'm so grateful for your presence here. ... And I ask you all please, to pray for me, and if there are among you any who do not believe, or cannot pray, I ask you please to send good wishes my way." 
 
 
 
 "Thank you very much, and God bless America." 
 
 As he turned to depart, Biden was heard on a microphone telling Francis: "They love you, and we love you." 
 
 — This story was last updated at 5:20 p.m. Jordain Carney contributed. ||||| CLOSE Pope Francis urged Congress to treat refugees not as number, but as people, during his address to a joint session. VPC 
 
 Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Sept. 24, 2015, from the House chamber. (Photo: Andrew P. Scott, USA TODAY) 
 
 WASHINGTON — In the first-ever papal address to a joint meeting of Congress, Pope Francis called on Americans Thursday to embrace immigrants from Latin America and around the world. 
 
 “Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the second World War,” the pope said, including "thousands of persons (who) are led to travel north in search of a better life. 
 
 “We must not be taken aback by their numbers, 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 said in a 45-minute speech. "To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome." 
 
 Speaking slowly in English before a packed House chamber including the assembled members of Congress and hundreds of dignitaries and reporters, the Argentine pope said, "We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us once were foreigners." 
 
 The pope's immigration plea comes in the middle of a fierce debate in American politics about illegal immigration, fueled in part by Donald Trump's strong campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump launched his campaign with a tirade against Mexico for sending "rapists" across the border and has promised that if elected he will build an impenetrable fence across the U.S./Mexican border. 
 
 Conservatives in Congress are looking for ways to use federal spending bills to block President Obama's executive orders granting work permits and temporary legal status to some undocumented immigrants. 
 
 A host of Republican presidential candidates attended the speech, including Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and, in the visitors' gallery, Ben Carson and Chris Christie. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, was on the floor. 
 
 As he did Wednesday at his appearance with Obama, the pope called for action to combat climate change. Quoting from his encyclical in May on the environment, Francis told Congress, "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. I am convinced that we can make a difference, and I have no doubt that the United States — and this Congress — have an important role to play." 
 
 Republicans have raised strong objections to Obama's plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants, arguing that it will damage the economy without making any meaningful improvement in the environment. 
 
 As House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Vice President Biden, both Catholics, sat behind him, the pope provided some points that would satisfy conservatives. He said the Golden Rule "reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development," then he pivoted immediately to a call for abolition of the death penalty, not a discourse on abortion. 
 
 He warned against the erosion of the family. "I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without," Francis said. "Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life." 
 
 The pope did not make any specific appeal on the topic of marriage and cautioned against fundamentalism. "We must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil or, if you will, the righteous and sinners." 
 
 After the speech, the pope made a brief stop in the halls of the Capitol to bless the 2-week-old daughter of one of Boehner's staff members. 
 
 He then stepped onto a balcony of the Capitol and gave a brief blessing to a huge crowd gathered on the lawn who had heard the speech via video. Speaking in Spanish, the pope asked the crowd to pray for him and invited non-believers to "send good wishes my way." Boehner, who said he'd dreamed of meeting a pope for two decades, stood beside Francis and pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket to wipe away his tears. 
 
 During the speech before Congress, lawmakers largely avoided the partisan ovations — one side standing, the other clapping politely or sitting on their hands — that frequently mark presidential State of the Union addresses. For the pope, when one side stood, the other generally rose as well. Republican were first to their feet when the pope raised concerns about the family; Democrats were first when he raised climate change. 
 
 Lawmakers were not reading text of the speech and did not appear primed for what the pope was going to say. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., let out a whoop heard throughout the chamber when the pope said the death penalty should be abolished. 
 
 A beacon of righteousness and dignity, @Pontifex has been a steadfast voice for the virtue of life, marriage, and religious liberty. — Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) September 24, 2015 
 
 Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., sitting next to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., brightened when Francis mentioned the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march 50 years ago. Sewell, who is from Selma, and Lewis, one of the African-American marchers beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge at the start of the march, nodded and smiled. As the pope lauded Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream of full civil and political rights for African Americans,” Sewell and others patted Lewis on the back, and Lewis put his hand over his heart. 
 
 “That dream continues to inspire us all,” Pope Francis said. 
 
 It was the first standing ovation of the speech, led by Lewis. 
 
 Outside the Capitol, Todd Gaddis, 56, a Baptist minister from LaFayette, Ga., said he respects the pope very much but was a little disappointed in the speech. “I would have liked to see him spend more time with his focus on the eternal as opposed to the temporal. As one of the world’s most visible ministers, I’d like to have heard the name of Jesus a few more times quite frankly,” he said after he watched the speech on video. “That said, I’m on the Capitol steps, not in the church.” 
 
 Melinda Peter, 39, traveled with her 6-year-old daughter from 8 miles above the Arctic Circle to hold up a sign on the Capitol lawn proclaiming "Alaskan natives (heart) Pope Francis." 
 
 "We're Episcopal, but we like this pope because we know he's for indigenous people," she said. 
 
 After the speech, Congress turned to a debate over a looming government shutdown, creating an immediate opportunity to begin quoting the pope in political argument. 
 
 Agree with @Pontifex: Political leaders should act for common good, not “take up space.” Let’s get to work and keep the government open. — Sen. Barbara Boxer (@SenatorBoxer) September 24, 2015 
 
 Contributing: Mary Troyan, Deirdre Shegreen, Ledyard King, Maureen Groppe, Bill Theobald 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1KwNsHg ||||| LONDON -- Pope Francis decried abortion Monday as a sign of a wasteful modern culture that treats goods and people, including unborn children, as easily discarded commodities. 
 
 In the annual papal “state of the world” speech delivered to diplomats, Francis said the denial of human dignity was a threat to world peace, and cited the problems of hunger among the have-nots and food waste among the haves. 
 
 “Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary.’ For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day,” the pope said, according to excerpts released by the Vatican. 
 
 He added the use of children as soldiers and human trafficking to the list of crimes committed against the world’s young. 
 
 The comment on abortion was one of the few instances that Francis has addressed the issue in his 10-month-old papacy. Last September, he told an interviewer that the Roman Catholic Church needed to stop hammering on social controversies such as abortion and same-sex marriage and focus more on spreading God’s love to all. 
 
 Alarm among Catholic conservatives that he was watering down the church’s message on those issues led the pope to quickly reaffirm his opposition to abortion. Using the same phrase he employed Monday, Francis described abortion as a symptom of a “throwaway culture” that places little value on human life, the environment and natural resources. 
 
 His brief remarks on the subject Monday came toward the end of an address in which the pontiff cited the need for peace and reconciliation in various hot spots around the globe, including the Korean peninsula, the Middle East and Africa. He said he was troubled by instability in Lebanon, the civil war in Syria and political and religious violence in the Central African Republic and South Sudan. 
 
 He expressed concern over the increasing hostility shown toward migrants and those trying to find better lives elsewhere. The pope’s first trip outside the Italian mainland last year was to the island of Lampedusa, which hundreds of people fleeing Africa have died trying to reach. 
 
 “Sadly, there is a general indifference in the face of these tragedies, which is a dramatic sign of the loss of that sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters on which every civil society is based,” Francis said. 
 
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 henry.chu@latimes.com ||||| Thirty-one years ago, when a man named Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II, the arrest and the trials that followed were dominated by a question: Who sent the would-be assassin? The Soviets? The Bulgarian secret police? Turkish fascists? John Paul was asked if he had a view, and he said it didn’t matter. In his biography “Man of the Century,” Jonathan Kwitney reported John Paul’s conversation with a close friend Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur. “I know well that the responsible one was the devil,” the pope said. “And whether he used the Bulgarian people or the Turkish people, it was diabolical.” 
 
 I thought of that story for days after the first bulletins of 20 children shot in Newtown, Conn. Whatever we find out about the thinking, habits and sickness of Adam Lanza, it was the evil one who sent him to kill those children. And evil is part of life. 
 
 But there are three obvious public policy ideas that come to the forefront after Newtown, and what happened there can push them forward quickly. 
 
 First, broadly, we must provide more treatment options for parents of children whom they know to be mentally unstable and potentially dangerous. If your child is hungry, you can get food. If your child breaks his leg, the hospital is there. But if your child is psychologically sick or mentally unbalanced and beginning to show signs of violent behavior, you’re more or less on your own. We have to change this. We are making more sick teenagers and young men now, not fewer, and this is going to continue as our culture breaks up. I think we all know this, deep down. 
 
 Second, Congress should move quickly—really, right away—to ban something almost every member would ban next week if they were given a clean, short, unambiguous piece of legislation. Two years ago, after Tucson, I urgedPresident Obama to make such a bill a priority in his 2011 State of the Union Address. 
 
 A hot subject then was the polarizing nature of our political rhetoric. But I wrote: 
 
 Normal people are not afraid of a lowering of discourse in political speech. They don’t like it, but it’s not keeping them up nights. Normal people are afraid of nuts with guns. That keeps them up nights. They know our society has grown more broken, families more sundered, our culture more degraded, and they fear it is producing more lost and disturbed young people. They fear those young people walking into a school or a mall with a semiautomatic pistol with an extended clip. What civilian needs a pistol with a magazine that loads 33 bullets and allows you to kill that many people without even stopping to reload? No one but people with bad intent. Those clips were banned once; the president should call for reimposing the ban. . . . The president should seize the moment and come out strong for a ban. 
 
 My reasoning at the time: many Republicans on the Hill were ambivalent at best about extended clips. Few would go to the wall to defend them. The problem, as I saw it, was the Democratic Party, which had overreached after the assassinations of the 1960s, talked about banning all handguns, and suffered a lasting political setback. (Bill Clinton bucked the trend and paid a price for it.) The Democratic Party got burned and didn’t want to mention gun control anymore, even when it came to obvious things like extended clips. 
 
 My reasoning now: Newtown changes everything. Move. 
 
 What I fear is that the Democrats will overreach and put together some big, comprehensive gun bill that will bog down in useless disagreement, debate and acrimony. But they can get extended ammunition clips banned tomorrow with a brief and limited bill, and they can use that victory to gain momentum and launch a bigger debate on gun violence. A quick victory now would be good for the country: At least something good, one small thing, would have come from the disaster in Newtown, and would have come quickly. 
 
 Third, everyone who has warned for a quarter-century now that our national culture has become a culture of death—movies, TV shows, videogames drenched in blood and violence—has been correct. Deep down we all know it, as deep down we know our culture has a bad impact on the young and unstable who aren’t sturdy enough to withstand and resist sick messages and imagery. 
 
 When Hollywood wants to discourage cigarette smoking it knows exactly how to do it, because it knows exactly how much power it has to deliver cultural messages. When Hollywood wants to encourage environmentalism it knows how to do it. But there’s a lot of money to be made in violence… ||||| Justice Pope Francis Tells Congress To Abolish The Death Penalty CREDIT: AP Photo/Alex Brandon 
 
 In his first ever visit to the U.S. and first speech ever to Congress, Pope Francis called on the nation’s hundreds of representatives to make the death penalty a thing of the past. 
 
 “Every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes,” he said. “Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.” 
 
 Pope Francis said his stance on the issue stems from belief in the Golden Rule, continuing: “If we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us. The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.” 
 
 Sitting in the House chambers listening to the speech were several members of the U.S. Supreme Court, which earlier this year issued an opinion upholding the use of a controversial lethal injection drug used in several drawn out, painful, botched executions. The decision went beyond allowing the continued use of a method some consider torture, but defended the entire concept of the death penalty as immune to legal challenge. 
 
 Yet one of the Court’s most devout Catholic members, Justice Antonin Scalia, recently suggested they could soon reconsider. Speaking to students at Rhodes College, Scalia said at least four of his colleagues believe the death penalty to be unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment. 
 
 The Holy See’s call for death penalty abolition is also likely to energize the millions of American church-goers who agree with him, and who have been pushing across the country for a more humane criminal justice system. Faith-based activism, particularly from Catholics, played a major role in Nebraska passing a bill to end the death penalty earlier this year.
– Pope Francis hit a wide-ranging number of topics in his address to Congress today. Here are five getting attention: Death penalty: He implored Congress to abolish it, reports ThinkProgress. “Every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes." Immigrants: He invoked MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech in asking the US to be more welcoming not only to refugees from Europe but from Mexico as well, reports the Hill. "On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children?" Marriage: In what Slate says is "almost certainly an allusion" to gay marriage, Francis lamented the state of the modern family. It is "threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without," he said. "Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life." Climate change: He said the US has an "important role to play" in reversing the "environmental deterioration caused by human activity," reports CNBC. "Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies." Arms trade: He told lawmakers from the world's largest exporter of weapons that the arms trade must end, reports the AP. Why do weapons get sold to war mongers? he asked. "Sadly, the answer as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. ... It is our duty to confront the problem."