The Popes In The City Of Brotherly Love

Coverage from Saint John Paul II's 1979 visit to the
United States is featured in our permanent exhibit.

Last week, Pope Francis officially announced his intention to visit the United States! The Holy Father will join the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia next fall. Details for his trip will not be released until spring or summer of 2015, but the Pope will most likely participate in the meeting’s closing events.

Saint John Paul II started the World Meetings of Families, and he was also the last pope to visit Philadelphia. More than a million people came out to see him during his visit in 1979. In his homily at Logan Circle, the late Holy Father said:

How then can a Christian, inspired and guided by the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption of Christ, strengthen his or her own values and those that are embodied in the heritage of this nation? ...These values are strengthened: when power and authority are exercised in full respect for all the fundamental rights of the human person, whose dignity is the dignity of one created in the image and likeness of God; when freedom is accepted, not as an absolute end in itself, but as a gift that enables self-giving and service; when the family is protected and strengthened, when its unity is preserved, and when its role as the basic cell of society is recognized and honored.

During his time in Philadelphia, St. John Paul II spoke of the importance of the family. Next fall, Pope Francis will do the same.

Please join us in saying this prayer as we prepare for the eighth World Meeting of Families. Let us also ask the meeting’s co-patron, St. John Paul II, and Blesseds Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi on this day of their feast, to pray for us.