PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
July 25, 2014
Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to visit Philadelphia in Sept. 2015, a trip that would mark his first to the U.S. as pontiff.
Catholic News Service quotes Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi as saying that the Pope has expressed “his willingness to participate in the World Meeting of Families” in Philadelphia and that he’s also received invitations to visit New York, the United Nations and Washington, D.C., which he’s considering.
Time magazine notes: “The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family sponsors the World Meeting of Families every three years in a different city. The upcoming gathering is still more than a year away, and Pope Francis is likely to push for more activity on the issues of family and marriage before then — at least if his workrate continues at its current pace.”
In March, a CBS News poll showed that Francis, who at that point had been pope for just a year, was more popular among U.S. Catholics than either of his predecessors, Benedict XVI or John Paul II, at the same point in their papacies.
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