PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis sounded a clarion call for the power of love and unity Sunday during a Mass on Philadelphia’s iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and told well-wishers at the airport that his time in the United States had been “days of great grace for me and, I pray, for you.”
Vice President Joe Biden was among those at the Philadelphia airport to say goodbye. Francis thanked the audience for working so hard to make his visit possible, and asked Biden “to renew my gratitude to President Obama and to the members of Congress.”
“My days with you have been brief,” he said. “But they have been days of great grace for me and, I pray, for you, too. Please know that as I prepare to leave, I do so with a heart full of gratitude and hope.”
At the parkway Mass, which organizers estimated would draw 1 million people, Francis proclaimed the power of God’s love and reminded the throng of the little miracles of everyday existence and faith in the divine spirit that help overcome life’s challenges.
The barricades along his route were lined with people, snapping photos and shouting “Francisco!” as the open-sided “popemobile” passed by.
Some brought babies to the popemobile for a kiss and a blessing. Then, in a scene that has been common throughout his visit, young children were brought forward for blessing.
The pope also made a quick stop at the prayer grotto by Philadelphia’s cathedral, where he viewed tens of thousands of white-knotted ribbons, each representing a person’s hardship or wish for change.
It was a whirlwind six days for the pontiff, who will be 79 in December. He visited three U.S. cities, spoke to a joint meeting of Congress and addressed world leaders at the United Nations. Earlier, he spent a few days in Cuba.
Throughout, Francis talked about the need for helping the poor, treating immigrants and refugees with respect and solving the world’s environmental problems, including climate change. He told a joint meeting of Congress to work for the common good.
Francis, who has pushed for prison reform, also visited Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on Sunday, where he told a group of inmates that their time in prison “can only have one purpose,” to get back on the right road and rejoin society.
Sunday’s final festivities were also dedicated to the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and Catholic values that Francis earlier praised: “Having a family and raising it transforms the world and history of the world,” he said.
Throughout his visit, Francis was treated like a star in Washington and New York City, drawing huge crowds to catch a glimpse of him waving from the popemobile or appearing live on a Jumbotron screen. Philadelphia was no different.
“He’s just such a humble man who moves people to do good,” said Greg Sequela, 55, who hosted his teenage nephews from Reading, Pennsylvania. They spread beach towels on the grass along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and donned papal T-shirts, prepared to wait hours to see Francis.
Francis also told clergy and seminarians that the church needs to do more to support families.
“Our ministry needs to deepen the covenant between the church and the family. Otherwise it becomes arid, and the human family will grow irremediably distant, by our own fault, from God’s joyful good news,” he said.
“A pastor remains vigilant by helping people to lift their gaze at times of discouragement, frustration and failure,” he said at another point. “We might well ask whether in our pastoral ministry we are ready to ‘waste’ time with families. Whether we are ready to be present to them, sharing their difficulties and joys.”
As he has before, Francis also slammed the current consumer culture with its focus on materialism. “We have turned our society into a huge multicultural showcase tied only to the tastes of certain ‘consumers,’” while so many others only “eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
Francis met with 100 inmates at Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and spoke of the gospel account in which Jesus washed the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper in a sign of renewal and comfort.
Jesus “wants to heal our wound, to soothe our feet which hurt from traveling along, to wash each of us clean from the dust of our journey,” he told the inmates.
The pope has pushed for prison reforms, arguing that incarceration all too often only humiliates the inmate. He opposes the death penalty and has denounced solitary confinement, calling it a form of torture. Francis thanked the inmates for the large wooden chair that they made for him.
Thousands began lining up along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway before dawn, and security lines stretched for blocks. Church groups staked out spots in the grass, spreading blankets and gathering pallets of free water as they prepared to wait hours on a breezy, sunny day. Scores of police, Homeland Security, Border Patrol and other law enforcement officers patrolled as those in attendance sold soft pretzels, pope T-shirts and other souvenirs.
Juliana Hermann, 48, of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, took the train into Philadelphia with a few friends Sunday for their long-planned trip to see the pope. Her decision to attend represented a turning point for Hermann, a domestic abuse survivor who went through a painful divorce and a 14-month-long annulment process.
“It really turned me off to the Church,” she said as her group waited in a security line near the parkway. “I had to sit in front of a board of priests and nuns with police reports about a man who was abusive and they said, ‘I’m sorry, church and state: separate.’”
Unable to take Communion at Mass, she has felt alienated. But with Francis, recent moves to speed up the annulment process and other messages of inclusion have given her hope.
“Listening to his message and seeing the change that is happening, we needed that rebirth. He’s bringing people together: women who had abortions, gays and lesbians,” she said.
She said Francis makes her want to be a better Catholic, and rolled up her sleeve to reveal a gray beaded bracelet: 100 beads, one for each good deed she tried to do, as many as she could in a day. “You strive,” she said. “How hard is it?”
Sunday she had an extra ticket for the events, which she gave to a stranger behind her in line: Maria Taylor, 66, a Peruvian immigrant from Alabama who drove to Philadelphia with her friend.
“I told her have faith,” Taylor said as she clutched her ticket and the ladies welcomed her to the City of Brotherly Love. “God is good.”
Eshban Sarfraz, 20, of Philadelphia and who got tickets through his church, St. William’s, arrived with friends around 7:30 a.m. for the 4 p.m. Mass and found a spot near the front, within view of the massive stage with its yellow-and-white arch.
“Maybe we can get a glance of him going by. Hopefully he can bless us,” he said, and, “hopefully good will come out of this.”
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.