Although the Vatican has not yet confirmed if the pope will attend next year’s World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, speculation was heightened this week when Vatican officials arrived to check out the city in advance of what could be the pope’s first visit to the U.S. – a visit that will focus on the very thing the “thought police” forbid us to talk openly about – the traditional family.
ABCNews.com is reporting that it could be several more months before we know for sure, but Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput says he’s “personally convinced” that the City of Brotherly Love will soon have the honor of hosting the pope during next year’s Meeting.
“There’s every indication he is coming,” Chaput said.
Hopes were certainly raised on Tuesday when the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, arrived in Philadelphia to tour the city. Accompanied by Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and Governor Tom Corbett, he visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.
When asked what his goal was for the international symposium which will take place in September, 2015, he said it was to promote “the importance of the family for the contemporary world.”
During his tour, Paglia would not speculate on what other cities the pope might visit should he decide to attend the meeting in Philadelphia.
However, Paglia was much more direct while addressing students at Philadelphia’s Roman Catholic High School.
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia
According to CBSPhilly.com, his heart was touched when a sophomore named Matt Anticoli issued a heartfelt plea – in flawless Italian – to the pope, asking him to please come to Philadelphia.
Paglia responded with a promise to do everything in his power to convince the pope that he should come for the meeting.
He then asked the students to help him by writing a personal letter to Pope Francis.
“Invite him to come to Philadelphia!” Paglia urged the students. “I will be… in Italian we say ‘postino,‘ mailman. I am the mailman. An archbishop mailman — very good!”
Making an event such as the World Meeting of Families a reason to come to the U.S. – a visit that will certainly become an enormous media event – will be a brilliant way to focus the world’s attention on the beauty and benefits of traditional family life. The cries of the “thought police” who have been dominating all discussions about family life, bulling anyone who does not espouse same-sex marriage and parenting, will be forced into the background as the media scrambles to cover this international event. Even though the same-sex marriage advocates will be out in full force, and the media will give them more than their fair share of coverage, few stations will dare to censor the pope’s message in a way that will cost them the kind of ratings they can expect from such a huge global event.
Unlike the rest of us, Pope Francis will be able speak freely and fearlessly about the benefits of the traditional family and, at least for the time that he’s among us, so will we!
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