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Pope arrives in Philadelphia, urges laity to play more active role in church
Pope Francis arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday on the final leg of a visit to the United States, and reminded ordinary Catholics of the role they must share with priests and the wider church to sustain the faith "in a rapidly changing society."
"Each one of us has to respond as best we can," he said.
Speaking at a Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, he cited Pope Leo XIII's words to the Philadelphia-born Katharine Drexel ?later recognized as a saint during an 1887 audience: "What about you? What are you going to do?"
Francis said the question should be addressed today to young people and by implication to women, noting it was important that Leo asked the question of a laywoman.
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Credit: Tony Gentile
"We know that the future of the church calls for a much more active engagement on the part of the laity," he said.
The issue has particular relevance in a country where one-fifth of parishes have no priest in residence and parishioners are often called on to take up the burden, and where the proportion of people who identify as Catholics has declined to a fifth from about a quarter over the past 20 years.
Though he encouraged help from people in the pews, Francis gently warned that there were limits.
"This does not mean relinquishing the spiritual authority with which we have been entrusted," he said.
People raise their phones and cameras as Pope Francis passes.Credit: Damon Winter
"Rather, it means discerning and employing wisely the manifold gifts which the Spirit pours out upon the church."
One of Francis' biggest applause lines during his homily at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Friday came when he expressed his love and appreciation for nuns.
He added to the thought Saturday, remarking on the "immense contribution which women, lay and religious, have made and continue to make to the life of our communities."
Francis spoke to bishops, priests and nuns from Pennsylvania at the cathedral, the 151-year-old seat of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, where he arrived by motorcade after flying in from New York. About 2,400 people filled the basilica.
Worshippers included Dr. Tony Coletta, chief executive of a health care company, who called the pope's visit "a lifetime opportunity both for the city of Philadelphia and for us."
"It's as close to God as we will ever get on the earth," Coletta said in the soaring marble-clad nave shortly before the Mass started.
The New York Times