Pope Francis Heads Back To Rome After Philadelphia Mass Ends Whirlwind Tour
PHILADELPHIA (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Pope Francis was headed back to Rome late Sunday, after joining hundreds of thousands of the faithful Sunday for the last and biggest event of his joyful, six-day U.S. visit.
The pope was wished a farewell by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, and Vice President Joe Biden before departing.
In a speech as he departed, Pope Francis looked back on his time in the U.S. – focusing specifically on Ground Zero in New York.
"I was also very moved to stand with my brothers and sisters of other religions at Ground Zero, that place which speaks so powerfully of the mystery of evil," the pontiff said. "Yet we know with certainty that evil never has the last word, and that, in God's merciful plan, love and peace triumph over all."
FULL TEXT: Pope Francis' Speech Before Departing Philadelphia For Rome
A few hours earlier, the pontiff held a powerful Mass on Philadelphia's grandest boulevard. He also met Sunday with sex-abuse victims and offering words of hope to jail inmates.
Riding through the streets in his open-sided popemobile, the pontiff waved to cheering, screaming, flag-waving crowds as he made his way toward the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It was the final event on his itinerary before the 78-year-old pontiff departs for Rome on Sunday night.
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During the homily of the Mass, Francis said everyone should be open to miracles of love for the sake of families around the world.
He said happiness and holiness are tied to little gestures, like those done by mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, and children.'
PHOTOS: Pope Francis In Philadelphia
In his own words, Pope Francis said such gestures are "like the warm suppers we look forward to at night; like the lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to work, or a hug after we return from a hard day."
Pope Francis Joins Hundreds Of Thousands For Mass In Philadelphia
He called families and their homes true domestic churches and said they are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith, CBS Philly reported. Before leaving, the pope thanked the congregation, and, asked one final favor.
"And I ask you to pray for me, don't forget."
Organizers had predicted a crowd of 1 million, but there were fears that the unprecedented security, including airport-style bag searches, crowd-control cattle chutes and blocked-off streets, had scared many people away and would depress the turnout.
Earlier in the day, in a gesture of reconciliation, he met with five victims of child sexual abuse and told them he is "deeply sorry" for the times they came forward to tell their story and weren't believed. He assured them that he believes them and that bishops will be called to account for what they did.
Pope Francis Joins Hundreds Of Thousands For Mass In Philadelphia
"I pledge to you that we will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead," Francis said in Spanish. "Clergy and bishops will be held accountable when they abuse or fail to protect children."
Then he went into a meeting with American bishops in town for a Catholic festival on the family and told them the same thing face-to-face, CBS News' Danielle Nottingham reported.
"God weeps" over what was done to the youngsters, he said.
Francis' journey also took him to Washington and of course to New York. Along the way, he drew large and adoring crowds, met with President Barack Obama, visited ground zero and addressed Congress and the United Nations, calling for urgent action on climate change and poverty.
Pope Francis In NYC: Full Coverage | CBS2 Video |Photos | Facebook
The meeting on Sunday with victims of sexual abuse was the second one Francis has held. He received some at the Vatican in July 2014.
But in an apparent effort by the church to reshape the discussion, the Vatican said not all five of the victims on Sunday were abused by members of the clergy; some of the three women and two men had been victimized by relatives or educators.
Victim support groups were unimpressed by the meeting.
The main victims' support group, the Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests, dismissed it as an exercise in public relations.
"Is a child anywhere on Earth safer now that a pope, for maybe the seventh or eighth time or ninth time, has briefly chatted with abuse victims? No," said SNAP's David Clohessy.
Barbara Dorris is a child sex abuse survivor and serves as the victims outrage director for SNAP, and also said she wants Pope Francis to take stronger action against bishops who protected predator priests.
"How can he kiss babies and talk to children and express all this concerns for children and yet do nothing?" Dorris said. "This guy is a monarch -- an absolute monarch. If he says they're gone, they're gone."
The Rev. Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer who worked at the Vatican embassy in Washington and is now an advocate for victims, said that including more than just victims of abusive clergy "seriously minimizes" the problem in the church.
"We don't think we're going to get any real support to change this from the leadership in the Vatican," Doyle said. "They're having this big meeting of families. But there's been no real room for all the families that the Catholic Church has destroyed through sexual abuse."
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been hit hard by the scandal and has been the subject of repeated grand jury investigations, including one that accused it of keeping on more than three dozen priests facing serious accusations. A monsignor was found guilty of endangering children by not removing pedophile priests, becoming the first American church official convicted of such an offense.
The pope has agreed to create a new Vatican tribunal to prosecute bishops who failed to protect their flock, and he has accepted the resignations of three U.S. bishops accused of mishandling cases. During the previous meeting with victims, he similarly vowed to hold bishops accountable.
At the same time, Francis and U.S. bishops have also argued that child molestation is a serious problem beyond the church, especially within families and in schools. The meeting with victims abused by people other than priests underscored that point.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope met with the victims for more than a half-hour at the St. Charles Borromeo seminary. He said the pope prayed with them, listened to their stories and expressed his closeness in their suffering and his ``pain and shame'' in the case of those abused by priests.
Also during the meeting with the bishops, Francis referred to gay marriage for the first time in his U.S. trip, lamenting the new reality in which Christians must live.
But he also urged the bishops to redirect their energy away from complaining about it, saying a church that does nothing but explain its doctrine is ``dangerously unbalanced'' and ``stuck in a vicious circle.''
The U.S. bishops have spent considerable time and resources battling gay marriage, calling its legalization by the U.S. Supreme Court three months ago ``a tragic error'' and ``profoundly immoral and unjust.''
Later Sunday, Francis visited a Philadelphia jail to give hope of redemption to about 100 inmates, included suspected killers, rapists and mobsters. He greeted the men one by one, telling them to use their time behind bars to get their lives back on track.
"May you make possible new opportunities, new journeys, new paths," he said, standing before a wooden chair the men had made for him for the occasion.
The blue-uniformed inmates, some of them heavily tattooed, seemed moved. They clasped Francis' hands, and two gave him a hug.
The pope has criticized prisons that only punish and humiliate, and he has denounced life sentences and isolation as torture. During his speech to Congress, he called for abolition of the death penalty.
As the hour of Sunday's papal Mass approached, people endured hourslong waits to pass through security checkpoints, and the lines stretched for several blocks.
Sarah and Terrence Williams, both 36, of Williamstown, New Jersey, have been trying for more than a year to have a baby and said they were hoping that attending the Mass might result in a miracle.
"Hopefully he'll drive by and just his acknowledgment will be the blessing we need to get our miracle," Terrence Williams said.
Thomas Coorey, a dentist and father of four visiting Philadelphia from Sydney, called Francis ``the most inspirational and amazing pope that could breathe life into this church of mine.''
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