We are live here at the Woodrow Wilson center in washington, d. C. Today, look at the popes visit to the u. S. This september. Pope francis we stopping in washington, new york city and philadelphia. A National Press foundation bring together reporters who cover religion and they will talk about ideas for coverage of pope francis first trip to the United States. Some issues expect to be discussed today and some issues expect the pope to address while in the u. S. Poverty hunger, immigration, the environment and more. Live coverage here on cspan2. Id like to take just a minute to thank the sponsors for this event, the u. N. Foundation and the Aarp Foundation and to meet some other folks later on. With that i would turn it over to linda. Thank you sandy. We will move right into logistic. Im going to introduce helen osman, secretary of to make a shift of u. S. Catholic conference of bishops. She is coordinating Media Coverage around the visit pope francis next month which, of course, why were only. Shes been with us since 2007 and has been a major player in bring the church into the digital and social media age. And when to the Catholic Press association honored her with the st. Francis award for personal achievement and but happy to have her join us today. Thanks, linda. I appreciate you all being willing to work with a Getting Started on time. I have a meeting that mandatory for me answer my colleagues to the at, at 10 00 or so i have a few slides im going to breeze through them but i like to give us more time for yall to ask questions, if thats okay with everyone. Of a public over this morning very quickly a little bit of whats different from previous papal visitor i was in the same role in 2000 it went Pope Benedict came and work with colleagues and to work with colleagues were at the conference for the previous visits to the poker a little bit about credentialing, social media, the senate under the resources we are offering two journalists. 50,000 level view of the whole schedule for pope francis and then what specific were doing at the conference in reaching out to the general public. Level of interest is one aspect. With a great deal of interest in 2008, but i dont like to use the purpose but this is unprecedented we close the credentialing on friday. We have over 7000 applications from individuals and probably about 600 outlets that have asked for space at the venues. Where pope francis will appear. He intends to speak quite often first in spanish, then alternate, have an english translator available to them. People go back and forth so that will be something new for us. Social media in 2008 remember it wasnt just be giving. We had long conversations over whether we would credential bloggers or not. Wont even bother pashtun yes we are credentialing everybody this go around. Again, just the whole media landscape has changed dramatically in the past seven years. Mobile devices, Live Streaming et cetera. Support other like to emphasize is the bottom line. When we started planning with the vatican which action was back in january of this year from the very beginning every time i would ask the question are these events open to the media, the answer was yes absolutely, yes, absolutely. We would like to see it available around the world. So weve been working with the networks on pooled coverage, at least tv Pool Coverage of every event. As i mentioned we close the credentialing on friday. This is only for the venues for which the church has responsibility. That means we are not credentialing for the white house. Congress and United Nations. Let me repeat that. We are not credentialing for the white house United Nations or congress, but everything else. We anticipate that we will try to be engaging in conversations in social media both in spanish and in english. Weve already asked folks to start using the hashtag and hoping you us. We are working with the pool the tv pool so that we can have simultaneous translation when he is speaking in either spanish or english for events again at this point we havent built into details of reaching out to the white house or Congress Going to you is already planning simultaneous translations. We will have a Filing Center in the city and otb those addresses in the next slide and lend has graciously offered to distribute this view also you of those. At each of the five centers we will have a live video feed from the tv book we will have copies of the speeches. Bob and i were were talking about that. Ive asked we have those in english and in spanish. They are unaware of the need to have them as soon as possible lease on the day up. The holy father does take great personal interest in his text i understand, and often revises sometimes revises contemporaneous as you speaking suggest an alert to everyone on the. Will have an interview desk if folks want to indicate of the people. The holy father is not entertain requests for individual interviews. If you are on the plane with him, and that is already been determined the media that have been given that privilege, and, of course, he doesnt do those on plane, interviews with a group of thats the only time where he will entertain interviews a will have a cadre of lots of other folks for you to talk with. Also different this trip from other trips by popes to the u. S. Every day will have a briefing and a Filing Center from the press officer or his holiness the weve used the Filing Center as a transport center to bring the media who have received assignments to the venue, received credentials for the venue, using that to bring you in on buses to work with the secret service and other agencies so to get where youre supposed to be and make sure all those places get filled. Because extremely high demand for those. So we have remember the two Marriott Marquis is, i know its hard to see on the screen but in washington its been Marriott Marquis downtown, new york been Marriott Marquis times square. Philadelphia it is an area associate with the Convention Center, and actually the Convention Center hall a is where we will be running if i send you just think marriott and easy to remember on that. You will need a usccb secret service credential to go into the Filing Center. And let me just run very quickly to schedule, most of you probably are unaware but he is coming in from cuba on tuesday evening september 22 i believe and we will have a briefing that they actually immediately after he arrived with father lombardi at the Filing Center. The next morning he goes to the white house. Again white house credentials for that immediately following that he goes to st. Matthews cathedral and as midday prayer with the bishops. Its not a mass but it is official part of the church and he will have some remarks of their in spanish. Following that in the afternoon were over at the campus of Catholic University of america and the basilica, National Shrine of immaculate conception. And and he will celebrate mass there. I think the number is about 22000 right now anticipated to be there. And you also officially recognize as a saint in the church. In other words, there will be a mass of canonization. Thursday visits congress. Immediate after that he will go over to Saint Patricks in the city where theres a Catholic Charity center and meet with about 200 of the clients folks who use Catholic Charity service. Again he will speak in spanish with those individuals. Vatican believes jfk go to newark, still not done for the day. He visits his second st. Patricks of the day st. Patricks cathedral for the archdiocese of new york where he will have evening prayer with folks there. Friday morning hes over at the United Nations. Again, those of you human credential to after that he goes to ground zero what he has to movement. Evil meet with individuals who were effected immediately by the events of 9 11 family members First Responders et cetera on the outside around the two pools to think he will go inside and will be an event being called multireligious event with i think about 700 faith, religious leaders. After that he goes up to peace to harlem to a school that serves immigrant families, and another Catholic Charities centered and then that evening he has mass at Madison Square garden. Next morning he gets up goes to philadelphia, has mass at the cathedral their with the faithful of philadelphia archdiocese. He is greeted by seminarians at st. Charles seminary which is where he will be in residence those of todays. Vatican and he goes down to Independence Hall and will have an address on religious freedom. And that afternoon he joins the festival families which is a multievent, celebration, music presentations. You will be there for about 90 minutes but the actual festival i think is about four hours on the Benjamin Franklin parkway in philadelphia. The next morning he meets at the center with bishops who have been attending all week accounting for families, the world meeting of families in philadelphia that also is part of the festival of families. Goes from there over to sorry, i just a blank on the name. Prison in philadelphia. Will meet with a group of about 100 who are incarcerated there, most likely younger people. Again, will be speaking in spanish and english there. And then large mass, huge mass enormous mass on the Benjamin Franklin parkway. We met up to 2 Million People who want to participate in that. And then he goes back out and wheels up about 8 00 sunday night. Been also just very quickly a little bit of what we are doing. The usccb is launching a mobile solution. I going to put a date they will be in the apple stores is august 15 called Catholic Church, we think. But we will be writing like skinny on that of all of the events. We want to encourage people to watch parties i think everyone including all of you in the romance stories about people really want to cater to see pope francis, and we recognize the intensity of interest so what we are encouraging parishes and schools and ics to do is think about having watch parties locally for those who cant journey here. Virtual pilgrimage if you want to call it that. Our website is intended to also be a place where people can catch the live stream and other information we will have quasipatch word protection and that board, journalist resources were developing now actually. So again if you want to write down anything you as people visit. Org would be to go to site for media pashtun people visited egypt logistical questions for me hope logistics at gmail. Com is our preferred email i know your mind which is fine but if you send you this one that means is that going to get lost in all the other stuff that i have going on. So that like us it is a quick flight suit or i would ask if anyone has any specific questions or anything else . Yes. [inaudible] yes. We do if you go into u. S. People visit. Org, scroll down on i think is on the bottom of the homepage theres a link there to the secret Services Website which is where you go to get the credential. Soundex bahrke were hoping to get other experts. Again we are compiling all of that so yes. Yes, those kind of folks. Yes, sir. Did you have great. Sorry. For the st. Matthews cathedral event can you give us any sense of how much press will be allowed in there or is it going to be who else is going to be in there besides bishops . Yes. Its not a large area as you probably know. And i dont know the full guest list, but it will be limited access for meeting inside, and were working on risers on the outside as well but it would be limited. Yes, sir. Hi, good morning. Is this the same one from friday . [inaudible] spin you can still get into the websites. Websitespent for the Filing Center speak was yes, for the filing said the we close on the venue so and the second question is the Daily Briefing is going to be webcast speak with despicable on the live stream. But in order to watch it it will be passwordprotected . No, it will be public. It will be part of the pool. Does that make sense . So we will feed the live briefings into what is provided to the ust people. Okay. It would be like. Yes. If we applied for the venue, will they get the secret Service Credentials are doing it to do that separately speak with no. The secret service credential you would use that to access the venue. Spent okay but if we have done that already, i can apply for a venue, then do we also and we want to go to suffice it to come do we need a separate it all works and works across all three cities. So if we have applied already by the first deadline you are good. Cant guarantee youll get into venues you want a judge or credential. They are running those do the background checks now. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now im going to introduce william douglas, Congressional Correspondent from mcclatchy newspapers. He has reporting experience in nuke city schools, bill clintons second president ial term. Now is covering congress and the president ial elections for mcclatchy. Bill has poached for getting a good story from the popes visit from capitol hill. Good morning and thank you very much for having me. Thank you all for geneva i look out and see some familiar faces on capitol hill. I can speak from the capital perspective of the popes speech to congress. This will be very very different. If i had to describe the significance or importance of the speech this is going to be like a state of the king or head of on steroids in terms of demand for media in terms of demand for members of congress to actually be in the chamber for the popes speech. Congress people can claim congress doesnt do a lot of things that i think last week they managed to vote exmembers of congress out of the chamber. They will not be allowed in for the speech because probably all the seats will be filled with members of the house and senate. They normally when heads of state visit even with my mr. Netanyahu speech a couple of months ago you have what they call fillers. Staff members or interns filling seats. But that will not happen this time around. I doubt there will be a member of congress who would not want to skip this. For our selfless purposes in terms of covering this, this is going to be a challenge for reporters who want to cover the speech. Again going back to state of the Union Address we are going back to a regular i hate to say normal head of state, but a regular head of state for lack of a better term. We normally will go to the house or Senate Press Gallery, said he would like to be in the chamber or at least be in the gallery to file, and they are usually very very accommodating to this timer is going to be more public it because they perhaps, a, not just us, us being the congressional everyday u. S. Press but the foreign press. They will have to find a room for the popes traveling press picks it is going to be very very tight in the House Press Gallery which is already a tight space as it is now. If you are not, well, if youre not credentialed reporter to capitol hill that is if you deny the congressional hardpacked do not get in the u. S. Capitol that day. They are not going to honor passes or the little sticker things you can do. Thats not going to work. Even with the hard task theres no guarantee that youre going to get into the chamber. If you havent made a request i would suggest you do so today. They still havent gone through how theyre going to do this but its going to be very, very limited. As people they dont know there are x number of seats in the press gallery inside the chamber, and, of course, the Wire Services have their seats and then some of the other sort of longtime capitol hill publications and those day to day will more than likely get in. Those who are occasional visitors to capitol hill even with a hard pass theres no guarantee they are going to get him. That would mean maybe some colleagues who might visit from time to time. If you feel youre not a routine our regular visitor on capitol hill and you want to be in the chamber, i would suggest you start either calling the galleries are coming up with a plan be relatively fast because its going to be very, very, very tight. The pope speaks at 10 00 probably. So that means they will have to get in the building early. Its advice you probably go through the house and Senate Office buildings as opposed to trying to get into the capital. Because as you know when he goes to the capital youve got to go through the security and there will be lined. So its best to go to the Office Buildings. I would say my general of fun, and im paranoid, for addresses i tend to get there an hour or two early just to give myself time to go through security and get set up. I would advise you all to do that, maybe even a little bit earlier. There are nice cafeterias in the building. You can bide your time. But just avoid the house because they would more people and security, there was much, much more thorough probably than they are, and they are pretty thorough another table take it to another level when the pope arrives. Give yourself time to get there. Bring what you need to bring. That will also help with the security. Dont bring any extraneous stuff. Dont bring your gym bag. Dont plan on working out after the speech. Just bring your works to executable code by much quicker. Now, for those folks who dont get in Speaker Boehner has opened up the west front. There will be a jumbotron outside the that is a ticketed event. So citizens just cant walk to the west front and expect to get in and watch the speech on the jumbotron. I would suggest to citizens who have a desire to do that, you might want to call your member of congress. Im not quite sure have a ticketed event goes but i assume it might be like inauguration that you just call your member of card and see if you can get a ticket and try to get there. Yes . [inaudible] i have no idea. I think they are still working through that. All i know is its going to be limited. I mean, limited to what the capacity is and limited by basically limited by just the sheer numbers that will be there. I dont have any intelligence on the exact number but just think if you covered the state of virginia are covered a head of state, a head of state speech and given to the gallery in our seating area you know how long the rows are and how sort of many bench seats there are. Just go based on that. So thats pretty much the upshot of what all i know about but did in. If you have any questions, i can try to answer those. Im going to ask a question to hold off for a minute so we can get you a mic. Is there proceeding on the west front speak with dont know at this time. I think they are still working through that. Other questions from the floor . I wonder, he mentioned coming into the Office Buildings rather than directly through the capital. Many of us are accustomed to walking into the Office Buildings with almost no security at all. You expect that secret service would be beefed up at the entrances as well speak with i suppose as i suspect thats more capital service. If theres any when the dalai lama comes, certain dignitaries dictate a certain level of security. Im sure this will dictate a very, very high level of security. To answer your question yes it would be much much more security than youre used to seeing. Imaging to play to work out to bring your gym bag. What would you say are the essentials . What do you need to bring with you speak as if youre covering it, your laptop, notebook recording devices, iphone if youre taking pictures off your phone. I would just bring the basics the basic reporting tools that you require. Obviously, if your tv rrated you have more but just actor bag smartly just to get yourself through the security quickly. Spent dont forget those extra batteries. If you are not able to get into the capital and youre not one of the lucky people with a ticket to the longview figure standing outside william, what would you say are your best tips for people who are looking for maybe they are live stream the speech on the phone which approach will be possible and then youre looking for reaction speaks i think are some fun reporting opportunities out there to do. If you are one of the reporters that once upon the west front, watching it on the jumbotron, that means your automatic taxes to people to interview. Which you have an advantage over the reporters inside the chamber. Because once once the speech begins at once that speech ends you are pretty much going to be where your. You are and be pretty much stuck in place. Your ability to get around. I like to joke that when you go to the white house youre sort of a stuck pig because you can only go like to the briefing area and maybe to one hall and congress are so like a Free Range Chicken where you can roam around the whole building. You will not have the luxury with this. If youre in the chamber, youre in the chamber. If youre in the press gallery, youre in the press. If youre in the Senate Press Gallery you in the Senate Press Gallery. If youre in the west front you were on the west front. If you have an idea of listening to the speech and running around in doing your member of congress, its not going to be that easy. Yes . So you dont think theyre going to do anything with statuary hall . I have not heard anything. This is just me speculating i would tend to doubt that just because of security. The previous speaker laid out the pontiffs agenda. If he doesnt recall otr off the record, if you decide to roam and wants to visit statuary hall, you know no. I think that would be, i think it would be difficult. Yes, if you want to document of congress i would call an event and try to set something up by phone. That would probably be easier, or if you can make a date somewhere maybe 35 40 minutes to an hour after the speech, that might be good if your looking like an instant reaction, i would try to call your member in advance and see if they can call you shortly after the speech. Yes. [inaudible] for people you said who dont have press credentials for capital on a regular basis what would you say if youre going to go to one place to see if you could get some sort of access to what would be the best office to call to try to set that up . Sounds like you have a lot of different ideas spent access to Conference Speakers or to be anywhere in i know not the press gallery but maybe the chamber spent well, i mean i always call the press gallery to see if you get in the press galleries, to see if you get into the chamber, get into the press section within the chamber. You will not get on the chamber floor. If you are honed in on a member of congress or to again i would call that member to see where they plan to be afterwards just as if you can either meet them personally or just talk to him over the phone. If you are compelled to be at the capitol you have a hard pass . No. But some of my colleagues to do. By all means, give it a shot. The House Press Gallery is not assigned seating. So what happens when we do have speeches of heads of state and city of the union people get there as early as they can come up laptops down, plug them in an basically later claim to that space. Theres going to be a race for that day. Again, if you have a hard pass and you can get in there, i would get there early and get my laptop can stay here again. [inaudible] i know that even when ive gone there at 9 00, everything is taken up. Well that tells you something. I mean we are talking a regular workday on the hill. I dont know what kind of galleries. That is a key theme. As it gets closer you might ask them when they will open it up. I would say if you need to write from there, i would get there as early as i possibly could. Again, if you think theyre too early, the cafeteria is there work you can do because hell have space to do it. I would say check with the gallery i would get there as early as humanly possible. My understanding as that they are going to be doing, in addition to the congressional hard pass they are going to do there separate credentialing for the cheer that is what ive heard. I asked him about it and they said as the state approaches will let you know. Obviously a lot of demand from everyone, so we are trying to accommodate as many people as possible. I havent heard back from them. I think what they might mean that began with the state of the year, they give us a ticket to go into the chamber. That might be what they are referring to. I am sure it is still early on that end. I would say keep and contact with the galleries. That is that they are referring to. For reporters who dont cover the hill all the time who is the person they should contact in any providing email address for that . I wish i were that sandy. I would call the House Press Gallery and i would call the Senate Press Gallery. Whoever answers the phone could provide information and give you the name of the person or persons that are the point people on this. You can get the house gallery director at any hidden at mail. House. Gov. Recall the capital and they can plug you into the gallery. Thank you her. Other questions . Clearly this is a very charging about for reporters who want to get in and do it. Thank you so much. [applause] im going to bring you back in a bit. Right now im going to ask if members of our next panel of speakers are. Anybody who is here come on out. I am going to introduce the speakers. I want to make clear my introductions are brief, just a few sentences and i would encourage all of you to read the full introduction, the full bio in your packet. If you watch them the span you will find those at our website which is National Press. Org. So, the next panel is going to address some of the issues the pope has really brought to the fore, some of the things clearly on his mind. I am very pleased to have so many experts here to help us with an earring i will start right here with dr. Demetrius popper demetrio. He is the distinguished senior fellow in president emeritus of the migration policy institute. Mpi is a nonprofit independent Research Institution that studies migration trends and their effects. Dr. Poppa denature out as a member of several initiatives that aim to develop new approaches to problems of migration competitiveness and Human Capital development. We are honored to have him with us this morning. Lisa marsh ryerson as president of the Aarp Foundation. She has been a bitter and that is the direction of the foundation to combat poverty, hunger and other social issues for several years. We are pleased to have her with us. Kaylee crider a special adviser for Climate Science at the United Nations foundation. She previously spent seven years working as a researcher with al gore, research and in helping to market several books in a film so that you may remember called an inconvenient truth. We are pleased to have all of you and to moderate this panel i will hand off now to jason. Jason is the capitol hill editor for roll call. He previously admitted national journal, Congress Daily and before that he wrote for great wire. Thank you so much. Thank you, linda. Appreciate you having me. Its an honor to be here. I think these panels can be very helpful in trying to sort through what really is a truly unique event. It sort of combines all of the elements as bill was saying earlier of an inoculation from the state of the Union Address and almost like a rock concert. The logistics on this are sort of a marvel to behold. But in our next panel will talk more about the logistics. Right now we want to delve down and zero in on some of the big issues in a particularly issues the pope has made a part of his portfolio. They happen to be three of the most contentious most debated, stickiest issues that capitol hill and the country has dealt with in the last several decades. They are certainly at the core right now. Demetrius lets start with you. You are truly one of the worlds foremost experts on immigration and have been there watching that capitol hill has struggled with this issue over the course of the last couple of decades and particularly the last 10 years theyve gone back and forth on it. And now with the pope, being at the vatican, he is quite literally at almost the foremost of the issues in europe as you have people trying to cross the mediterranean to get there. You should start off with a simple question like how does it change it . How does it change when all of a sudden the pope takes an interest . Thank you for the question. When the pope speaks from a perspective that is global and at the same time very moral when he focuses on the importance of families protecting children he certainly gives voice in a very clear way to the kinds of issues that lots of people will want to hear the pope speaking. Im not sure whether the u. S. Congress or those people in the u. S. Congress who have been able and willing to reach any agreement with regard to migration that it will influence them one way or the other. So it is more likely to sway Public Opinion then to sway people in the u. S. Congress. This is my sense of this. The issue is very difficult because not only because everything seems to be broken up on capitol hill but philosophically with two major wings and are fundamentally disagreeing and i am talking about philosophically. On hit it dead or not credit. Washington cannot really move forward on difficult issues, but the more specific one is that the two parties have a fundamental philosophical disagreement about the size of migration, what to do about how to deal with challenges at the border how much immigration should be in the country and formulates itself. The way we choose immigrants today have resigned in 1965, 40 years ago 50 years ago. So with the exception of the mustang which you drive a 50yearold car without updating it . We are behind on immigration. Both parties understand that. We have always had a prohibited vintage in terms of immigration and people wanted to come here first and foremost for fairly obvious reasons we can discuss and lose the advantages everyone is becoming more and more aggressive in terms of trying to attract in the grand they want. Still later but the advantage is no longer prohibited. The pope will not be addressing those issues. Both will focus on what the pope and the Catholic Church is always focused on. Lets call it after. Illegal migration and documented and regulated. So its focus is going to be unregulated migration, mass migration more generally and anything that involves issues of protection refugees but temporarily protected people, et cetera, et cetera. This has been the churches concerned with migration because fundamentally the church and these folks have two nights of migration. They are good for protection for saving lives come up for treating people properly, for not taking it and kitchen exploiting people. He argues strongly against the discrimination, et cetera, et cetera. But at the same time they are very conflicted. The pope himself is very conflict it about migration. Often the church thinks of migration and speaks of migration is the lesser of two evils. One has no it into just in terms of development, no jobs no opportunities, et cetera, et cetera or one is persecuted versus the other ones go into a receiving society that does not treat them well. Again, not about all immigration. It is about immigration of the poor and the persecuted immigration of the people who seemingly have no other choice but to go elsewhere to create a life for themselves. Lisa, your organization, the Aarp Foundation deals with a wide variety of issues, the foremost among them poverty hunger issues as they affect the elderly. It is a little bit more amorphous than say just the immigration proposals congress is looking at. Would you care to speak to that and how your organization, what you are looking for and how youre approaching the visit. Thank you. Thank you to my colleague, demetrios. First of all, great to be with all of you as a think about this important conversation with coprinces. I think what is extraordinarily hopeful about the popes visit is that he has he speaks on many occasions really all occasions about dignity for all people. Just as he said giving a voice will be important in terms of looking at platform. As jason said, the president of Aarp Foundation and a charitable arm and we focus on work in areas, housing hunger, income isolation and seating areas as total and are related. If you think about a problem of one of those areas you could imagine an individual would have difficulty in one of the others. The Multiplier Effect can be of real spiral downward for individuals. What is on my mind, jason and kalee and demetrios is that it is spent just over 50 years since president johnson declared war against poverty and yet we see poverty is on the rise rather than on the decline. I think we come together at this moment in time to put a spotlight on the issue and to also speak about opportunities that ive were and to lift those. When we think about poverty and hunger of the poorer which is a key issue the pope has discussed as a real focal point for the work of Aarp Foundation queen of tens of millions of people in the United States are in hunger every day of. Hunger itself you might think of as a temporary or physical state of not having food but theres a real growing number of individuals by their children are midlife people are Older Americans. Individuals who are food insecure and the Food Insecurity problem is one i hope that is highlighted and we can address because this is about the lack of reliable or dependable access to nutritious and affordable food. Moreover an opportunity to talk about the fact that there is no typical case of hunger in america. It is about children gather adult and also seniors in our nation and that is about every address in our nation. Which i think is an important feature. Serve a hunger in urban settings rural setting, but the Fastest Growing address for hunger in our nation is in the suburbs for individuals have possibly been pushed out of cities that do not have enough income to meet basic needs. We do know in america there are programs that work to reduce poverty and increase Food Security so any highlighting of the great work part of the supplemental nutrition at snap we know for seniors the problem remains they persistently do not apply for the benefits for which they are eligible. It is just over one third of seniors who are accessing the really important benefits that our nation is supported by. That could be about many things. Lack of education, also about Older Americans and going back to dignity and really thinking maybe others are in more need than they are who might need those benefits. Snape produces poverty rates in the United States. We want individuals who are eligible to really didnt roll and have access to nutritious and affordable food but also the little bit of extra that could lift them up out of poverty. The solutions for hunger in america are across all sectors. It is my hope we can think about the fact that Aarp Foundation is interesting with the pope visiting. The fact is we found that organizations, a really important partner as we address the issues of poverty for Older Americans but we also know it will take cross collaboration from the dirt charitable sector of notforprofit as well as government to come up with new solutions so that looks like having access to fresh fruits and vegetables and neighborhoods across our nation. It would be about putting together the Food Supply Chain with the work of notforprofit so we are looking at how we can produce more nutritious, more affordable, more accessible food for children to Older Americans as well. There is this question we all need to be asking, which is why are we winning the war on poverty. When you think about hunger had we been the yard because it is in fact getting worse. Why in the land of such abundance where we are producing food do we have such a persistent, persistent disconnect to the Food Supply Chain and those who are hungry are food insecure in our nation. Im happy to take other question to really see this as a great opportunity to let people know they are hungry. 10 Older Americans, 50 and older are hungry everyday. I would say that isnt as old and this is an opportunity to lift the issue up in the sunlight or spotlight and hopefully encourage people to take more directive action to be biased in solving persistent problems of poverty. We are going to get to questions. I want to make sure we get everybody a chance to have an opportunity to speak to their issue. Juror issue is at the forefront today. Its another Climate Change or Global Warming program the claim power plant is already attracted a lot of criticism on capitol hill. But as complicated and contentious as Global Warming and Climate Changes as a political issue, the pope has approached it from a new battle and i was wondering from your vantage point, with your experience with the issue, how has that changed . What are you looking at . Well i would really encourage you to download onto your ipad or smartphone to see which is the papal cyclical released in june by the pope. In english it is praise be to you by lord care for common calm. It is 184 pages that they are short pages. It has been historical section and six chapters and the reason i think you should read it as i believe the pope will be speaking to it here in the United States. It builds upon the work of at least four prior popes as well as st. Francis with at least a 50 year history of the Catholic Church addressing these issues from pope saint paul the 23rd pope paul the sixth and even pope and a date. It is a very thoughtful piece and i know it is difficult sometimes for secular reporters sometimes to wrap their mind around a face document, but it really had fun themes from the entire nature of creation talking about the relationship between god, nature and the earth. But also dives into the scene of our throwaway culture, the need for common plan and that there are no Technical Solutions if weve lost our moral compass. I think you will see the themes in his remarks at what is important and what brings the panel together is in the encyclical, the pope makes clear that poverty Climate Change are not two Different Things are two different stovepipes. Over the weekend, the United Nations adopted the new Sustainable Development goals which some of you may cover in your other part of your life. The sustainable goal is built on the millennium Development Goals with poverty, Education Energy ocean and Climate Change. The pope sees the relationship between ourselves in nature as one. As you try to think about and preview with the pope may talk about, he has laid this out in a new way. He would say there isnt a different, if you look at how we treat people who might be traffic and endangered species that might be traffic that it comes from the same place. Although not all of us grow up in german catholic families like i did and felt a sense of guilt as i sit here and do my best to try to channel what it is hes tried to save far more eloquently than i. I really do think it would be helpful because with all due respect to my colleagues and Environmental Community when it came out there is such an effort by everyone to hang their issue want to do typical and what i saw was really only a small sliver really got covered in the media and there is an opportunity now with his visit to take a much larger line. Focusing now on Climate Change, the pope does have an entire section that really does look at approach in action and today is the big day the president has an event in the rose garden this afternoon to announce the claim power plant. It is part of the u. S. Domestic response to a large treaty meeting happening at the end of the year. It will be a Climate Summit in paris a plea to hopefully some International Agreement over 180 nations gathering in paris at the end of the year. Many people really see it as part of an arc that is starting right now with the large domestic amount made will carry through the popes visit in the General Assembly meeting in new york and carry through to paris at the end of the year with this large Climate Summit. Speaking of interconnectedness i think as we look at the Large International issues at the end of this year, as we look back whether it is the pope or world leaders, they are going to say this here was a Tipping Point or not based on three key pieces. First did we actually link the agendas of poverty, Climate Change and finance putting all of these pieces together to create change. Second that the major countries, u. S. And china which did strike a deal late last year that the large countries action on Climate Change. And third, i agree the popes influence will largely be on the broader public. My own family and i are thinking about taking a road trip from florida to come see the pope because this could be there all the time to see the pope in the United States and the excitement in his csm and the Catholic Community is very difficult to come by just how excited people are by the visit. But i have seen mass and ive had the good fortune of working for former Vice President gore. Capitol hill are the public statements members feel compelled to say and the private sentiments they hold. Many of them as you know you privately. They donate their time, they go to africa. I actually think you actually do see movement on some of these issues. I actually do think a visit like this does affect these members personally. It affects their families. What will be intriguing as we get out of the primary and move towards the general election is whether we do see a softening on some of these flashpoint issues because the primary isnt always the best time because thats what issues are sharpened and both parties are playing more to the base and it wont be until the general election that will start to see the impact of a visit like this. I would like to open up to questions because i know we have a lot of interests from several issues. And a lot of them are dead as we saw. Who was first . I wonder how important is the pope signed background . He has degrees in chemistry . Actually, the vatican has held several conferences on science to help educate the staff and i think its very interesting. He speaks to the importance of having a dialogue with science. I think there is a misperception sometimes worn from a lengthy history like galileo and the rest of the that it is somehow hostile towards science. That is really an out stated engagement with the Scientific Community that is very strong and not just on Climate Change. The cyclical also talks about genetically modified organisms in a very nuanced and interesting way that talks about technology. I will say two things. First of all it isnt just the scope of the Catholic Church itself has a strong engagement in science. They seem interested and in the opening seven or eight pages, he does walk through history of the commentary which is particularly interesting. He is able to speak to some of the science. Some of the reporting in the u. S. The to the fact the encyclical addressed carbon credits. It wasnt just the science, but he was able to speak to the rio convention, carbon credits, even particular policy initiatives that are out there in Climate Change and genetically modified organisms and elsewhere