how much actual influence does he have? on the specific issues, very, very little. you have heard the phrase cafeteria catholics. congress is going to behave like cafeteria catholics. see, you mentioned this. that s what i agree with. they are going to taste. john boehner considers himself a devout catholic and so does nancy pelosi. they will walk away from that address with different conclusions. i hope it was one of those moments where all of them hear a call to be bigger than themselves. that s something i hope everyone can walk away with and work with a little bit less animosity in the future. what about regular folks who are out there watching this. as i watch him enter st. patrick s, he spoke to a woman in the wheelchair. the regular people, they are
yes. he, of course, talks about abortion but he didn t mention it by name. he talked about the death penalty. again, this wouldn t be pleasing to some people on the right. they want him to name the right to life as abortion. this is the seamless approach. this is conception until death. if you unjustly kill someone. he would think capital punishment is always unjust. it is never acceptable and he said that today in congress. i am wondering how much. i see you shaking your head. i wonder how much influence he has. he brings up immigration and the refugee crisis in europe. many lawmakers. speaker boehner was clearly moved by the address. we are politically polarized. how much actual influence does he have? on the specific issues, very, very little. you have heard the phrase cafeteria catholics. congress is going to behave like cafeteria catholics.
catholics know who those luminaries are. a woman like dorothy day, who started the catholic worker movement who sheltered the homeless, fed the hungry, a woman who had an abortion and was ostracized from the church. a radical activist. this is who the pope is naming. thomas merton, a political activist, because he had a certain alliance with eastern religions. people thought, how can a roman catholic priest be buddhist as well? he was suspect. these are the people he was naming. people said, was it a political speech today? you are darn right it was political. he knew it was political. he gave a homily and said, catholics need to meddle into politics. today, this pope meddled in politics. frank, you covered the pope
the thing i ll look forward to the most tomorrow. meeting with the families and others affected by 9/11 as so many were. see you bright and early. my end time is 6:00 a.m. see you tomorrow, anderson. i want to bring in new york times columnist, frank bruney here with me, father edward beck, cnn religion commentator. it really is and was a monumental day for catholics and lawmakers and americans every we are. we have seen a few public addresses from this pope since he arrived. what do you see the theme emerging here? well, i was amazed today, don, by his speech at congress. i didn t expect any of that. the people that he named as the heroes and role models. to start with lincoln and martin luther king and dorothy day and thomas merton. most catholics or practicing
have been reinterested and reinvigorated, because this guy, you know, he read the book. he gets it. he remembers what this is all about. to catholics, he is the direct connection to god. so if he says, listen, i don t think you need to be obsessed with gay people. i don t think that s what we need to be thinking about. i think we need to be thinking about how do we make our church better? how do we make our church more inclusive? he said, you know, quit hurting women s feelings about having gotten an abortion. i don t want women to get abortions but i understand why they do. i heard you mention that about abortion. you said, there is nothing about the bible in the abortion. someone would challenge you and say, what about thou shall not kill. well, if that s the tactic we are going to take, we have to be pissed at every war and all the