the united states it s amazing that he is here and people are very, very excited. about 2.5 million catholics, jim, in new york city and the surrounding counties. the arch diocese of new york. and then people i assume they re watching television they want to get a glimpse of the pontiff. watching television and lining those parade routes. and not just catholics but certainly catholics particularly excited, i ll admit i m one of them. and it s been interesting the last week, wolf, i ve been speaking to catholics who left the church an estimated 3 million catholics left the church since 2007. about half of adult catholics in the u.s. say that they ve left the church for a time in the last several years. disagreements with the church, too much of a focus on doctrine. when you speak to them today you hear from many of them that he if he hasn t quite brought them back into church on every sunday, he s caused them to look at the church again. a more welcoming spirit, a more forgiving spi
believe the priest celebrating the mass, in this case the holy father himself and those concelebrating with him draw upon the power of god to convert that bread into the body of christ and that wine into the blood of christ still under the appearances of bread and wine. but with the real presence of christ within them. and then of course we ll see the holy father and those concelebrating with him distribute communion to the faithful. and then there will be a final set of prayers and then the mass will be over. so much of this, jim, is about exciting american catholics and trying to give them this message of go forth, participate in service. i guess the question is, there s certainly so much excitement around this visit. but what is the thinking on whether this really will spur people to action? this pope has been very specific about what he wants to
are as important. your opinions are important to me. and we ll see that again in october at the vatican. and your mission is as important as my mission. so the ball is in your court. he said i have not come to condemn you or to judge you. i ve come to give you some suggestions for how you can do it. but it s up to you guys to do it. and that s really important for the bishops of the catholic church and for the priest and indeed for the nuns, all of those who are engaged in the work of the catholic church throughout this country. it certainly is a call to action. i think we are going to begin to hear the pope speak. and we will be pausing as that begins. but before we do, jim, do we have maybe john you can answer this, do we have any idea how people were able to attend this event? this is something that so many people in the area would want that they would want to come and see? well, i know i haven t been asked for tickets by a lot of people, but i haven t been able to deliver t
of congress for so long. this is the third pope he invited and pope francis said yes. he put out a column and said the pope chantranscends that. the best thing we can all do is to listen, open our hearts to his message and reflect on his example. there you have a conservative republican telling his fellow republicans and democrats to chill out. they are trying to put them in a box. he is pro-life and proenvironment. it doesn t fit so neatly into the box we so often put things in. such a good point, jim, he spans this political divide and
and then it will be on ward to a meeting at a seminary with a number of new students. i want to get to jim sciutto. jim, you ve been following the day s events. it s been a spectacular day here in washington. no question. one more day, a first visit to the white house and first public address to the american people and the first canonizations on u.s. soil. on each stop pope francis making history here. he arrived at the white house in his now iconic and under stated fiat hatch back but received an outsided official welcome for a leader. holy father, on behalf of michelle and myself, welcome to the white house. reporter: the president, vice president, secretary of state and 11,000 invited guests forming his first wrapped