day here in washington is continuing this hour. right now he s celebrating mass for 35,000 of the faithful. this is right outside the largest catholic church in the u.s. but even it isn t big enough to hold everyone who has come to see and to pray with him. this is the first mass that the pope has celebrated in the u.s. and the church s first canonization on u.s. soil. the choice of a hispanic saint is seen as a nod to the pope s views on immigration. and i want to start by bringing in jim schutto. he s been following the proceedings throughout the entire day. tell us what we are seeing now, jim. well, this is one of the most elaborate masses you ll ever see. it s going to go on for two hours and it starts with a special moment of the first canonization to take place on u.s. soil. there have been other american saints. for instance, it was interesting that the gift that the president gave the pope today included a key from elizabeth anne seaton who was the first, i believe the first
agrees because not only did he declare serra a saint, he fast tracked him, dispensed with the second miracle requirement in order to do this quickly. this is the first canonization on u.s. soil. very significant move not just for the u.s. but for the country as you ve said, john. take a look at these pictures that we have, jim, of the crowd size here. i mean, you ve been watching all of the proceedings throughout the day since the arrival of the pope yesterday in washington. this is something that is attracting so much interests certainly from faithful catholics, but just in general even from people who are not part of the religion. no question. you know it s interesting you look at this pope here and you talk about the signs of his personality. i m sure he is enjoying this moment. he enjoys to make this historical decision to canonize in front of so many people here in the u.s., first time in the u.s. but this is also a pope part of his mission. and this is a time junipero serra i
it s certainly a big day as jim schutto pointed out. catholic university speaks to the name, people in the study of the faith will be here in attendance for pope francis. a very big deal obviously for catholics. and a small point of solace to go to what jim was saying the pope can t engage as much as he would like. if you are brought by faith to be in the presence of pope francis on the street, you are all being blessed as he goes along if you choose to believe in your faith because you are in the shadow of peter. so he doesn t have to stop and bless you specifically. you are being blessed. and that should be some solace for people whose faith brings them here. what brings us here this being the first mass of someone very rielevant in the world regardles what you choose to believe in. there s the motorcade on the screen. there is the pope. pope francis waving as they go by. those people de facto being
he said well i m going to do everything i can. but it s been there since 1931. part of the message that we ve heard throughout the day, delia, is this concept of going forth. you mentioned this, jim, sort of going forth doing god s work and doing so with joy. maybe not focusing respecting doctrine obviously, but focusing perhaps on the tone of engaging parishoners. is this the overarching message that the pope brings? well, what s interesting about that is that in his talk to the bishops i think what he s done is given them a big package. because as jim was saying earlier, you know, looking at their shoes, what he s saying is this is your job. i m one of you. i m a bishop amongst you. and the background to that is a question of kind of the central authority of rome. what this pope is doing in a number of cases is saying you
very go ahead. good observation there. i do need to get to jim accoost. jim, your thoughts from kind of this prism of obviously so much interest where i know people along the parade route today weren t talking about politics. a lot of them talking really just about, i guess, the positivity of the moment but certainly the politics of the pope s visit, you can t really escape them. that s right brianna, the white house was down right giddy today. they couldn t be more pleased with the audacity of pope, the pope s message throughout the day by hardly non-partisan and pointed at times and almost mirrored the president s own remarks on climate change, the