It is not everyday that the Pope comes to the same state that your college is in. Philadelphia is still basking in the glow of being the center of attention because the Pope chose our region to visit. We all felt how significant his visit was.
Pope Francis is the 266th pope and leader of the Catholic Church. The pope is known for being passionate about everything that he believes in and always making others feel welcome. From visiting homeless shelters in New York to prisons in Philadelphia, the pope showed his true beliefs when he was in the United States.
Pope Francis brings with him the message of faith and love and of passionately caring for our brothers and sisters, no matter how they look or where they live.
Pope Francis also spoke to world leaders as well as to us about important concerns that our world faces: climate change, the poor, prisoners and migrants.
In many ways our own Mother Cabrini dedicated her life to similar issues as Pope Francis. In a remarkable coincidence, Mother Cabrini traveled to Pope Francis’ native Argentina and established Cabrini institutions there. She founded a school, which was recently visited this past summer by President Donald Taylor. Mother Cabrini was important in Pope Francis’s own life.
According to the NY Times, “Mother Cabrini’s works in his native Argentina led him [Pope Francis] to his vocation to God.” Pope Francis was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina after his parents immigrated from Italy. Mother Cabrini was important to immigrants around the world. On Friday, Congress presented Pope Francis with a portrait of the American saints and Mother Cabrini was “prominent among them,” according to Nancy Costello, Cabrini graduate of 1971.
Sometimes, many forget that we are all living on the same Earth. Climate change is not just one person’s problem, it is a problem of us all. Many of us do not take time to worry about the homeless, because we are not the ones living on the street. Many of us do not dedicate our time to help the poor, because we are only focused about putting a warm meal on their tables, not a blanket on someone sleeping on the street. Many of us do not care about those fleeing other countries fearing for their lives, because we are only concerned with working each day in their own nation.
Many of us believe in the values that the Pope believes in, but the true question is how many of us actually take action? How many of us actually go to homeless shelters, visit poor schools or take steps to save the climate?
Pope Francis drove through the United States in his little Fiat, and according to the Huffington Post, led by example. We are not saying to go out and purchase a Fiat, but what small things could we be doing to help the world?
The millennial generation is in charge of making small choices in their everyday lives that could impact the world on a greater scale in the future. The Huffington Post states, “What prevents us from leaping away from our passion for single-issue and fit those issues in our holistic aspirations for our humanity and Earth?”
Pope Francis in his first mass in Philadelphia continually asked the question that many years ago had been asked of another woman saint, Katharine Drexel: “What about you? What are you going to do?” So many people watched Pope Francis in Philadelphia embrace prisoners and visit school children in New York and serve the homeless in DC. His actions pose the question to each of us: “What about you? What are you going to do?”
As Pope Francis said at Harlem’s Our Lady of Angels School, “It’s beautiful to have dreams; it is also beautiful to fight for those dreams. Today, we have to keep dreaming.”
Well, What are you going to do?
Open up your heart to the problems of the world.
