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Pope's Arrival at White House. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 23, 2015 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:04] CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But there is a little bit of -- I've read and I've been to the Vatican and I've sort of felt it myself -- anything from adulation to serious paranoia amongst people who just don't know which way this Pope is going to go, what he's going to say, what he's going to rule. All the big events, the big reforms that he's talking about and perhaps putting into effect. The center of the family. And so it is a little bit of a Pope who keeps everybody on tender hooves.

BISHOP CHRISTOPHER COYNE, BURLINGTON, VERMONT: Well, he does but because he's breaking out of the box in a lot of ways but it's all for the good in sense of kind of opening up our arms wider to embrace people, to welcome people, to offer God's mercy. And that is what he's all about. He's about encounter. And that's a very important part of his whole mission as pope.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: I thought you meant originally logistically that people don't know which way he's going to turn. And that's true, too, because the Vatican press spokesman said, you know, I have to call various people to figure out what his schedule is because he often doesn't tell everybody and there's no one person coordinating the whole thing. But even on a larger level of kind of his teaching and where the direction he's taking the church, he likes the chaos. I mean that's clear. That he thinks out of the chaos, the good can come. That the Holy Spirit works through the chaos and that's kind of important.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And if you're just joining us now at the top of the hour, 9:00 here in Washington, D.C., there you see Pope Francis getting into his vehicle, about to make a five-minute or so drive to the White House, to the South Lawn, where some 15,000 invited guests, President Obama, Vice President Biden, Ethyl Kennedy we saw, John -- Secretary of State John Kerry, all waiting to greet this Pope.

We're going to be hearing from Pope Francis in English. President Obama is also going to be making welcoming remarks. Our John King is also joining us here, watching these images.

John, you spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. but this visit is really unlike any we have previously seen.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I think you make an important point so for those of us whose first instinct, and I'm a guilty party, to get immediately into the politics of the visit, I think we should sit back and enjoy this moment, enjoy the history, enjoy the drama, enjoy the reaction.

As a guy who's lived in Washington for 25 plus years, I love the Fiat. In a town full of town cars and limousines and heavy security, the statement that the Holy Father is making just by getting into a modest Fiat speaks volumes as to the message he wants to convey and he does this of course as he travels the world and as he travels the grounds of the Vatican. As we await this moment, though, we are of course at the dawn of the presidential campaign. Perhaps deeper into it than we should be this early on.

So let's bring in our CNN commentators, the Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, Ross Douthat is an op-ed columnist for the "New York Times," also a CNN contributor.

Maria, I want to start with you. He is -- this is his first visit to the United States. He is the first Pope from Latin America.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes.

KING: What do you make of the -- the moment before the politics?

CARDONA: I think the moment is one that we can all embrace. Whether you're a Democrat, whether you're a Republican, whether you're agnostic or an atheist. I think what he's been so special about this Pope is that he hasn't seemed to differentiate. His message is for everyone because he leads with a message of humility.

I think for Catholics, in particular, what has been so groundbreaking and I think mold breaking about this Pope is that he leads with what is positive about the Catholic teaching. He leads with affirmation and not condemnation. And what that helps us to do is to focus on frankly the basis of our religion. The basis of Christianity which is the teachings of Jesus Christ.

And so today as we look forward to a presidential election, I think we should all step back and take a look at how we can bring in these teachings and hopefully take a breath when we are really embroiled in the politics of the moment, which can get very nasty, and just put that in the background as we move forward with the campaign.

KING: Ross, your sense of the moment and let me add this little bit of context. And my question, I guess, is the Vatican says the Holy Father is not here to meddle in American politics but he's certainly here to speak to the American people, to try to influence the American people. And there are several issues on which he has been quite outspoken, climate change, income inequality, what he views as the evils of the capitalism, that are part of our political debate at the moment.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And immigration as well. And the reality is that yes, I mean, I guess I'll be the one to bring in politics. But it's clear that Francis has provided a kind of reinvigoration to a liberal Christian strain in American public life that we hadn't heard from for a long time, in part because liberal Christianity seemed to sort of run aground in the 1970s and 19802 and that's apparent I think in how liberals are reacting to him, it's apparent in sort of the slightly uncomfortable way that some conservatives, maybe myself occasionally included, have reacted to him. And that's a big part of the story here.

[09:05:02] It doesn't mean that he's going to have a long-term impact on American electoral politics. Popes usually don't. But the issues that he's chosen to focus on have been issues that have in a sense reaffirmed the social justice wing of Catholicism and made a lot of Catholic Democrats feel better about being Catholics and Democrats than they have for a while.

COOPER: Again, we are awaiting Pope Francis's arrival. It is -- it is rare that you see this kind of a welcome for any world leader in Washington. This is about as much pomp and ceremony as there is in Washington, D.C.

AMANPOUR: Exactly. And of course with the president, the vice president, their families, meeting him at Andrews. That also was a break with tradition. But because we're in Washington and because so much of his visit is being, you know, squished into the paradigm of politics, important to note that seven of the Republican candidates are Catholic, although John Kasich then went into the Protestant faith.

Also we saw Ethyl Kennedy, and she obviously is the sister-in-law of the first ever Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, and that created a huge controversy back in 1960 when he was running and he had to say, you know, I am not the Catholic candidate for president of the United States. I'm the Democratic Party candidate who happens to be a Catholic. I don't take my politics from the church and there's a lot of sensitivities in that regard as well.

And I think that we'll probably talk about this at length because he will talk about all those issues that John and Ross just brought up. There will be something for everybody. But there will also be something for everybody to get their noses out of joint over. Because a lot of liberals don't like his social policies, a lot of conservatives don't like his economic policies.

And actually if you look at the polls, you know, when he was first named Pope he had a massive, you know, popularity, at 76 percent. That started to go down. It was 59 percent amongst Americans here in July according to Gallup. Now it's 66 percent.

COOPER: Let's just listen in a little bit to the sights and sounds on the South Lawn of the White House.

Our Chris Cuomo is standing by at the South Lawn.

Chris, just walk through what our viewers should expect over the next hour or so.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: All right, Anderson and Christiane, if you can hear me, this is Chris Cuomo. We're here on the South Lawn. And we really are just moments away from the ceremony. We're getting queue that the president is going to come out with the Holy Father. And you have about 15,000 people here. But it really is representative of so many different slices of society.

You obviously have a lot of people are here from Congress, on both sides of the aisle. You have Secretary Kerry sitting next to Ethyl Kennedy. So there's a big feel of past and present. And you not just have both bipartisanship, but you have a real ecumenical feel. You have so many people of so many different faiths or of no faith who have come here for this confluence of a special man, a special moment with what's going on in our politics and our culture. And a special message.

But the question is, what will that message be, what will it not be. The Pope will be examined as always for what he says and does not say. But the feel here has been electric all morning, in and around Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands lining the streets and here people are literally standing in wrapped attention for well over an hour. People have been staring at the podium where the Pope will be even though they know he isn't there. And they have been playing lots of familiar music all morning from this band but nobody needs any help here being pumped up.

And we're just moments away now. The doors are opening. We're still a few minutes away from when they're supposed to come out. But obviously a lot of anticipation here of what's going to be said, Anderson and Christiane.

COOPER: Yes, not only will the Pope be speaking, also President Obama, we'll also be hearing the "Anthem of the Holy See" played by the band there as well as, obviously the national anthem of the United States. Also then President Obama and the Pope are going to have some private time together. We're told about 45 minutes or so inside the White House. Cameras will not be present for that obviously. Where they will discuss a wide range of issues but there's obviously a number of issues in which this Pope and president are very closely aligned. Climate change perhaps the greatest one.

AMANPOUR: Precisely, and I think it's really important to note that this is not just the Pope going off piece talking about climate. He took the name Francis. Francis is the patron saint of ecology, of animals, of people. I mean, he is somebody who's really involved in this. And let's face it, there is a massive important meeting in Paris in December that is widely seen as the last serious chance by world leaders to get some kind of climate deal that will hold or reverse the current -- you know, move towards global warming and all the uncertainties.

[09:10:16] I was speaking to Archbishop Auza who is the Vatican ambassador to the United Nations and he said, look, we're not Democrat or Republican. We're talking about biblical issues and let's face it. Climate was in Genesis way before any of us here were talking about it.

COOPER: But it's interesting, Delia and Bishop Coyne, I mean, this Pope has been very critical of world leaders. He talked about their cowardice for not what he termed as defending the earth from exploitation. He's been very out in front on this. And most likely will speak about this this morning. COYNE: He's at his prophetic best when he often challenges

leadership, both in the church and outside the church, if you'll recall. Some of the dialogues and statements that he's made just to even the Curia in Vatican about how they need to be leaders who not only speak with words but also speak with actions.

GALLAGHER: And we should also say, because it's one of the reasons that some conservatives got upset that he put so much emphasis on the environment that Benedict XVI was really the green Pope in terms of action on that and he brought the Vatican's carbon footprint down to zero and he was installing solar panels before Francis issued his encyclical. So there is a continuity there with what Francis has done.

COOPER: Some of the things Francis has said in the past, he's talked about the ecological crisis. He also said the earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. This is obviously something which some conservatives in the United States do not necessarily like to hear from the Pope. They disagree with him on this issue. But it's something that President Obama obviously feels there is a linkage with this Pope. And it's no doubt something we're going to hear today.

AMANPOUR: And connected with all of that, he also said, particularly on his trip to Latin America which took place this spring, he talked about capitalism and the excesses of capitalism. Not the good parts but the excesses. But he did use a phrase that I think put a lot of people's hackles up. He called capitalism or unbridled capitalism the dawn of the devil. And that was a pretty raw thing to say.

And for Americans who've grown up, you know, believing, I mean, the whole superpower is based on, you know, entrepreneurship and the freedom to be able to make money and basic freedoms in general, that put a lot of Americans' noses out of joint.

COOPER: I think what surprised a lot of Americans throughout is this Pope has actually never been to the United States. I mean, he's 78 years old. He's really spent his entire career in Latin America, obviously. Also now in Italy and Europe. But it's telling I think that he has not been here. That he's chosen not to come.

GALLAGHER: Yes, and I think that that plays into what Christiane just said which is, you know, we consider his background also when we consider his economic critiques. I mean, he is definitely coming from Latin America and he does have this Catholic social teachings in mind when he talks about economics. But that is his vantage point, as it were. And so, you know, it is important to say that he does that in connection with all the other issues. He thinks that the integral ecology that the environment is connected to capitalism and to the exploitation of nature and that all of this, underlying all of this, is a concern for the poor.

AMANPOUR: So we're hearing that the sirens can be heard from our folks at the White House. So obviously the Pope is very close. Perhaps already waiting for the president to come out. Followed by his guest of honor, the Pope. Remember, Bishop, he was the favorite choice during the conclave of

the American cardinals and archbishop. They decided to put their weight behind the candidate from South America.

COYNE: I don't think the fact that he hasn't been to United States was an intentional snub of the United States. I think that once he was made archbishop of Buenos Aires, he decided that that was where he's going to be, he was going to be the pastor of those people. And the only time he really left Buenos Aires was when he had to go to Rome or other places for meetings that were mandatory. So he's the first southern hemisphere Pope. Two-thirds of the Catholics in the world right now are from South America, Central America, Africa and Southern Asia.

And so that's a real major shift in terms of leadership of the church and it's the good shift. Because we're really saying that we're not just the church of the first world or the northern world -- northern Europe, we're a global church.

COOPER: So, Bishop, I'm wondering, have you seen any sort of Francis effect in your own parishes? I mean, we know that over the last several decades some 32 million Americans brought up in the Catholic faith have left the Catholic faith. There is certainly renewed enthusiasm. Have you seen a shift at all?

COYNE: I've seen a shift in the sense that people are much more glad to be Catholics. They're -- you see people who are saying, you know, I'm proud to be a Catholic in a way that they weren't in the past. And as Maria said, what you are seeing with him is somebody who's changed the conversation to having Catholicism being identified by what it's for rather than what it's against.

[09:15:04] And that is a big paradigm shift for us.

COOPER: And one of the interesting things. I mean, that's -- he hasn't really changed -- and again we see the pope arriving in that Fiat, which we've gotten used to seeing. It is the vehicle he got in right when he landed yesterday at Andrews Air Force Base.

In terms of doctrine, nothing really has changed, but in terms of where the pope is putting emphasis, that is what is different.

COYNE: Right, if you go through all of his speeches and his writings, the word that just keeps occurring over and over again is the word "mercy".

COOPER: Mercy.

COYNE: And this idea of having wide open arms that is just open to dialogue. Open to encounter, open to listening is so much of what we're seeing to him. And it's encouragement to any of us who serve in the church to continue to do the same.

AMANPOUR: And this is the Year of Mercy that he's declared. And I don't know whether now is the time but the hot Putin social issues that divide so many of the faithful in the Catholic Church, for instance, abortion. He said for the first time and this year priests will be able to hear a woman's confession and to be able to absolve a woman.

He's talked about speeding up annulments and taking the cumbersome bureaucracy and high cost of annulments. He also famously declared "Who am I to judge?" about homosexuals. So, there is a lot of tone shift. There's some real shift.

COYNE: He's bringing Catholicism back to the wide umbrella it was thought to be. We are all pilgrims on the way towards God and we need to find our way under that umbrella of the church and not draw in the walls.

COOPER: It does seem that he's trying to -- the message he's giving to priests, to members of the church is to be more merciful and more flexible. It's not necessarily as we said a change of doctrine but a change of emphasis.

COYNE: It's the pastoral approach. You have the church's teaching and then you have the hermeneutic, you have the interpretation of how that teaching is to be implied. And he's saying if it is to be implied it is to be applied with mercy, with openness.

AMANPOUR: What is your view -- as we just wait for the president to come out -- what is your view and reaction to a group of congressman who will and have declared they will be boycotting his address to joint session tomorrow?

COYNE: Well, it's their loss. I mean, I think any time you can hear words of wisdom from any kind of speaker of the magnitude of the pope and not just kind of shut your brain -- excuse me, shut your opinions down on these matters. I think it's important to be open to what all people have to say to us and to learn from it.

COOPER: One of the things he said is encouraging to view pastors of shepherds and in his words, shepherds that smell of the sheep.

COYNE: Or in Vermont, smell of the cows.

COOPER: Smell of the cows.

But there is that wanting to tend to those in need. To get the church out into the streets among people in need.

COYNE: He said he doesn't want his bishops to be airport bishops. He wants us to be with the people and out in the streets and out serving the work of the church but also serving the common good, what is good for all of us. And the encyclical on the environment is about that. It's not just about the church. It's about the entire world.

AMANPOUR: And the bottom line is, he's declared and put himself out there as the voice of the global poor. Chris Cuomo is out there on the White House lawn awaiting the pomp and circumstances -- Chris.

CUOMO: Well, Christiane, listening to you guys' conversation, it is so interesting that so many of the themes that you are hitting on are exactly what brought everyone here today. To ignore the political implications would be naive if not silly. Clearly, the pope isn't. He is here to be overtly political and that is not unusual for a pope.

But the scene here right now is very quiet -- people literally on their feet waiting for the pope and the president to walk out. We all know that he is very close, if not about to walk out. It is interesting how everybody's eyes are trained on those two honor guardsmen facing into the doorway right now that you can see on your screen.

And again you have according to the White House about 11,000 people. We see the horns coming into presentation now. We hear the -- the order of the honor guard, called to attention. They do that when they know there is the approach of the commander. So let's listen in.

(INAUDIBLE)

(BAND PLAYING)

[09:20:25] ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and Mrs. Michelle Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

(BAND PLAYING)

(INAUDIBLE)

(BAND PLAYING)

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: We just heard -- just saw the pope being introduced to the president by ambassador, chief of protocol. Now moving to the front row of the U.S. welcoming committee.

(APPLAUSE)

(INAUDIBLE)

COOPER: I think that's probably the first time. One of many firsts today.

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of the Holy See followed by the national anthem of the United States.

(NATIONAL ANTHEM OF THE HOLY SEE)

(NATIONAL ANTHEM OF THE UNITED STATES)

(APPLAUSE)

[09:23:46] COOPER: The army fife and drum corps is going to begin the musical troop in review. And then the commander, President Obama as commander, is going to put the troops at ease.

(BAND PLAYING)

[09:30:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Present. Present. Arms. (INAUDIBLE). Present.

Mr. President, this concludes the honor.