Editorial: Pope’s tour: Learning opportunity for Congress

Yesterday marked the last day of Pope Francis’ United States tour. As the hundreds of thousands of revellers are now leaving our state with visions of the papal and kissed babies still fresh in their minds, we hope a few of the Pope’s lessons stick around.

Francis’ six-day tour included stops in Washington, DC, New York and Philadelphia where cheering crowds sporting Pope Francis merchandise lined his path.

Francis’ ability to charm a crowd stems from his emphasis on people of every class and kind — he doesn’t shy from the poor, needy or pained. Congress could learn a lesson from the Pope on how to appeal to this nation’s constituents and take more direct approaches to identify the people’s needs.

Rather than dine at the White House, Francis chose to head over to St. Maria’s Meals, a food program run by Catholic Charities in Washington to place a prayer blessing on a meal for its homeless clients. Before flying to New York, Francis made a stop in St. Patrick’s Church in DC to address the plight of the homeless — wading into a crowd of mostly homeless men and women, felons, mentally ill people, victims of domestic violence and substance abusers.

On Sunday morning, Francis visited a Philadelphia detention center to offer encouragement to about 100 male and female inmates and to rebuke society for not doing enough to rehabilitate prisoners.

It would do our representatives well to get more fresh air, and visit its people when they need our opinion —  not just our vote for reelection. Before Congress voted to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood, they could have gone out to meet the minorities who need the public health services most instead of acting with narrow input.

While Congress still needs to play “progressive catch-up” to match the pope’s  level of attention to the needs of his people, Congress and the Church have a matching problem area — integrating women.

The Catholic Church continues to limit the role of women. For the upcoming October Synod on the Family, Francis has appointed 30 women as auditors to hear the challenges facing Catholics with regard to family life — but these women can neither speak nor vote. Female representation in Congress is similarly lacking. While women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, only 19.4 percent make up the current 114th U.S. Congress.

Re-evaluating the role of women in leadership — and their needs — is something that the Catholic Church and Congress can learn together.