Note the chiaroscuro effect, the figure dressed in white surrounded by a sea of black and grey suits. In a slow and halting English, the Pope spoke about politics as a vocation.

Open to the world, he touched upon human dignity, the common good, Moses, just legislation, openness to God and the image God, workers, strangers and refugees, dialogue and peace, violence, unjust structures, freedom, the sins of the past, the family as a fundamental relationship, human life and the death penalty, social activism, the righting of wrongs, prayer, new horizons, the Golden Rule, poverty and cycles of poverty, capital, armed conflict and the arms trade, climate and the environment, contemplative style, cooperation, complexity, and gravity.

An American speech, the allusions were to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther Kind, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. And then it was over, with a God bless America.

It’s a strange thing, this secular country with the deep religious strain. You can find Pope Francis’ Congress speech here.