Chicagoans Connect with Pope's Visit to U.S. Any Way They Can

Pope Francis arrived in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, and was welcomed on his first visit to the United States by President Barack Obama, the first lady and their daughters, as well as a host of political and Catholic dignitaries — and four elementary school children from the nation’s capital.

As he arrived in America, bells rang at churches in Chicago, including at the Loyola University chapel.

The Obamas spoke with the pope inside a small tent for a few minutes, away from the cameras, and then the pope left the airport in a tiny Fiat. The pontiff intends to spend little time in the company of “dignitaries” during his U.S. visit, aside from an address to Congress and a speech to the United Nations in New York. Rather, he wants to meet with people immersed in the issues close to his heart and his homilies as he travels from Washington, D.C., to New York to Philadelphia.

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“It’s going to be different, and it is and that’s what makes him different,” Sen. Dick Durbin told CBS Chicago. “He doesn’t want to sit around with the stuffed shirts in the capital with the Democratic and Republican leaders.”

While he won’t be visiting Chicago on this trip, the Obamas won’t be the only Chicagoans to speak with the pope during his time here.

Leaders in Chicago’s minimum-wage and immigration movements will meet with Pope Francis, reports NBC Chicago.

And others, including Maria Orozco, from Chicago, are making the journey to participate in a 100-mile immigration march from Pennsylvania that will end in Washington with the hope of meeting the pope. Orozco came to the United States when she was 25, from Mexico City. She’s lived in Chicago for 16 years, working in minimum-wage jobs, reports newsworks.org.

Pope Francis is expected to talk about immigration in his address to Congress.

Flat Francis

Far from a stuffed shirt himself, Pope Francis roared with laughter and approval when Chicago Catholics, including Archbishop Blase Cupich the Rev. Francis Wall of the Catholic Extension Society, presented him with a “Flat Francis” cutout earlier this month in Rome in advance of his American visit.

This week, Chicagoans unable to get to the East Coast to see the pontiff were making do by posing for photographs with a large “Flat Francis” cartoon cutout put up in Daley Plaza by the Catholic Extension Society, a Chicago non-profit which raises money for poor communities and churches in the United States.

“His ability to connect to the humor of it is just him. He’s a guy who keeps on telling us that the gospel is about joy, and the joy of the gospel, and he absolutely lives that,” Wall told CBS.

Matt Paolelli, of Park Ridge, handles digital communications for the Extension Society. He came up with the “Flat Francis” idea. He and other volunteers distributed mini versions of the pontiffs cartoon likeness on Tuesday.

The Chicago Sun-Times caught up with Kimberly Carter on Tuesday as she posed for a “Flat Francis” photo.

“I’ve heard nothing but good things about this pope,” said Carter. “Everybody is so excited about the pope coming. And he’s shown a liberal side and a compassionate side and I think that gives people hope. I’m not Catholic, but God is God.”