His New York visit coincides with the 70th UN General Assembly, where more than 150 foreign delegations are also expected, creating a virtual lockdown in portions of Manhattan. It’s a tremendous challenge for us, the secret service.

A family of four has been welcomed by the community of the Vatican’s St. Anne parish after Pope Francis made an appeal earlier this month for every church in Europe to open their doors to refugees. Do you agree? Well in some ca of the story from Washington.

The pope’s Beltway visit coincides with the arrival of China’s President Xi Jinping, who is slated to meet with President Obama on Friday.

A report in the Wall Street Journal said the Vatican disputed the White House’s invite of several transgender and gay advocates to Pope Francis’ welcome ceremony, but a top Vatican official said Sunday that the Vatican never gets involved with the guest lists of heads of state.

Secretary Johnson, along with Mayor Nutter, Director Clancy, and Commissioner Ramsey, visited the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul and viewed papal security operations along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said publicly last weekend that the Secret Service had disrupted a plot related to the pope’s visit.

From the start of his pontificate and throughout his entire life as a priest and bishop, Francis has called upon his people to take up the identity of the excluded, to wear their sufferings, and to walk in their footsteps. He will arrive on USA soil after a brief stay in Cuba, where he has boldly entered the geopolitical fray between the two countries in encouraging a new relationship beyond the Cold War animosity of the past.

Pope Francis greets a child on a wheelchair during a meeting with a group of Cuban youth in Havana on Sunday. Secret Service protective teams – including counter-snipers and counter-assault agents – have drilled at training facilities, employing a replica of the open-air popemobile that Francis uses for public parades.

The Vatican described the 40-minute session with Fidel Castro at the former president’s home as “informal and familial, ‘ with an exchange of books and discussion about issues facing humanity, including Francis” recent encyclical on the environment and the global economic system. But other federal authorities said they were not aware of the alleged incident.

Marta Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva said they received invitations from the office of the papal ambassador in Havana but said they were arrested as they tried to travel to the cathedral.

‘Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it, ‘ Francis told the crowd.

But his desire for freedom is exactly what worries the man who stands at the right fender of the Father.