Fresh off his meeting with President Barack Obama, Pope Francis delivers a speech on Thursday to a U.S. Congress led by Republicans who have opposed Obama on issues of importance to the pontiff including climate change and immigration.

“He gave me a lot of hope”, said Rendon said after hearing the pope speak. “I will say this, we have a country that is going through tremendous problems”. It was the first time a Pope had addressed a joint session of Congress-along with senior military officials, Supreme Court justices, and Cabinet members-and Francis made it count.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, called the pope’s words “rehabilitation” for Day, who was once told by a prominent US cardinal not to call her group “Catholic”.

He concluded his speech by expressing concern about the problems of youth saying they were “trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair”.

“We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners”, Pope Francis said at one point. “We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons”, he said.

After the address, Francis took to Capitol’s balcony to talk to the estimated 50,000 people awaiting him on the lawn.

Several conservative politicians, including two presidential candidates, criticized the Pope for calling for climate action in his first-ever visit to the U.S.

“God bless America!” he concluded, as he had in the House chamber.

Still, the poll, which had a 2.3 percentage point margin of error, showed that many Americans were supportive of Francis environmental message, which he is expected to reiterate in a Friday address to the United Nations General Assembly.

It’s daily work. After Pope Francis returns to the Vatican, they should get to it.

The pope later flew to New York, where he was cheered by throngs lining Fifth Avenue as he headed in his “popemobile” to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the sound of the cathedral bells pealing. He arrived as the common man’s pope, a pontiff who often eschewed the trappings of his office and who in his previous post as a cardinal in Argentina enjoyed taking public transportation.