FOR RELEASE: July 29, 2015  
CONTACT: Stephanie Niedringhaus, 202-347-9797 x224, sniedringhaus@networklobby.org

“We eagerly anticipate your September visit to our nation’s capital and your address to our national Congress… Our nation needs to hear your words of hope and challenge.”

Washington DC: Thirty-five religious leaders from numerous faith traditions have sent a letter directly to Pope Francis enthusiastically welcoming him to Washington [8/2/15 update: now 37 signers]. Noting that public policy advocates from the many denominations work “to protect the needs of those marginalized by what is all too often an economy of exclusion,” the faith leaders wrote that they have found their advocacy “renewed” by the pope’s “clarity of vision” and “bold statement of the needs of our time.”

Pope Francis will be in Washington September 22 through 24 and will address Congress the morning of Thursday, September 24.   

The full text of the letter and list of signers follows:

July 27, 2015

His Holiness Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
Vatican City

Your Holiness:

As national religious institutions and faith leaders in the United States, we write to enthusiastically welcome you to our country and its capital. Our public policy advocacy offices in Washington work across denominations and faiths to protect the needs of those marginalized by what is all too often an economy of exclusion.

Since the time of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s, many of us have collaborated in Washington to promote U.S. federal policies rooted in the values that all of our faiths share.  Our representatives in Washington meet daily with U.S. policy makers in Congress and the White House to advocate for a more inclusive society and a more just, peaceful and ecologically sustainable world.  We work together on messaging and strategy, engage our faith-based constituencies across the country, hold interfaith prayer vigils, rallies and processions, and have proposed a Faithful Budget for our nation’s spending.

Our efforts have been renewed by your clarity of vision and your bold statement of the truth of the needs of our time. We know that we all need to be called to a change of heart and we are so grateful for your raising up that call.

We eagerly anticipate your September visit to our nation’s capital and your address to our national Congress. As people of faith we look forward to your message and are eager to share it with the members of our various faiths and denominations. Our nation needs to hear your words of hope and challenge.

Thank you for your willingness to come to us and to lift up your voice for those who are marginalized, peace and the needs of Earth.

Sincerely,

Paula Clayton Dempsey
Director for Partnership Relations
Alliance of Baptists

Ruth Messinger
President
American Jewish World Service

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian
Legate
Armenian Orthodox Church 

Rev. David Beckmann
President
Bread for the World

Maria Santelli
Executive Director
The Center on Conscience & War

Dr. Sharon E. Watkins
General Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada

Peter Vander Meulen
Coordinator, Office of Social Justice
Christian Reformed Church in North America

Stanley J. Noffsinger
General Secretary
Church of the Brethren

Rev. John L. McCullough
President and CEO
Church World Service

Very Rev. Jim Greenfield, OSFS
President
Conference of Major Superiors of Men 

Rev. Stacy Martin
Director of Advocacy
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 

Rev. Jennifer Butler
CEO
Faith in Public Life

Sr. Margaret Magee, OSF
President
Franciscan Action Network

Diane Randall
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed National
Director
Islamic Society of North America

Rev. William Kelley, SJ
Secretary for Social and International Ministries
Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director
Jubilee USA Network

Sr. Joan Marie Steadman, CSC
Executive Director
Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Charlotte Harberaecker
President & CEO
Lutheran Services in America

Sam Stanton
Executive Director
Maryknoll Lay Missioners

Sr. Antoinette Guntzler
President
Maryknoll Sisters 

Susan Thompson
Director
Medical Mission Sisters Alliance for Justice

Rev. Timothy Mulroy, SSC
U.S. Regional Director
Missionary Society of St. Columban

James Winkler
General Secretary and President
National Council of Churches, USA

Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Sr. Patricia Chappell
Executive Director
Pax Christi USA

Marie Dennis
Co-President
Pax Christi International

Rev. Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (USA)

Dr. James C. Perkins, President
Dr. Tyrone Pitts, Ecumenical Officer
Progressive National Baptist Convention

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner
Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Senior Vice President, Union for Reform Judaism  

Sister Patricia McDermott, RSM
President
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

Sr. Ellen Kelly, RGS
Congregational Leader Elect
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd

The Rev. Peter Morales
President
Unitarian Universalist Association

Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry Crowe
General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Church

Very Rev. William M. Antone, OMI
Provincial – Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate, United States Province

Commissioner David Jeffrey
National Commander
The Salvation Army National Headquarters

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