Pope Francis is wrapping up his U.S. visit in Philadelphia by meeting with bishops, visiting a prison and, in the afternoon, celebrating Mass with a crowd expected to reach a million people.
The schedule today concludes a busy itinerary for the pontiff's six-day visit to the United States that will have seen him celebrate Mass before millions in three cities, deliver major addresses to a joint meeting of Congress and to the United Nations General Assembly and visit with ordinary Catholics.
The huge outdoor Mass will be on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway before the pope flies back to Rome.
The Associated Press says that Francis will "begin his day by speaking to bishops from around the world before heading to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, where he'll visit with 100 inmates — a cross-section of suspected killers, rapists, mobsters. He's expected to offer them words of hope, forgiveness and redemption.
"'His mission is the marginalized, the forgotten,' prison spokeswoman Shawn Hawes said. 'From our understanding, he wants those who are in custody to know that they are not forgotten and they can be redeemed.'"
On Saturday, the pope largely discarded his prepared text and spoke off-the-cuff at the World Meeting of Families conference, calling the family "a factory of hope."
"In the family, there are indeed difficulties" and children bring challenges, too, he said.
"But those difficulties are overcome with love," he said. "Hatred is not capable of dealing (with) or overcoming any difficulty. Division of hearts cannot overcome a difficulty; only love can overcome."
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