RTWT for full context, but this is striking:I have had the joy of personally visiting, for the first time as the Successor of Peter, the dear people of the United States of America, to confirm the Catholics in their faith, to renew and increase fraternity with all Christians, and to announce to everyone the message of "Christ Our Hope," as the theme of the trip said.
In the meeting with the president, in his residence, I was able to pay homage to this great country, which from the beginning has been constructed based on a pleasing joining together of religious, ethical and political principles, and continues to be a valid example of healthy secularism, where the religious dimension, in the diversity of its expressions, is not only tolerated but valued as the "soul" of the nation and the fundamental guarantee of the rights and duties of the human being.
In [a country] that can consider itself the homeland of religious liberty...Something to meditate on more at length, I think: the implications of that remark.
