Opening Prayer

Riley, Vice President for Strategic Planning, Connelly Foundation

TOM RILEY: Thanks, Kerry, and thank you for all you do for this organization. You have really been inspiring to all of us for a number of years. Thanks, everybody, here too for coming to this excellent meetingand welcome to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, of course, is a city rich with history. One of the most interesting elements of that history, I think, is the history of the Church in Philadelphia. It is interesting that a lot of people think of Philadelphia as a particularly Catholic city, probably because of the many different Catholic colleges, universities, and institutions here and the large Catholic population. But of course, that wasn’t always the case. At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics made up less than one percent of the population of Philadelphia.

In fact, it was at that time that John Adams was in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress, and he attended for the first time a Catholic Mass at Old St. Mary’s. This is how he described that exotic experience to his wife, Abigail, in a letter: “The music, consisting of an organ and a choir of singers, went all the afternoon, except for sermon time, and the assembly chanted most sweetly and exquisitely. Here is everything that can lay hold of eye, ear, and imagination, everywhere which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke their spell.”

So, almost 250 years later in a gesture that surely would have astonished Adams, the Catholic Pope himself came to Philadelphia, and spoke to the world from here last fall on the important topic of religious freedom. And he spoke from the very steps of Independence Hall where Adams and his colleagues were arguing about that topic.

“Prayer,” says Pope Francis, “is the way out of a closed heart and mind.” So I think it is fitting that we begin today’s meeting with Pope Francis’s prayer from the World Meeting of Families:

“God and Father of us all, in Jesus, your Son and our Savior, you have made us your sons and daughters in the family of the Church. May your grace and love help our families in every part of the world be united to one another in fidelity to the Gospel. May the example of the Holy Family, with the aid of your Holy Spirit, guide all families, especially those most troubled, to be homes of communion and prayer, and to always seek your truth and live in your love. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us.”