Learn English with Pope Francis. In memory of his enduring legacy, revisit his historic address on the South Lawn of the White House in 2015. Speaking alongside President Obama, Pope Francis honours immigrant roots, champions religious liberty, and urges all nations to protect our common home through sustainable action. Improve your listening skills while reflecting on his timeless message of inclusion, stewardship, and hope.
Who This Speech Is For
Learners interested in faith, social justice, and political dialogue.
Those who want to improve their ability to discuss religious liberty, environmental responsibility, and inclusive development.
Intermediate to advanced English learners studying formal, diplomatic, and inspirational speech techniques.
How This Speech Helps Your English
Learn how diplomatic and religious language can be used to foster unity and dialogue.
Expand vocabulary related to faith, human rights, environmental care, and civic responsibility.
Observe how personal warmth, respect, and moral conviction are communicated through speech.
Understand how structured and hopeful messages encourage action across political and cultural divides.
Why This Speech Matters
A powerful call for protecting religious freedom, caring for the planet, and promoting justice for all.
Demonstrates how moral leadership can bridge political, social, and cultural divides.
Encourages vigilance in defending human dignity, environmental stewardship, and peacebuilding.
”Let love be your lasting legacy.
Transcript
Good morning. Mr. President, I am deeply grateful for your welcome in the name of all Americans. As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.
I look forward to these days of encounter and dialogue, in which I hope to listen to and share many of the hopes and dreams of the American people. During my visit, I will have the honor of addressing Congress, where I hope, as a brother of this country, to offer words of encouragement to those called to guide the nation’s political future in fidelity to its founding principles.
I will also travel to Philadelphia for the Eighth World Meeting of Families to celebrate and support the institutions of marriage and the family at this critical moment in the history of our civilization.
Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to reject any form of injustice and discrimination. With countless other people of old will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society, respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty. That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions.
As my brothers, the United States bishops have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threatened short compromises.
Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution. Asserting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem we can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of history. We still have time to make the change needed to bring about a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change.
Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition, not only of the kind of the world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded, which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strives our homes, our cities, our societies.
To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note, and now is the time to honor it. We know by faith that “the Creator does not abandon us. He never forsakes His loving plan or repents for having created us. Humanity has the ability to work together in building our common home.” As Christians inspired by this certainty, we wish to commit ourselves to the conscious and responsible care of our common home.
Mr. President, the efforts which were recently made to mend broken relationships and to open new doors to cooperation within our human family represent positive steps along the path of reconciliation, justice, and freedom.
I would like all men and women of good will in this great nation to support the efforts of the international community to protect the vulnerable in our world, and to stimulate integral and inclusive models of development, so that our brothers and sisters everywhere know the blessings of peace and prosperity which God wills for all his children.
Mr. President, once again I thank you for your welcome, and I look forward to these days in your country. God bless America.
