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 and Dr. Tyrone Pitts, Ecumenical Officer, Progressive National Baptist Convention
Very Rev. William M. Antone, OMI, Provincial - Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, United States Province
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and 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
Commissioner David Jeffrey, National Commander, The Salvation Army National Headquarters
Anwar Ahmad Khan, CEO, Islamic Relief USA
