NEW YORK (AP) — From the world stage of the United Nations to an inner-city school, Pope Francis is emphasizing themes that have shaped his popular papacy as he packs in encounters with the powerful and the poor in New York City.
His agenda for Friday reflects both his global stature and his of-the-people approach, while taking him from the solemnity of ground zero to the struggles of East Harlem. It includes events as large as a processional drive through Central Park, as personal as meeting schoolchildren and immigrants, and as inspiring for the faithful as Mass for thousands in the Madison Square Garden arena.
American soldiers are being punished for blowing the whistle on the systematic rape and enslavement of young boys at the hands of brutal Afghan Muslim military officials.
Honorable men in uniform risked their careers and lives to stop the abuse. Yet, the White House is AWOL on the pedophilia epidemic known as "bacha bazi." On Thursday, Obama administration flacks went out of their way to downplay Afghan child rape as "abhorrent," but "fundamentally" a local "law enforcement matter."
