The Pope of the Peripheries Comes To America

I saw this on ABC News tonight (warning: autoplaying video).  It was good to see some positive coverage for the Church for a change.  David Muir was positively giddy to be with the Pope.

Now for the rant: Pope Francis is famously interested in those on the peripheries: the forgotten and the marginalized.  So it's natural that he should visit that rustic and sparsely populated Eastern Seaboard region of the US.  How will their infrastructure hold up?  The Pope will probably have to ride a horse over a rope bridge to get to New York.  It's not like there are any Americans living more than 50 miles from the Atlantic Ocean or anything.

Of course, perhaps he figures that New York and DC are the areas of American most in need of Christian Evangelization.  Heaven knows the Church up there can barely manage to get the message out.

Yeah, I live in the fly-over states and I'm bitter that the Pope never comes to middle America.  What's it to ya?

1999 was the last time a Pope made it across the Mississippi River, or even the Delaware River.  Maybe in another 16 years the Vatican can organize an expedition to the real heart of America. Maybe Jersey City.