Pope in U.S. to meet with homeless, prisoners, immigrants

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis will meet with homeless people, immigrants and prisoners during his upcoming trip to Cuba and the United States and become the first pope to address the U.S. Congress.

He'll also preside over a meeting about religious liberty -- a major issue for U.S. bishops in the wake of the Supreme Court's gay-marriage decision.

The Vatican published the itinerary Tuesday for the eagerly awaited Sept. 19 to 28 visit.

Francis added the Cuba leg onto the start of his U.S. trip after helping contribute to the historic thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations.

Francis arrives in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 22 and the next day will be welcomed at the White House by President Barack Obama, the Vatican said.

Francis will address Congress on Sept. 24 and will meet with homeless people later in the day at a local parish, St. Patrick's.

On Sept. 25, Francis will speak on sustainable development at the United Nations, where he'll have another opportunity to voice his concerns about the environment.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress, and even some Republican U.S. presidential candidates, largely have shrugged off Francis' denunciation of the current global economic system in which wealthy countries exploit the poor and pollute the Earth in the process.

Nevertheless, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said lawmakers were welcoming the unprecedented papal visit "with open ears and hearts."

Francis will host an interfaith gathering at Ground Zero in New York and meet with children and immigrant families in Harlem.

Unlike his predecessors, Francis has no meeting with the Jewish community listed on the official itinerary.

Francis, though, has close relations with U.S. Jewish groups and is known to change course during foreign trips to add extra encounters. An unannounced encounter with victims of priestly sexual abuse also is a possibility.

On Sept. 26, he will join the church's World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, a big rally for the Catholic Church's traditional teaching on families. He will host a "meeting for religious liberty" on Independence Mall with immigrants and the Hispanic community, the Vatican itinerary said.

U.S. Catholic bishops have for years decried what they say are attacks on religious liberty, particularly over national health-care laws that require insurance coverage for contraception.

Francis will visit prisoners at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia before celebrating the final Mass of the family meeting Sept. 27, a celebration expected to draw some 1.5 million people in what is expected to be his largest gathering on U.S. soil.