Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. (Carolyn Kaster / AP)

Read The Washington Post’s annotated version of Pope Francis’ speech here.

Speaking to a chamber that included Republicans who refused to take up a bipartisan reform bill last year, the Catholic leader urged U.S. lawmakers to listen to “human examples and consider them in the context of U.S. history and the Bible,” The Guardian reports.

“We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation,” he said.

“To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal,” added Francis. “We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ ”

The pope spoke too of a global “refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the second world war,” but he made clear that economic migration also deserved empathy, particularly in the U.S.

Read more here.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

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