Pope Francis, a symbol of unity for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, will address Congress Thursday morning, marking the first time a pope has bridged the church-state divide to speak to America’s elected representatives.

At 10:01 a.m., the House sergeant-at-arms is scheduled to announce, “Mr. Speaker, the pope of the Holy See.” His words will formally launch an event that would have been politically impossible through much of American history because Catholics suffered widespread discrimination, especially through the waves of immigration from Italy, Ireland and central Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But since the election of John F. Kennedy as the nation’s first Catholic president in 1960, the gates to political power have opened wide to Catholics. Pope Francis was invited to speak to Congress by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), himself a Roman Catholic.

“When you grow up Catholic, you learn about the pope as a distant figure, closer to God than any of us,” Boehner said Wednesday. “To have him here, at our Capitol, among our people, is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, a glimpse of grace.”

Read the article “Pope Francis to Address Divided Congress” on washingtonpost.com.