Vatican releases schedule of Pope Francis' U.S. visit

VATICAN CITY, June 30 (UPI) -- Pope Francis' busy schedule, during his six-day visit to the United States in September, will include speeches, masses and prayer meetings in Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

The Vatican revealed the full schedule of his "Apostolic Journey to the United States" Tuesday. After arriving from Cuba on Tuesday, Sept. 22, he will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House, pray with bishops at Washington's St. Matthew's Cathedral and officiate at a mass in the Basilica of the National shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Thursday, Sept. 24, he will address a joint session of Congress and visit St. Patrick's Catholic Church, in a Washington parish which dates to the colonial era, before departing for New York.

He will address the United Nations on Friday, Sept. 25, participate in what the Vatican called a "multi-religious" service at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, visit a Catholic school in East Harlem and officiate at a Madison Square Garden mass.

The pope will travel to Philadelphia on Saturday, Sept. 26, for a mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, then visit the "World Festival of Families," a triennial Catholic convocation. Sunday he will visit inmates of a correctional facility and officiate at another mass, on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway, before returning to the Vatican.

The trip is the first Pope Francis makes to the United States.