As Pope Francis gears up to visit the U.S. this week, one stop he’s expected to make is garnering lots of backlash on social media: He plans to canonize Junipero Serra, a Spanish missionary who subjected thousands of Native Americans in California to slavery and abuse in the 18th century. 
 
 On Sunday, the pope gave mass in Havana, Cuba, kicking off a historic 10-day trip that will soon take him to Washington, D.C. There, he’s scheduled to canonize Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in front of 25,000 people on Wednesday. 
 
 Thousands have taken to Facebook and Twitter to call for the pope to reconsider his plans, saying the move would be hypocritical. Serra founded missions that enslaved Native Americans, forced them to work from early in the morning to late at night, drove them to hunger and had missionaries whip them if they were disobedient, according to historians. Tens of thousands of the natives suffered and died of mostly European diseases passed on to them by the colonizers. 
 
 Opponents of the canonization ceremony bring up Francis’ statement this summer in Bolivia, in which he apologized for the “grave sins” of colonialism against America’s Native Americans. If the pope really wishes to apologize, they argue, canonizing Serra is the last thing he should do. 
 
 Good. Now let's hear the right stance= Vatican NOT pushing sainthood for Junípero Serra. #SerraNoSaint @Pontifex https://t.co/BOwFYTsTQW — Jaynie Parrish (@jaynieparrish) September 18, 2015 
 
 A petition on Moveon.org against the canonization of Serra has garnered over 10,000 signatures with the goal of collecting 15,000. “The canonization will not celebrate Hispanics (since Serra and his Inquisition Conquistadors were foreign invaders), welcome Native Peoples back to the Catholic Church, or honor our ancestors, the petition states. “It will re-awaken the Inquisition Doctrine of Discovery; a very dark, and brutal time in the history of the Catholic Church and Civilization.” 
 
 The hashtag #SerraNoSaint is also being promoted by activists against the canonization ceremony. Some, though, support the canonization of Serra, who founded a slew of missions credited with converting many people to Christianity. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 WASHINGTON — Pope Francis will arrive at a military base outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon to open his first visit to the United States, and President Obama will be there to welcome him. It is a gesture the president has extended to virtually no other foreign visitor. 
 
 And little wonder. For Mr. Obama, there may be no more potent ally in the world in his quest to bend the arc of history, to use a favorite phrase, than a pope who helped him restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and who has spoken out on issues like economic inequality, immigration, climate change and criminal justice reform. 
 
 Yet if the pope’s visit seems likely to bolster Mr. Obama on some of his top priorities, it also comes at a moment of sharp focus on moral questions where the two differ. For conservatives assailing the jailing of a clerk who refused to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples and for abortion foes now mounting a bid to cut off federal money for Planned Parenthood, Francis and the teachings of the church offer a timely boost. 
 
 The conflicting interpretations underscore the hazards of trying to pigeonhole any pope into the binary left-right spectrum of American politics. At the White House and on Capitol Hill, leaders say Francis cannot be viewed in strictly political terms. But in Washington, where everything is political — including religion — both sides in the perpetual American argument hope to make the most of the pope’s three-day visit to the seat of power. 
 
 That will probably be easier for Mr. Obama and the Democrats. Just as Pope John Paul II was seen as more aligned with the anti-Communist mission of President Ronald Reagan, Francis is seen as sympathetic to Mr. Obama’s priorities. Some conservative Catholics refer to Francis derisively as “Obama’s pope,” while some Catholic Republican presidential candidates have expressed polite disagreement with the leader of their church. 
 
 “We are fully expecting that there will be some messages with which we may respectfully disagree or have differences, but that on many of the big-ticket items” the pope’s “essential messages will resonate very much with the president’s agenda,” said Charles Kupchan, an adviser to Mr. Obama. “And in that respect, we are hoping that his moral authority helps us advance many of the items that we take to be very high on our policy agenda.” 
 
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 The pope arrives after stopping in Cuba, highlighting the diplomatic opening he in part made possible. After the pageantry of a welcoming ceremony hosted by Mr. Obama on the White House South Lawn on Wednesday, Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday — a first for a pope — at the invitation of Speaker John A. Boehner, a Catholic Republican from Ohio. 
 
 All over Washington, fliers are urging people to “rally with Pope Francis in the call to moral action for climate justice,” a topic he will address at the United Nations after leaving Washington. During a stop in Philadelphia, Francis is expected to talk about criminal justice in a way that tracks Mr. Obama’s call to stop imprisoning nonviolent offenders for so long. 
 
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 His choice of issues could bolster Mr. Obama, said Peter Wehner, a conservative Catholic scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a White House official under President George W. Bush. “It probably favors Democrats more than Republicans,” said Mr. Wehner, who expresses admiration for Francis. “Let’s put it this way: I think Democrats are probably looking forward to his visit more than Republicans.” 
 
 Leslie Tentler, a longtime professor at Catholic University, said the pope’s recent encyclical on climate change indicated that it would be a central message during his visit. “Obviously he wants to influence opinion in the United States because we’re so large and important and we still pollute so much,” she said. 
 
 But Francis, who first met Mr. Obama at the Vatican last year, goes beyond the president in denouncing the sins of globalization and capitalism and has criticized American policy in Syria. He may weigh in on the fight over abortion, given his condemnation of what he calls the throwaway culture. 
 
 “I’m sure the pope will make everyone very uncomfortable,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, a Catholic Democrat from New York. “There will be some things that Democrats may not like to hear, and there will certainly be some things, I think, the Republicans will not like to hear.” 
 
 Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader from Nevada, even accused Senator Mitch McConnell, his Republican counterpart from Kentucky, of advancing a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy with Francis in mind. “He’s doing it because the pope’s coming here,” Mr. Reid said last week. 
 
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 If Francis arrives at a fraught moment in American politics, it is also a time when Catholics play an outsize role at the highest levels of government. Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic, as are 31 percent of the members of Congress, compared with 22 percent of the overall adult population. Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the nation’s first Catholic vice president; if he were to run and win next year, he would be the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy. 
 
 Six Catholic Republicans are already running for president, more than ever before: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, George E. Pataki, Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum. A seventh, John R. Kasich, was a Catholic altar boy who was nicknamed Pope because he aspired to the Vatican before migrating in adulthood to a Protestant church. Martin O’Malley, a Democratic candidate, is also Catholic. 
 
 Just as important, Catholics have become a decisive swing vote in presidential elections. Since 1972, when news media exit polls were first inaugurated, no presidential candidate has won the popular vote for president without the Catholic vote. 
 
 But breaking down that vote involves significant foreshadowing. While the overall Catholic vote has swung between parties, white Catholics are strongly Republican and Hispanic Catholics are strongly Democratic. Given demographic trends, that points to growing support for Democrats in years to come, a worrisome sign for Republicans. 
 
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 Even the pope is not immune to America’s divisions. While he has not changed fundamental Catholic doctrines, Francis has stressed the parts focusing on serving the poor and de-emphasized those reproaching abortion and homosexuality — what his biographer John L. Allen calls “his insistence on the primacy of compassion over judgment.” 
 
 The pope’s approach has divided Americans along ideological lines. While Francis enjoys support across the spectrum, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll, self-described liberals express 53 percent approval and 4 percent disapproval, compared with 29 percent approval and 15 percent disapproval among conservatives. 
 
 Those disparate perceptions play out on the campaign trail as well. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the populist seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly aligned himself with Francis on economic justice. Last week at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Va., Mr. Sanders quoted the pope saying “Money has to serve, not to rule,” and added, “I agree with him.” 
 
 Republican candidates, by contrast, were left to explain disagreements with Francis. Asked at a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire last week whether he would see the pope, Donald J. Trump, the Republican front-runner, answered dismissively, “Well, the pope believes in global warming,” he said before adding: “I like the pope, a lot of personality. Good man.” 
 
 On television on Sunday, Mr. Rubio, a senator from Florida, distinguished between his reverence for the pope on spiritual issues and his divergence on other matters. “I follow him 100 percent on those issues; otherwise, I wouldn’t be a Roman Catholic,” he said of theology on “This Week” on ABC. “The pope as an individual, an important figure in the world, also has political opinions. And those, of course, we are free to disagree with.” 
 
 Similarly, Mr. Christie, the governor of New Jersey, faulted Francis for encouraging Mr. Obama’s diplomatic rapprochement with Cuba, noting that Havana harbored fugitives, including the killer of a New Jersey police officer. “I just think the pope was wrong,” Mr. Christie said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “The fact is that his infallibility is on religious matters, not on political ones.” 
 
 At the same time, Mr. Obama must also proceed carefully. Already, some reports have accused him of trying to politicize the visit by inviting critics of the church to the White House arrival ceremony. The White House responded by noting that it expected 15,000 people, including those with a diversity of views. 
 
 “The pope has to assume that he’s going in and people are going to use him,” Mr. Wehner said. “I think President Obama will try it. It’s up to the pope not to let that happen.” ||||| Pope Francis blesses people from his popemobile as he travels to the Shrine of the Virgin of Caacupe, in Caacupe, Paraguay, in July 2015. (Jorge Saenz/AP) 
 
 Federal authorities are mobilizing one of the largest security operations in U.S. history ahead of Pope Francis’s arrival Tuesday, an effort that is straining law enforcement resources in Washington, New York and Philadelphia. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of onlookers are expected to gather in all three cities for a glimpse of the Catholic Church leader, whose unrivaled global popularity and proclivity to wade into public crowds has added to security concerns. Thousands of federal and local personnel will be deployed to keep the pontiff and the public safe. 
 
 The challenges are immense. 
 
 The pope’s five-day tour, his first in the United States, will include appearances at the White House and Congress, a parade on Constitution Avenue in Washington, a Mass at Madison Square Garden, a procession through Central Park in New York, and an open air Mass with up to 1.5 million people in Philadelphia. 
 
 Pope Francis is seen more favorably than his predecessors among Catholics and non-Catholics according to recent polls. However, when he visits the United States beginning Sept. 22 in Washington, D.C., he will be greeted by a Catholic community that has been losing members. (Jayne W. Orenstein and Julie Percha/TWP) 
 
 [Full coverage ahead of the pope’s visit] 
 
 His Big Apple visit coincides with the 70th U.N. General Assembly, where more than 150 foreign delegations are also expected, creating a virtual lockdown in portions of midtown. 
 
 Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has designated Francis’s stops in each city a National Special Security Event, a rare designation to streamline the federal response that had previously been used for presidential inaugurations, State of the Union addresses, political conventions, NATO summits, the 2002 Winter Olympics and Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. 
 
 The U.S. Secret Service is in charge of coordinating the massive intergovernmental operation on counterterrorism operations, crowd management, crisis response and air and vehicle traffic control. The FBI, Capitol Police, Coast Guard, Pentagon and Federal Emergency Management Agency are closely involved in the planning, along with local police departments. 
 
 Federal agencies in Washington are encouraging employees to work from home Tuesday through Thursday to cut down on congestion in the city. But further adding to the security planning challenges, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at the White House next Friday for a state visit. 
 
 “They’re standing up one of the largest security programs for an individual in U.S. history over three cities,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who assisted in security preparations for Obama’s 2013 inauguration. “The level of protection afforded to Pope Francis is equal to or exceeding that provided to the president of the United States.” 
 
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 [Here’s what it was like in Washington the first time a pope came to visit] 
 
 At a news conference in Philadelphia on Friday, Johnson said that federal and local authorities have been planning for months. Officials offered reporters a glimpse of the Multi-Agency Communications Center where up to 90 staff members from 50 agencies will gather around the clock to monitor video, radio and other communications. 
 
 “I want to stress the level of preparation and planning and coordination,” said Johnson, flanked by Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D). “We have worked hard to achieve what we believe will be a safe and successful event and visit by the Holy Father and a safe and successful time for all those who wish to be here and see him. We believe we have struck that right balance for the public.” 
 
 Threats to a pope’s safety are not theoretical. Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded while entering the Vatican square in May 1981. 
 
 Behind the scenes, the Secret Service has been mapping out a security strategy for a visit that is virtually unprecedented in nature. Pope Benedict visited the United States in 2008, and John Paul came several times, but Francis has cultivated a peculiar brand of personal popularity with his common touch. 
 
 Clancy and the agents who will serve as Francis’s protective detail leaders traveled to the Vatican this summer to meet with the Catholic Church’s own security division. They followed the open-air popemobile around the Vatican Square to observe his movements and met with the pope directly. 
 
 “We got a first-hand view of how things worked there,” Clancy said in a brief interview. “It was very beneficial for the detail leaders and for me.” 
 
 Secret Service protective teams — including counter-snipers and counter-assault agents — have drilled at training facilities, employing a replica popemobile. 
 
 Intelligence agencies have been monitoring foreign and domestic terrorist threat levels. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said publicly last weekend that the Secret Service had disrupted a plot related to the pope’s visit. But other federal authorities said they were not aware of the alleged incident. 
 
 Security experts emphasized that protecting the pope is uniquely challenging because of his penchant for mingling directly with spectators in large crowds. In 2013, a passenger vehicle carrying the pope was blockaded by frenzied crowds in Rio de Janeiro. Francis rolled down his window, touching those who reached into the car, and he even kissed a baby passed to him through the window, according to news accounts. 
 
 Secret Service agents said that in the past they have been instructed by Vatican officials not to manhandle the pope in rope lines; with U.S. presidents, agents are accustomed to holding onto a belt or suit coat to be able to evacuate him quickly. 
 
 Congressional leaders sent a memo to lawmakers this week instructing them not to reach out to shake hands or touch Francis as he walks through the House chamber to deliver remarks next Thursday. 
 
 “I was never more moved than by what I saw of the effects the pope has on people,” said Ralph Basham, a former Secret Service director who was assigned as the lead protective agent for John Paul’s visit to Denver in 1993. “It makes it very, very stressful and challenging for us. I’ve never been anywhere where there was more emotion than when I saw that in Denver. The only other time I did see such frightening emotion was in Egypt when [President] Nixon visited Cairo” in 1974. 
 
 The extraordinary precautions have prompted security experts to question whether the inconveniences could become extreme and counterproductive in some cases. 
 
 Scott White, an associate professor of national security at Drexel University in Philadelphia, called that city’s plan to close highways and bridges for the duration of the pope’s visit potentially unprecedented. Even visits by presidents require only temporary shutdowns, he noted. 
 
 “I don’t know what scenario they’ve strung together to come up with that plan of action,” White said. 
 
 Kurt L. Schmoke was mayor in Baltimore when John Paul visited in 1995 for a downtown parade and a Mass before 60,000 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. 
 
 Snipers were positioned on rooftops, mail and newspaper boxes were removed, and manhole covers were welded shut — and that was in an era before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Schmoke said in a recent interview that the elaborate security precautions were worthwhile. 
 
 “It was a major coordination between multiple levels of governments and security,” he said. “I don’t recall us shutting down the city. . . . The biggest issue was who was going to get tickets to the stadium.” 
 
 The enormous costs of the security operations have raised additional concerns within federal agencies and local law enforcement departments, whose operating budgets do not necessarily have sufficient contingencies for significant overtime charges. The federal government budgets $4.5 million a year to handle National Special Security Events, Clancy said, but officials did not clarify whether that was enough to cover the pope’s entire visit. It is unlikely to cover some fees incurred by local law enforcement agencies, experts said. 
 
 “The papal visit will be significant in the planning and scope, almost similar literally to an inauguration, perhaps even surpassing that,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine testified at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing in March. “That is a huge event and something frankly that goes above and beyond our budget.” 
 
 In the end, though, some believe the Holy Father’s safety might be in the hands of a higher power. Basham recalled flying on a Marine helicopter with John Paul in Denver when the pontiff began to make the sign of the cross and seemed to disappear into “a trancelike state.” 
 
 “All of a sudden, he went somewhere else for a minute,” Basham said. “Quite frankly, a couple times I was convinced he was having a private conversation with someone. I can only assume it was with God, I guess.”
– Pope Francis sets foot on US soil at 4pm today (full schedule here), and officials in DC, New York, and Philly are scrambling to ensure a smooth, safe stay. Here are five of the more unusual details of his visit: The visit has spurred one of the largest security operations in US history: The pope's five-day visit has received the rare designation of "National Special Security Event," the Washington Post reports, and the Secret Service-led security operation also involves the FBI, Coast Guard, Pentagon, and other agencies. Adding to the challenge: the pontiff's "proclivity to wade into public crowds," and the doubling-up of events. The 70th UN General Assembly and Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit are also on the docket. President Obama will meet him at the airport: When he arrives at Joint Base Andrews just outside DC, Obama will be there to greet him. This is actually a big deal. "It is a gesture the president has extended to virtually no other foreign visitor," observes the New York Times. No congressional handshakes: The pope's attendance at Thursday's joint session of Congress is a "sold-out" event, and those members who will be attending have received a "Please Behave Yourself" notice co-signed by John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, the Post reports. "Out of respect for the Pope's schedule and the expectation of a timely address, we respectfully request that you assist us by refraining from handshakes and conversations along and down the center aisle," the memo reads. There's a saintly sticking point: According to social media (and Vocativ), there's one major sticking point about Francis' visit to DC that's causing a ruckus: his expected canonization tomorrow of Junipero Serra, a controversial 18th-century missionary who's accused of enslaving and wiping out indigenous Native Americans and forcing conversions in California. More than 10,000 signatures have already been gathered on a MoveOn.org petition asking the pope to ditch his sainthood plans. There's a rookie at the social wheel: Deesha Dyer is the "rookie" planning what the New York Times calls "the 'Super Bowl' of social planning." The new White House social secretary, 37, is an ex-hip-hop reporter tasked with organizing not only every detail of Obama's visit with Pope Francis tomorrow, but also the meeting and state dinner with Xi later in the week, followed by a presidential appearance at the UN in New York.