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On Tuesday, Pope Francis will arrive in Washington, D.C. for the beginning part of his visit to the United States – his first-ever visit to the U.S.

During the trip, Pope Francis will have a meeting with President Barack Obama, as well as Congress. Ahead of Pope Francis’ visit, Father George Clements spoke with Roland Martin on NewsOne Now about what he hopes the Pope will focus on while in America.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day when we would have a Black president, I certainly never knew I would live to see the day when we would have a Pope who is solidly behind poor people.”

Clements added, “The one title that he has, which is so important to me is, ‘Servant of the Servants of God, Servus Servorum [Dei]’ — the servant of the servants, and that is what a Pope is supposed to be.”

“He is not supposed to be somebody who lives in palatial splendor and has all kinds of people around him fawning … he is supposed to be exactly what this Pope Francis is, and that is a servant of the servants,” said Clements.

When discussing how Pope Francis is supposedly pushing the Catholic Church to the left, Father Clements explained that the Pope is “following the lead of his leader, Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus Christ was not just pushing toward the left, he was on the left, as far on the left as anyone could ever be, and I am just so proud of this Pope that he is telling us what we need to hear, and that is exactly what Republicans don’t want to hear. He is really out here telling us to be involved with the downtrodden,” Clements said.

Father Clements also believes it is “long overdue” that the Vatican cleans house and operates in a different way to better serve the people.

“There are so many Cardinals and Bishops who are just about fit to be tied, because they never dreamed that we would have someone like this leading our Church,” he said.

Before the end of their discussion on the Pontiff’s first visit to America, Clements expressed his belief that Black Catholics will be “shocked” after Pope Francis leaves the country, “because he is going to make a statement that is going to make all of us extremely proud.”

Clements said, “The Catholic Church in America has been focusing on Latinos — fine, good — but then they put us back into the shadows. You don’t hear much about Black Catholics anymore.

“I expect this pope to come out and bring that fact out in front of all Catholics. That is that Catholic — the word itself means universal, spread all over, meant for all people, and that includes Black Catholics.”

Watch Roland Martin and Father George Clements discuss Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in the video clip above.

TV One’s NewsOne Now has moved to 7 A.M. ET, be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

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