No touching Pope Francis, congressional leaders tell lawmakers
Pope Francis will make history Thursday as the first Catholic pope ever to address the U.S. Congress - and understandably, some lawmakers may be pretty excited about it.
To ensure that no one from the House or Senate gets too excited, Democratic and Republican leaders from both chambers sent their members a letter, effectively warning them not to touch the pope.
"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," said the letter said, signed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Typically during the State of the Union address, members of Congress stake out the best seats in the congressional chamber, so they can get within reach of the president to shake his hand or snap a picture with him.
While the letter they distributed discourages members from attempting these antics with the pope, congressional leaders are apparently still concerned about lawmakers' decorum. As Roll Call first reported, leaders are trying to recruit their best-behaved members to sit in the aisle seats of the chamber to keep rowdier members from reaching out to the pontiff.
Boehner's office would not comment on the Roll Call report, but a Democratic aide told CBS News that it is "essentially true."
The pope's address will also differ from the State of the Union in another way, in that the State of the Union tends to be an extended affair, as members of the same party as the president periodically interrupt the speech with cheering and applause.
When Pope Francis speaks, however, the chamber will be operating under different rules. Roll Call says that the Vatican has signed off on one standing ovation while the pope makes his way to the speaker's well and ascends to the rostrum, but after that, silence "will be expected from every corner of the chamber," not only to speed the speech along, but also to avoid the divisive applause of one caucus over another.
CBS News' Walt Cronkite contributed to this report.
