His visit to Philadelphia, the third leg of his US trip that also took him to New York and Washington, coincided with the World Meeting of Families, and Francis used his final scheduled public appearance of the trip to connect faith with family.
Catholics, as well as non-Catholics who are simply fans of the Pope, have taken heart from the messages delivered by Francis during his visit.
He met and prayed with a small group of child abuse victims, saying God wept for their suffering.
The Pope told the five survivors that clergy and bishops will be held accountable when they abuse or fail to protect children.
This is an important step to reassure victims angry at how the Vatican previously dealt with allegations.
Francis listened to the stories from survivors, prayed with them, wept with them and expressed his pain and shame in the case of those harmed by clergy or church workers.
Now, he must back up his words with actions to avoid continued scepticism by advocacy groups.
But it was in Washington where the Pope made a global impact.
Francis praised President Barack Obama for his actions on reducing air pollution while urging Congress and world leaders at the United Nations to do more.
Within minutes of his historic address to Congress, lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties pounced on his words to bolster their arguments and contended the other side failed to understand the message.
Importantly, both sides listened.
Washington did not and can not ignore the Pope's suggestions.
His work around the world has taken on an importance all of its own.
The momentum he gathers from each visit outside of Rome has become unstoppable.
At 78 years old, Pope Francis is still likely to be able to travel and speak to global audiences for more years to come.
The Argentina-born Pope is more comfortable speaking in Spanish but delivered his message to Congress in heavily-accented English, seen as a move to connect with as many Americans as possible.
After exhorting Congress to work for the common good of the people, he went straight to lunch with the homeless saying their was no moral justification for their plight.
In his last address in the United States, Francis focused on the difficulties of supporting the family structure in a rapidly changing world.
The understanding, shaped by the interplay of ecclesial faith and the conjugal experience of sacramental grace, must not lead us to disregard the unprecedented changes taking place in contemporary society, with their social, cultural - and now juridical - effects on family bonds.
The changes affect all of us, believers and non-believers alike.
Christians are not immune to the changes of their times, he says.
There are still issues for the Catholic Church to deal with and Francis will need to help ease through some changes around gay marriage, abortion and a more equal role for women in the church.
However, in papal terms, Francis is moving at lightning speed in reforming an institution previously bound in history and immovable from its restrictive ideology.
Pope Francis is only the fourth pope to visit America and the 10th apostolic visit by a pope to the US.
The fervour with which Americans embraced the visit sparked hope for a revival of a moral compass many see missing from the US as the number of poor and homeless grows, along with increased violence perpetrated on young African-American men by the police and a political system being dominated by the wealthy.
A spark of hope may come from the visit by Francis in how people around the world start treating their neighbours but nothing will happen without the will of communities recognising the problems faced by their citizens.
Believers and non-believers alike can take messages from the message of Francis without being embarrassed or afraid.
