NEW YORK
York Daily Record
By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY
NEW YORK – Pope Francis arrived here amid throngs of cheering, flag-waving fans for a historic visit to the Big Apple.
The pope stepped through the huge, recently renovated bronze doors of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as a congregation of about 2,500 greeted him with a roar and the choir sang a sacred piece by Mozart written for evening prayer.
Francis walked down the center aisle of the church, sprinkling holy water on those gathered.
The pope entered midtown in his signature Fiat but moved to his Popemobile for the last few blocks down Fifth Avenue to the cathedral, waving to crowds en route. Church Bells chimed; the pope waved; the crowd roared.
In his homily, he avoided political issues and spoke instead to Roman Catholics, particularly the many priests, nuns and brothers in his audience, about spiritual issues.
Speaking in Spanish from a lectern on the high altar of St. Patrick’s, the pope focused on a call for “gratitude and hard work,” which he called “pillars of the spiritual life.”
But he was twice interrupted by loud applause when he praised U.S. nuns, who’d been the subject of a Vatican investigation that Francis closed after taking office in 2013 following the sudden resignation of Benedict XVI.
When he was a powerful member of the Vatican Curia and enforcer of church doctrine, Benedict – then Cardinal Ratzinger – was thought to look askance at American nuns who took liberal political and ecclesiastical stands.
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