Pope Francis sped down Fifth Avenue in Midtown yesterday evening on his way to St. Patrick's Cathedral for a vespers service, and tens of thousands of the faithful and the curious greeted him (or, at least, his car), with wild cheers, tears of joy, and a million blurry photos destined for Facebook.
That's how it went down in the un-ticketed part of the Welcoming Parade anyway. For those fortunate souls who won prime spots behind the eight-foot fence that blocked out the masses between 56th Street and St. Patrick's, the Holy See exited his black SUV and rode the final few blocks in his friendly Popemobile.
For most of the people in the "public" viewing area, however, it didn't seem to matter that they had stood for hours just to see maybe a flash of white zoom by for half a second. As one Argentinian woman, who had brought her two young daughters to witness (or not) the event, explained: "Just to be in the same CITY as my Pope makes me so happy."
Closer to God (Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
As expected, the Pope's midtown caper brought an enormous security detail to the area, with street closings and lockdowns, and even those with tickets had to wait on long lines to get through the screening process, and then spent many hours camped out on the sidewalk.
But by any measure, it was all a huge success, for the Pope, for his followers, and for the NYPD. In fact, the day's only dark moment came when the city's biggest asshole, Donald Trump, tried to make the event all about him, by lording over the Avenue from his tacky roof deck. The ambulatory Cheeto was greeted mostly with disdain by the huge crowd below.
