In the presence of the people's pope

Long Islanders make pilgrimages to hear Francis at St. Patrick’s, Garden

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Lee Ann Graziose, principal of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School in Bellmore, experienced a moment of peace and joy after Pope Francis’s Mass at Madison Square Garden last Friday, she says.

The estimated crowd of 20,000 had started to flow out, and she stood by her seat in Section 105 with her 6-year-old son, Daniel, adopted from China last year. The pontiff, surrounded by clergy, walked straight toward them one flight below.

She picked up her son to give him a better view. “I cried and cried and cried,” she said. “To hold my son in my arms in the presence of the pope … was the most powerful experience, other than meeting my son for the first time.”

Francis had such an effect on many Long Islanders who made pilgrimages to New York City to see and hear him last week. Many described how they felt he spoke directly to them, although they understood they were amid a sea of faces.

“He connects,” said Sister Lynn Caton, a pastoral associate in charge of social ministries at Sacred Heart Church in North Merrick, who attended his prayer service for clergy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral last Thursday.

Francis, 78, who is Argentine and the first pope from the Americas, arrived on Sept. 22 in Washington, D.C., where he was welcomed by President Obama and greeted by adoring crowds of thousands, who waited for hours along the capital’s thoroughfares, hoping to catch fleeting glimpses of the pontiff as he passed in his now-famous black Fiat 500 or in the popemobile. In New York later in the week, people continued to throng the sidewalks. The pope held the prayer service at St. Patrick’s on Sept. 24 and celebrated Mass at the Garden on Sept. 25 before moving on to Philadelphia.

It was a whirlwind tour that demonstrated, in no uncertain terms, that American Catholics — and non-Catholics — love this pope.

Caton arrived at St. Patrick’s at 2 p.m. for the 6:30 service. After passing through security checkpoints, with metal detectors and X-ray machines, Caton settled into her pew with fellow nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph and patiently waited. She saw him landing at Kennedy Airport and being shuttled by helicopter to Manhattan live on a big-screen TV.

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