Pope greets huge crowds in Central Park, celebrates Mass at Madison Square Garden

The papal Mass at Madison Square Garden was a solemn affair, for the most part. Pope Francis, wearing vestments of white, green and gold, led 20,000 celebrants through a traditional Mass lasting about 90 minutes.

But the participants' excitement at having an audience with the popular pope seemed evident. Late in the Mass, when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, stood to say a few words of welcome, the crowd could not contain itself.

New Yorkers have followed the papacy from afar, Dolan said, "and now you are here."

At that, the arena exploded in cheers, worshipers leaping to their feet to give the pope a sustained standing ovation.

Francis remained seated, receiving the adoration with a smile.

When the crowd finally quieted, one man shouted, "Viva il papa!" His words echoed through the huge arena.

Francis concluded the Mass the traditional way: "Go in peace and serve the Lord," he said. Then, he added, "Please, I ask you, don't forget to pray for me."

He is spending night at the Vatican's diplomatic residence before leaving early Saturday for Philadelphia and the World Meeting of Families.

As Pope Francis concluded the huge Mass at New York's Madison Square Garden, he told the thousands of worshipers, "Don't forget to pray for me."

On Saturday he leaves for Philadelphia and the World Meeting of Families.

In his Madison Square Garden homily, Pope Francis urged New Yorkers not to forget those less fortunate who live among them.

"They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly," the pontiff said, speaking in Spanish. "These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity."

He said developing a closeness with the church would alleviate this lack of concern for others and the isolation people feel in the modern world.

A connection with Jesus brings "a hope which makes us see, even in the midst of smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our city."

The pope's mini-parade through Central Park had all the makings of frustration and discomfort. Throngs of spectators. Heavy security, including black-clad men armed with machine guns. Hours of waiting.

When word went out that Francis was approaching, the crowd moved into position, with people balancing on one leg if that's what it took to get the best view. TV cameramen positioned heavy cameras on their shoulders. Tiny spectators crushed against the chests of tall strangers. Cheers and squeals erupted when a convoy of police rounded the curve into the park.

When Francis' white popemobile came into view on the tree-lined road through the park, the roars grew in a deafening crescendo. One woman screamed repeatedly. "There he is!" she cried over and over as the pontiff rolled slowly past, waving. Miraculously, the spectators did not surge or push. They just howled and cheered. Even the police looked as if they were enjoying themselves.

Then it was over. The crowd began comparing pictures. Strangers promised to email photos to one another.

"This is a moment none of us will forget," said Wayne Bernardo as he scanned his photos. "We all got a little bit blessed today. "

All this -- and a rainbow that appeared overhead.

--Tina Susman

Today at the World Meeting of Families, I gave an address on the "family face" of immigration in our country. I talked about the how our broken system is hurting families and especially children. My hope is that the Holy Father's words will touch the hearts of all Americans and make us more welcoming to the immigrants in our midst.

And my prayer for all of the people of Los Angeles today is that we really come to a new appreciation of the beauty and the importance of the family. Our families are so important. We need to love more. We need to be more forgiving and understanding in our marriages and in our families. We need to spend more time and have more fun with one another.

And we need to promote marriage and family in our society and in our culture. We need policies and laws that protect and encourage marriage and make it easier for people to raise children. Pope Francis has talked about this a lot.

--Archbishop José H. Gomez

Like many of you, I watched Pope Francis' address to Congress yesterday. He made a strong call to leadership, a strong call to set aside self-interest and to work together for the common good. I think we all need to hear this kind of appeal to our conscience and our capacity to do noble deeds and live with justice.

In Congress, the pope again stressed that he is the son of an immigrant and he called us not to turn our back on the immigrants who are in our midst.

These were beautiful words for our leaders -- and all of us -- to reflect on: "Thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children?"

This is precisely the issue -- we need to remember the humanity of the immigrants. We need to remember that no matter how they came here, they are all children of God. Their lives are precious and they deserve our welcome and protection.

I was also struck by the Pope's call for us to "protect and defend human life at every stage of its development."

He is right. We cannot be a society that rejects life. Right now we are looking at the prospect of assisted suicide being made legal in our great state. I know the Pope would consider this to be a failure of leadership and a disaster for the poor and the elderly and our minority and immigrant communities.

-- Archbishop José H. Gomez

They came with rosary beads, special prayers for loved ones and a desire to be in the warm orbit of Pope Francis.

Worshipers who filled Madison Square Garden on Friday afternoon had high expectations for Mass with the popular pontiff, scheduled for later.

"I'm here just to feel good," said Carol Long, 75, a retired administrative assistant from Bergenfield, N.J.

Long had bought $45 crystal rosary beads at the Garden's papal concession stand so they could be blessed by Francis during a blanket blessing he will make at the end of the Mass. Fighting back tears, she said she also had "some sickness in the family" and would be praying for her relatives during the Mass.

"I saw Pope John Paul in 1995 and that was special but this is more special," Long said. "This pope is holy, the way he treats people and how caring he is."

--Vera Haller

If any place in New York City deserves a blessing, it is the sliver of East Harlem that Pope Francis will visit.

Francis chose to come to Our Lady Queen of Angels School in large part because its student body — largely immigrant and underprivileged — reflects the population he sees as most deserving of attention and assistance. It sits at the heart of the predominantly Latino and black neighborhood and is an appropriate setting for a pontiff who has spoken movingly about poverty and immigration and warned about the corrosive effects of capitalism.

It is an area that has been overlooked by or spared — depending on your point of view — the gentrification that has rampaged across much of Harlem.

— Tina Susman

So what makes it into a papal swag bag? Here's what people at Pope Francis' Mass at Madison Square Garden will score:

—A prayer guide.

—A photo card of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Inside the card is a request to support a rezoning proposal that would allow the cathedral to sell air rights.

—A book of the Gospel of Saint Luke with a photo on the cover of Pope Francis praying. The book contains English, Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese translations.

—A glossy program for today's Mass.

—A flier promoting Pope Francis in New York merchandise. Among the items are a papal baseball cap for $25, a $5 official lapel pin and a $15 eco-friendly tote bag.

—A commemorative Pope Francis book that includes documentation leading up to the New York visit such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's letter to Francis officially welcoming him to New York, and a photo history of previous papal visits to the city.

— Vera Haller

Hours before Pope Francis' scheduled arrival at Central Park, the busy area around Columbus Circle at the southwestern edge of the park was a scene of pedestrian gridlock combined with the usual New York City traffic chaos.

Law enforcement officials herded members of the public and media into lines, dodging cars, trucks, bicyclists and vendors wandering the crowd hawking flags, pins and other papal paraphernalia. Dozens of metal detectors were set up in the shadow of the huge trees and arch marking the park entrance.

"I'm more thrilled than I've ever been to see anyone!" Eva Smith said as she handed over $20 to buy a collection of trinkets.

Smith said she planned to give some of the little crosses and pins to her friends in New Jersey. She was not among the 80,000 people who won tickets in a lottery for the park event, but said she wasn't concerned.

"I'm here for the spirit," she said. "I'll feel his touch even if I am standing across Broadway."

--Tina Susman

After condemning greed and calling for efforts to save the planet and especially its poor, Pope Francis ministered to the personal grief that has reshaped New York since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

"This place of death became a place of life too," Francis said during a tour of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The site became "a place of saved lives, a hymn to the triumph of life over the prophets of destruction and death, to goodness over evil, to reconciliation and unity over hatred and division," he said.

Francis spoke near the underground flood wall that separates Lower Manhattan from the Hudson River. The wall, which held fast during the terror attacks, is next to what is known as the Last Column, the final steel beam removed from the debris. He addressed an audience of more than 400 people and religious leaders representing Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others.

--Michael Muskal

Read it here.

Pope Francis has said a prayer of remembrance at an interfaith ceremony at the Sept. 11 museum in New York.

He asked for eternal peace for those killed, as well as healing for the relatives of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 terror attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania.

And he asked God to bring "peace to our violent world" and to "turn to your way of love" those who justify killing in the name of religion.

-- Associated Press

Pope Francis is inside the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum to deliver remarks to more than 400 representatives from faith groups.

About a dozen religious leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Hindu and other faiths will sit in chairs behind the pope as he speaks at the interfaith ceremony.

Francis is visiting the museum after a speech at the United Nations.

He will speak near the underground flood wall that separates lower Manhattan from the Hudson River, which held fast during the 2001 terrorist attacks. The wall sits just next to what is known as the "Last Column," the final steel beam removed during the recovery after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Eighteen relatives of people who died in the attacks also will hear the pope's remarks.

— Associated Press

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Pope Francis emphasized that there was a "true right of the environment."

As he has before, the pope in his U.N. address focused on the need for justice "an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal fraternity." Sounding very much like James Madison in "The Federalist Papers," the pope called for political power to be limited and shared.

From his prepared text:

"To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social groupings. The effective distribution of power (political, economic, defense-related, technological, etc.) among a plurality of subjects, and the creation of a juridical system for regulating claims and interests, are one concrete way of limiting power."

--Michael Muskal

Opinion: Read Tina Beattie's piece questioning Pope Francis about the role of women in the church:

When it comes to the rift in Catholicism between worried conservatives and liberalizing progressives, Pope Francis' nuanced positions make him impossible to pigeonhole.

Through the years, popes have relied on various forms of transportation. Following an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, the popemobile became enclosed.

Pope Francis uses a more open-air version and sometimes takes a common car for a ride.

Click through below for a look at papal travel, as he has during his historic visit to the U.S. (a Fiat).

-- Sarah Parvini

Pope Francis famously suggested in 2013 that he wouldn't judge gay priests for their sexual orientation. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?" he asked.

The remark, made on a flight from Brazil to Rome, left many wondering whether the pope had defied Roman Catholic Church teachings. But Francis did not deviate from doctrine or change the Vatican's view -- his comments were more about reaching out to a changing society than giving gay marriage a stamp of approval.

Asked later about his position on homosexuality, Francis said his in-flight comment was merely a reflection of the church's inclusive teachings. The pope then asked a question of his own.

"When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?" he asked. "We must always consider the person."

-- Sarah Parvini

The pope was greeted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and, in what has become one of his trip's highlights, several children. The pontiff was presented flowers as photographers grabbed pictures before his speech to world leaders.

The Vatican has said Francis is expected to discuss the need for peace, the plight of refugees and the role of poverty and bad government in driving conflict and migration.

--Michael Muskal

Pope Francis has arrived at the United Nations, where the flag of the Vatican was flying for the first time.

The flag, with its yellow-and-white bands and triple crown topped by a cross, was raised without ceremony by U.N. security officers. It stood slightly apart from the flags of the international organization's 193 members.

On Sept. 10, the General Assembly approved a Palestinian-sponsored resolution to allow U.N. observer states to fly alongside those of member states. The Holy See and Palestine are the only two U.N. observer states.

--Michael Muskal