Richard McLachlan: El Papa comes to New York

Pope Francis rides the popemobile in New York's Central Park. AP photo / Richard Drew

Opinion

There is a New York Police Department officer every 20 paces facing the crowd of 80,000 excited New Yorkers lining the 66th Street Transverse through Central Park. They have to stand on the one spot for four or five hours just watching us.

Despite the recent bad press over an unduly vigorous false arrest of a prominent tennis star of color, they're smiling and taking cellphone pictures on request. The atmosphere is totally friendly, even joyous.

The crowd has been segmented, our very nice young officer tells us, into zones. "Actually, he says with a wry and slightly embarrassed smile, "we call them pens." Access to Central Park just to watch the Pontiff drive by in the Popemobile, involved winning free tickets in a lottery, then waiting in a packed crowd of tens of thousands filling many blocks of Central Park West, passing through rows of airport scanners, undergoing a full bag search, and then being counted into our respective 'pens' to wait for El Papa's drive-by.

Most of the people in our pen seem to be Hispanic. Across the road a family has draped a banner across the galvanized railings telling the Pope in Spanish, "Monsenor, we pray for you always." I see medallions and other holy objects in people's hands and real excitement and joy at the prospect of seeing him. There is not a trace of ill humor or impatience in the jubilant crowd standing at least 15 deep against the barrier fences.

The previous day the Pope, who seems to have a clear grasp of Washington's constipated political gestalt, had admonished Congress on immigration, racial injustice, and poverty. He made an explicit plea for respect for life throughout all its stages - including the abolition of the death penalty - a move that visibly dampened the spirits of an excited pro-life audience and reduced the enthusiastic room-wide applause to a mere smattering. John Boehner, the most powerful Republican and a devout Catholic, who wept openly as the Pope spoke, immediately ceased clapping at the Holy Father's misplaced even-handedness about the sanctity of life.

The following day John Boehner announced his resignation - to the poorly suppressed jubilation of the party's right flank. In doing so he averted an earlier threat by that same group of Republicans to shut down the Government in an attempt to force an end to the over $US500 million in Federal funding going to Planned Parenthood, an organisation that stands (wrongly) accused of illegally selling fetal tissue for research purposes. The Pope's visit, Boehner's public displays of emotion, his resignation, and the pro-life/anti- Planned Parenthood/anti-death penalty nexus, has all provided an exhilarating sense of synchronicity to events. This despite Boehner's claims there is no relationship between Francis' visit and his departure from Congress.

A cardboard cutout of Pope Francis is visible over the crowd waiting to watch a papal procession in New York. AP photo / Adam Hunger

On Friday morning the Pope, who appears almost entirely devoid of platitudes, delivered a serious address to the United Nations on human rights, inequality, and planetary destruction. His speech was more like the UN's riding instructions from on high than the more customary words of encouragement.

The rest of his day involved a trip to the extraordinary Maya Linn memorial and museum at ground zero, a visit to an East Harlem school, and the drive through Central Park, culminating in a mass with 20,000 at Madison Square Gardens. Somewhere among all that, the Pontiff ate lunch.

The security attending the drive through Central Park was extraordinary. Along with a massive NYPD presence and the uniformly muscular K9 Secret Service police (all wearing standard issue dark glasses), there were inordinately large numbers of men in too-tight dark suits with earpieces. Then shortly after our friendly officer's walkie-talkie announced 'arrival imminent', many more black SUVs drove by, followed by twin lines of police on Harley Davidson motorbikes with all lights flashing, more SUVs with men-in-suits-and-dark-glasses standing in their open doors, a truck full of police with machine gun carrying men in fatigues inside, and then finally more men in suits running ahead of the Popemobile.

Crowds of people stand behind a police barricade as they await the arrival of Pope Francis. AP Photo / Richard Drew

It was as though a fresh concept has just now taken form - a newly acknowledged President-of-the-World, giving instruction to those at the center of world power in our time of need. And the response most easily to hand? One of the biggest security operations in US history. Usually the Popemobile drives are open to the general public with no security checks. While he accepts this rather dissonant display of surveillance and firepower as part of coming to the USA, the Pope is not really comfortable with it.

He was in Philadelphia by the time I was waiting in the subway the following day. A big man with a walrus mustache was sitting on a bench beside his amplifier, singing Sam Cooke songs to a backing track. He had a great voice and his singing created a force field on the platform. Uncharacteristically happy New Yorkers surrounded him - recording him, flirting with him, and giving him money.

It was as though El Papa del Mundo had passed through the city, scattering a mixture of fairy dust and serious moral advice as he went - and everyone was still basking in the afterglow.

Richard McLachlan is a New Zealander currently living in New York.