Pope ends New York visit with mass in Madison Square Garden

The security surrounding Francis has been extraordinarily tight, particularly for a pontiff who prizes interacting with everyday people. “Immigration, the environment, it all comes to being compassionate, for others”.

The visit posed huge logistical and security challenges for New York City.

Ticketholders to the procession in Central Park were barred from bringing backpacks, chairs and other items.

The exhortation to go out, into the streets, into the world, out to the margins, to the peripheries of society – peripheries that can exist even in the midst of a crowded city – is a theme that Francis has repeatedly struck since he arrived in the USA on Tuesday afternoon, and it is one that has been at the heart of his ministry since he was elected pope in 2013.

Hoping to spur concrete commitments at upcoming climate-change negotiations in Paris, Francis said a “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity” has allowed the powerful to ravage the Earth and exclude the weakest and most disadvantaged.

He demanded immediate access for the world’s poor to adequate food, water and housing, saying they have the right to lodging, labor and land.

The audience responded with a long, sustained applause. “We human beings are part of the environment”, Francis said. “He’s so gracious, I felt like I touched him”. He joked around with the children, chatted happily with them in Spanish, shook hands and posed for a few selfies.

The pope waved, smiled and accepted some flowers and other gifts.

These celebrities just HAD to get a glimpse of the Pope while he was in town.

At the school he spoke to students in Spanish, looked at their projects and told them school can become a second home.

Karen Shields Wright, a chiropractic physician from Greenwich who assisted with the Eucharist at the Mass, said she would remember the moment for the rest of her life. “On behalf of all New Yorkers, I am proud to be hosting His Holiness this week, and I wish him the most enjoyable and peaceful time as he continues to inspire us all to strive for a better world”.

The crowd in the school gym included about 150 immigrants and refugees, some of them in the US illegally.

While his remarks on the environment and the economy carried a message many liberals would welcome, Francis also affirmed the church’s doctrine on life issues: He called for the “absolute respect for life in all its stages” – including the unborn. “It is lovely to have dreams and to be able to fight for them”.

About a half-hour before the popemobile passed through, a rainbow suddenly appeared above the crowd, which erupted in joyous “Oooohs!” and “Ahhhhhs!” Pope Francis visited the former World Trade Center site as part of his five-day trip to the United States.

There, he’ll attend the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families and, on Sunday, will celebrate an outdoor Mass expected to draw almost 2 million people.

Pope Francis places a white rose at the South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial in downtown Manhattan, Friday, September 25, 2015, in New York.

For the first time, the flag of the Holy See was raised in front of the United Nations alongside those of the 193 official member states. You can also download our new app for iPhone or Android. He cited “moral law written in nature itself” in insisting there is a natural difference between men and women.