Philadelphia basks in Pope Francis' presence

Pope Francis thrilled Philadelphia on a perfect autumn Saturday, weaving messages of love, tolerance, and faith throughout the City of Brotherly Love.

Up and down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, to City Hall and back, the beaming pontiff ambled in a Popemobile procession toward the night's entertainment venue, illuminated against the dusk amid throngs of pilgrims.

"It feels like a big embrace," said Katherine Brennan, 67, of Providence, R.I., as she stood on the Parkway with a friend between 17th and 18th Streets.

"We feel like everybody here is family," she said. "This is a microcosm of what the world could be if we all embraced each other the way he does."

Highlighting the World Meeting of Families, which brought the pope and 18,000 participants to the city, Francis again emphasized the importance of family in his Parkway appearance.

"Perfect families do not exist," Francis told the crowd that spilled from the Philadelphia Museum of Art all the way to City Hall and beyond.

"This must not discourage us. Quite the opposite. Love is something we learn; love is something we live; love grows as it is forged by the concrete situations which each particular family experiences."

The crowd, not as large as first anticipated, was restricted by unprecedented security that deployed battalions of police, National Guardsmen, and state troopers on every corner and road leading into the city.

After months of announcements about restricted traffic boxes, papal fencing, and security checkpoints, the security operation rolled out to prepare for his arrival appeared to have scared some pilgrims away.

Regional Rail passengers ended up using only about half of the special passes sold for travel into the city, and business owners complained of a lack of customers after being warned for weeks to bulk up on supplies.

The city's many hotels, which had anticipated sellout bookings at inflated rates of $500 a night and more, ended up with 90 percent of rooms sold by week's end, their prices deeply discounted.

"This affected business worse than Hurricane Sandy," said Stephen Starr, who owns 20 Philadelphia restaurants. "The city scared all of our customers away. We have virtually no reservations. This is unnecessary overkill. What should have been a feeling of family and community was turned into a police and military operation."

Throngs of faithful greeted Francis at each of his public stops, some traveling halfway across the globe to catch even the slightest glimpse of the pope's white skullcap and vestments through the crowds.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims, many of whom walked for blocks and miles, found Center City in near-total lockdown, its streets eerily devoid of traffic. But the persistent were rewarded, as Francis took time at each of his stops to offer a charismatic smile, kiss a few babies, or offer blessings to disabled children.

On the Parkway, delays of more than an hour were reported at some security checkpoints, as Transportation Security agents diligently searched every bag, required each electronic device to be switched on and off, and asked attendee after attendee to completely empty pockets. Bananas, apples, and oranges were ordered thrown away, to many attendees' dismay; security officials explained that they were considered potential projectiles.

Rose Morrisette's tickets to Saturday's events came through only a few days ago, but the 65-year-old knew she would find a way to travel from Petersburg, Va., for the rare chance to see the pope in person.

"This is like the Super Bowl for Catholics," she said.

Almost from the minute that his plane, "Shepherd One," landed, Francis stirred widespread affection with a simple gesture toward a severely disabled youngster waiting in a wheelchair on the tarmac. Stopping his entourage when he saw the child, the pope got out of his Fiat, walked over to Michael Keating, 10, of Caernarvon Township, Berks County, and gently leaned over to softly kiss the boy's forehead.

At the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, the sun's rays shimmered in a rainbowlike halo above the dome as the choir sang "Allelujah."

The pope, known for his love of children, embraced at least three babies in the sanctuary. Strangers in the crowd waiting outside the church, hearing the point in the service where parishioners exchange a welcome, embraced each other on the streets.

Patricia and Paul Deragisch, two retired teachers from Indio, Calif., sat along the Parkway on Saturday afternoon as nearby children laughed and played.

Lifelong Catholics, they would have come to see any pope. But they particularly like Francis, they said, with his humility and message of inclusion.

"Look at all the families here," said Paul Deragisch, 66, who with Patricia has three grown children. "Everyone's coming together and smiling. There's a spirit, a feeling of solidarity, of being around so many like-minded people."

Francis was welcomed by a marching band rendition of the theme from Rocky, and cheered throughout the day by a chorus of jubilant Philadelphia crowds.

After days of visiting and speaking to the most powerful leaders of Cuba, the United States, and the United Nations, the pontiff had a personal message for rank-and-file Catholics in Philadelphia.

At the cathedral, he stressed a more active role for the laity - especially women - in the work of the church.

Outside Independence Hall - and speaking from the walnut lectern used by Abraham Lincoln when he delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863 - the pope extolled American ideals of liberty and equality. He defended "the dignity of God's gift of life in all its stages," and "the cause of the poor and the immigrant."

It was in Philadelphia, he said, "that the freedoms which define this country were first proclaimed. By contributing your gifts, you will not only find your place here, you will help renew society from within."

And as night fell, Francis basked in a rock-star welcome as his illuminated Popemobile paraded up the Parkway toward a concert featuring superstars Aretha Franklin, Juanes, and Andrea Bocelli at the Festival of Families.

"We have come together to pray, to pray as a family, to make our homes the joyful face of the church," Francis said during the gala celebration. "To meet that God who did not want to come into our world in any other way through a family."

Francis, 78, is only the second pope to ever visit heavily Catholic Philadelphia - his two-day tour coming 36 years after Pope John Paul II waded into masses gathered along the Parkway in 1979.

And despite the grueling pace of his previous stops, Francis kept up a demanding schedule Saturday as he traversed Center City for four public appearances.

At the airport, shortly after arriving and hearing the Bishop Shanahan High School band's welcome, Francis and his motorcade drove away. But the pontiff saw young Keating, who has cerebral palsy, in his wheelchair and ordered his entourage to a halt.

Emerging from the now-iconic Fiat that had shuttled him around New York and Washington, the pope went to kiss the child.

"I can't believe it," said Michael's grandmother Johanna Keating. "God planned it this way."

The Fiat pulled up in front of the cathedral just after 10 a.m. to a welcome from a children's choir and chants from the crowd of "Fran-cis-co, Fran-cis-co."

Former Gov. Tom Corbett, who traveled with the delegation that first invited Francis to visit the city months ago, greeted the pope on his way into the invitation-only Mass.

"I thanked him for his leadership in the church," Corbett said. "And he said, 'Pray for me.' And I said: 'Of course I will, and please pray for us.' "

In his homily, Francis, speaking in a slow, deliberate Spanish, noted the history of his immediate surroundings with its "high walls and windows," an indirect reference to the anti-Catholic riots that inspired the church's fortresslike design in the mid-1800s.

"I would like to think, though, that the history of the church in this city and state is really a story not about building walls, but about breaking them down," he said.

Delaware mothers Nancy Lemus and Luz Moyao snagged a seat on the front row of the cathedral chapel, with their disabled youngsters. Lemus' son Christopher Garcia, 10, also has cerebral palsy. Moyao's son Angel Zavaleta has endured a series of crippling birth defects.

"I'm hoping the pope will bless him because he's been between life and death," said Moyao in Spanish translated by Lemus. "Many people told me to [to give up on him], but I believe there is a higher power."

Francis did not disappoint, approaching both boys on his way to the altar and offering a hug, a blessing, and a sign of the cross on their foreheads.

Whisked later to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, where he is staying throughout his two-day Philadelphia visit, Francis turned his attention toward host Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. The archbishop turned 71 Saturday, and seminarians, church leaders, and others regaled him by singing "Happy Birthday" outside the chapel.

All the while, a gathering crowd amassed outside Independence Hall, eager to hear a pontiff who has made immigration a central theme of his papacy. As soon as the strains of "Fanfare for the Common Man" began, chanting grew into a steady chorus as Francis' popemobile made its way down Market Street past an adoring crowd.

"We remember the great struggles which led to the abolition of slavery, the extension of voting rights, the growth of the labor movement, and the gradual effort to eliminate every kind of racism and prejudice directed at successive waves of new Americans," he said, addressing the crowd of 40,000. "This shows that when a country is determined to remain true to its founding principles, based on respect for human dignity, it is strengthened and renewed."

The speech echoed many of the themes of tolerance and dignity for migrants that Francis has stressed throughout his U.S. tour. But his words carried special resonance for an audience largely made up of migrants - some hailing from as far away as Honduras, Korea, Mexico, and Peru.

Freddy Espana, 32, who moved to Philadelphia eight years ago from Honduras, was so excited by the pope's speech that at times he jumped up and down. He especially liked when Francis spoke about unity and respect in other traditions and faiths.

"If we are all united, we can create a better world," Espana said as the speech ended. "We can break that division that still exists between people of different religions."

But even in a sea of cellphones held aloft seeking a papal pic, 23-year-old Daniela De Leon said the pope's visit reminded her of the importance of spending time with her family, which had traveled with her up from Houston.

"I got chills. It was amazing. You feel so close to God," she said. "Let me put down the phone, leave the Internet, and be with my family."

City officials estimated early on that the Parkway would draw 1.5 million for two planned papal stops - Saturday night's star-studded concert and an outdoor Mass scheduled Sunday, set to cap off a day also scheduled to include an address to U.S. bishops and a visit with prisoners at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. But the crowds appeared to number in the hundreds of thousands Saturday evening.

And though police reported no major incidents, some pilgrims complained of checkpoint lines that snaked on for hours, or gusty winds that disabled some of the magnetometers and forced security guards to pat down pilgrims by hand.

Yet, after Franklin serenaded Francis with "Amazing Grace" and Bocelli's electrifying performance of "The Lord's Prayer," not to mention a speech from Francis, many in the crowd practically glowed.

Before he bid his flock good night, the pontiff led them in a closing Hail Mary and asked: "What time is Mass tomorrow?"

The Rev. Benedict Grant, a priest of the Franciscans of Primitive Observance order, had a long day - hours on a bus from Boston, then arriving early at the Festival of Families to hear confessions. He was transfixed by Francis' ruminations on love and the family.

"He was speaking of the family, but he was speaking as head of a family," Grant said. "Little kids were listening, bright eyes. He made us all one family."