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CBS2's Tony Aiello: 'Is That Brooklyn Over There?'

by Tony Aiello, CBSNewYork.com

Walking into St. Patrick's Cathedral with Pope Francis last Thursday, Timothy Cardinal Dolan saw many famous faces positioned on the aisles, hoping for a moment with the Holy Father.

Millionaire business leaders. Celebrities. Elected officials.

But Dolan said he knew who the Pope would seek out to meet.

"That baby? He's going to go to. That little bald-headed girl undergoing chemo? He's going to go to. That boy with Down Syndrome? He's going to go to," Dolan said Monday on his weekly radio show on Sirius/XM's The Catholic Channel.

Francis "has a radar, like Jesus, being able to sense the people most in need," the Cardinal recalled.

Dolan said he Francis "was very moved by the overwhelming warmth of his welcome."

"He almost wonders what the fuss is about. Just his serenity in the face of all this acclaim. He's almost shy about it."

The Cardinal said the Pope was surprised by the diverse faces he saw when he visited Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem.

"He said 'I have to tell you, most of the time when I think of immigrants to the United States I think of Hispanics.'"

"But you had Haitians, you had Africans, you had Asians, you had people from the Caribbean," Dolan recalled the Pope saying.

"You could see that he was just fascinated by America, very intrigued, very moved."

Driving around the city in the Pope's Fiat 500, the Cardinal saw the Pope exhibit "a vivid interest in New York."

"We'd be in the car and he'd ask 'what's that building? What river are we on? Is that Brooklyn over there?'"

Dolan said as he flew in a helicopter with the Pope to JFK Airport on Saturday morning, the Holy Father offered him a bottle of water.

"Thank you! I'm a bit dehydrated," Dolan told Francis, adding "ever since you've gotten here I'm afraid to drink water because you don't know if we're going to have a stop."

"He laughed and said, 'I know that's always a problem.'"

The Pope said, "Haven't you been drinking anything?"

In typical Dolan fashion, the Cardinal told him: "Well, I haven't been drinking bottles of water. But I would have a drop of whiskey."

Francis "laughed. And as he's going up the steps at Kennedy, we embrace and I thank him."

"He takes a step and leans over and says 'have two drops tonight!'"

Dolan said he has "a mental diary of vivid and warm memories" which he will share in his column in the Archdiocese newspaper, Catholic New York.

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