jim just said they will never forget. you know, i ve been covering popes for a long time, almost 20 years. i covered john paul, benedict, francis, i ve seen huge crowds all around the world. i saw john paul draw 3 million in poland, francis draw 6.5 million in manila. it s easy after a while wolf to get a little jaded. you sort of think this is par for the course until you see the expressions on the faces of the people who were here today. and you talk to them after the fact about what this meant to them. i mean, five seconds, maybe 100 yards away from the pope they see him coming by. he makes eye contact with them. that s a story they will tell their grandchildren. for five seconds some of them waited for hours and hours to get inside. i m sure none of them regrets that long wait. hold on for a moment. we have much more on the pope s big day here in new york including his tough talk to world leaders at the united nations. much more of our special coverage coming up right here in
politicians. but let me set the scene a little bit for you because pope francis literally just left here moments ago. you can still see a lot of the students here, a lot of the families he met with about two dozen students from four different schools in new york. and he also met with refugee families, with immigrant families. now, we know that he has a very soft heart for these groups. and so he exchanged gifts. and during his remarks because he was speaking in his native spanish he actually left his script and started speaking from the heart. now, here s some of the things he pointed out. he talks about immigrants first of all and immigrant children and how it s difficult, it s tough for these children because they come from a different place, starting to learn the langua language. and he speaks from the heart because he himself is an immigrant. his family moving from argentina from italy rather to argentina in the late 1920s. and then his family losing everything. so he knows the p
lottery they don t have to pay for that. no, no, it s not like in the cheap seats and sky boxes, no, basically new york parishes distributed tickets. in many cases they would hold a lottery or in some cases pastors would give them to people who were particularly important in the life of the parish and that kind of thing. all right. you see that pope mobile, jim sciutto, has now come to a halt. i want to quickly go down to jason carroll. he s on the street. he s an eyewitness to history that s been unfolding. jason, what are you seeing? you know, wolf, this is the moment that so many people out here have been waiting for. hoping for the moment when the pope would exit the so-called pope mobile and get out and try to interact with some people at least before he hops in his car there. i can t tell you how many people we spoke to today he said, you know, we may not get close. we may be behind ten, we may be behind 15 people who are standing here, but just to be in central park or
some love and that is in effect what francis is going to be doing. remember, jake, this is the first time he s been in the united states. he s never seen central park before and presumably that will be of interest to him. that s it for the lead. i m jake tapper. i ll be with you live tomorrow in philadelphia. right now i turn you over to wolf blitzer in the situation room. happening now, breaking news. waiting for the pope, excitement is building as tens of thousands gather in and around new york s central park waiting for a chance to see pope francis on this very historic day in new york. mass at the arena, 20,000 people will soon pack madison square garden as the pope leads a special service in a setting usually reserved for sports heroes and rock stars. message to the world, pope francis tells leaders gathered at the united nations that a selfish pursuit of power and wealth is harming the earth. and its poorest people. and at ground zero at the memorial he prays with familie
hoping that the pope will give them a blessing. sure, as dilya said, the security team around the pope or guys that travel with him all the time. they know the kind of person that the pope would like to be able to be present to in a special way and they make that possible for them. a lot of people don t know, look at this picture, they are getting a blessing from the pope. a lot of people don t know. you know what was supposed to be at madison square garden tonight? a billy joel concert. he agreed they could reschedule a billy goal concert. you can t very often reschedule a visit by the pontiff. billy joel is good. he s a new yorker but no one will play madison square guardian like this pope. as you saw there, the emotion, that blessing from the pope raised in those parents there, i watched them as a parent myself and imagine that feeling. you see how important it is.