As well, so, this is quite literally the moment that they have been waiting for. It is such a momentous point in their lives. Something they will be telling their families about, their children, their grandchildren. Really, a very spiritual, exciting and important moment for all of these children here. There are about 250 supposed to be gathered outside. That was the idea. Looks like the crowd may be larger than that. And there will be a number of kids as we mentioned inside. There ar 24 of these, six of each of four schools in the catholic arch die in harlem. The school, our lady queen of angle ls, has about 282 students one of six in harlem operated by the arch. More than half the kids are on scholarship. Which is one of the issues facing the Catholic Church and schools right now because theyve had some difficulty keeping schools open. A lot of schools have been closed over the past number of years. And thats one of the reasons why hes there. They wanted him to focus on that as well. To you know, to see the impact and to hopefully, be a resurgence when they see the pope visiting these schools. More people will start to go to the schools. Its important to know, too, most are not catholic. These schools serve a larger parents, who want a better edge education for their children. Which is why the scholarships are so important and the generosity of the community. We want to bring him in, he has another vantage point. Hes on 3rd avenue and 111 street. Right there by our laid dy queen of angels. Tell us about your crowd, the crowds youre seeing there and how theyre feeling. You know, theyre feeling a little bit disappointed because that car, they thought, the procession was going to go down 3rd avenue and make a right on 112. That would put them right in front of the school, but instead, they turned on 111 and you can see these sanitation trucks pretty much ended up blocking any view these folks have, but they have hope. They are hoping once the pope is done at this school, hell come up on 12 and make a left on 3rd. These folks are still out here, still hoping to catch some sort of glimpse of the pope. We were here throughout the day, all day, and the folks at a beauty salon across the street from the school were so excited. Some stayed overnight just to make sure they could secure their spot at the salon to catch a glimpse of the pope, so this whole community, is really feeling the impact of the pope being just a small school down the street. A lot of people have come in from long island. Who have taken their kids, but again, he made a turn on 111, dashing some of these peoples hopes of seeing him, so some are disappointed, but theyre still here, the crowds are still here. Talk a little bit about immigration. How important it is. We have a couple of guests here with us. Was here with us, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. This pope is the first south american pontiff. Its really been a game changer. Focus of immigrants. Do you think if he were from another country, we would have that . I think theres something about seeing one of your own. If you wanted john paul ii to come to you in a huge crowd, all you needed to do was speak polish. The number of people who speak spanish, the number of immigrants is much larger in this united states. So, yeah, i think its that same kind of feeling, but on steroids. He came through cuba, this is the first pope of the americas. He came up through cuba. As a migrant. And he said yesterday in washington, d. C. , he said lets remember that jesus, mary and joseph were immigrants, who had no home, not welcome, who were told sorry, theres no room at the inn. Lets listen as some of these holy mary mother of god as the pope meets the children, pats them, couple of minutes ago, the pope was standing here a couple, i dont know if you noticed them or recognized them, but there was Steven Schwartzman and his wife. I said that these schools depend upon the generosity of the community. Mr. Schwartzman just gave the single largest gift to Catholic Schools. He announced he was given 40 million to jumpstart a campaign to Fund Scholarships for low income Catholic School students. Thats the largest gift in the 207year history. The church would match that money and that will provide for many, many scholarships for these young children, most of whom are are minorities, in this school, particularly, 70 of f the schools hispanic, 22 , africanamerican, and as whole, that pretty much matches the figures in the new York City School to school, it is heavily minority, inner city, and these if you look at what the pope has said about poverty and trying to end poverty, youre looking at one of the best antipoverty programs there is on the planet. The Catholic School system. These kids nationwide, an extraordinary percentage of the Catholic Schools graduate high school. In the high 80s and those go to fouryear colleges nationwide. In new york city, the stats are higher, so, about 80 graduate high school. 99 are going to college. This is an amazing statistic. That is an antipoverty program. Those kids are are equippeded to go into the world, into this country, where you can succeed if you have the tools to succeed. And its an american immigrant story. Its the story of american immigrants from the 1840s, from the beginning of our country, irish, italian, polish and german and now, puerto rican and the caribbean. This is ellis island today. What youre hook looking at. We have gone and interviewed some of these children and you and i have marvelled at how intelligent they are, how well spoken they are. They are getting an incredible education. Sister kathleen, shes the director of spirituality, what is it about the eblg kags these kids get at a school like this that is so effective . That lets them be as smart as they are and teaches them what they need to know. Why is that edge ucation so good sm. Im happy to offer insight because i belong to a congregation which could be said to have begun the Catholic School system in north america and we have our own Extraordinary School not unlike think what makes these schools so exceptional and special is the community that is fostered by people who come to teach there, who are committed to the mission. These are Mission Driven communities. And they are, they are conducted that way. Not just the teachers have this exceptional commitment to mission, but that mission then is passed on and viewed in the students so that they feel that they are being sent forth from these communities to somehow realize the values that have been transmitted to them. Chuck schumer is also in attendance. Associate justice of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor is a product of this and if you read her memoir, she talks about the sense of community, the sense of direction and discipline and the sense of gratitude that what her mother did for her to make sure that her two kids, her and her brother, her brother, a medical doctor now in upstate new york, to go to a catholic grammer school, to go to Cardinal Spelman high school in the bronx. I am an alum as is my wife, then to go on to princeton. Without the kind of education and the kind of care and the kind of dedication of underpaid teachers and teachers aides and workers in those schools, whose names well never know. Sonia sotomayor would not be sitting on the Supreme Court today. It takes a village. It takes a village. And that has to be just so satisfying. For the teachers, the people who devote their lives. As you say, underpaid, but they are devoted and i think frankly, this pope would approve. He would approve of that kind of devotion and that disregard for ones self. That has lived in the lives i was a High School Teacher at pel spell man and in sister kathleen, the sisters of charity. So many others in our city. And i think the sister, the people who come to your communities, it comes from the moment they become novices. How did you feel yesterday when pope francis said i love you, thank you so much for all of the religious ladies, the religious women in, how did that make you feel . That acknowledgment . It was a lovely moment and i think it did a great deal to assuage perhaps some of the misunderstanding and hurt that we had experienced in the years just previous. But not surprising, not surprising at all. I think this pope would love nuns. He loves missionaries. People who are engaged and active and devoted and taking up this preferential option for the poor. Which all of us do in all of our congregation, whether we work directly with people or whether we are working in other ministry ministries. Thats always our world view and understanding. Its lovely. When i was doing some research on pope francis, he, the person he loves most, the biggest person in his life was his grandmother, rosa, who taught him how to speak e taliana, but she had a deep, religious sensibility that obviously, had an impact in his life, so, to see him acknowledge the women, i think that probably came from very early on in his life. Yes. It did mean a lot. You know, i was struck in that whole investigation of nuns when pope francis came, i think the vatican was totally unprepared with the blowback, the bumper stickers, the thank you, sister, we stand with the nuns, the nuns on the bus. The American Bishops xwaif gave us the fortnight for freedom. We knew exactly what that meant. Both very important efforts, but in terms of being you know, reaching out, i think when pope francis was elected, he brought some people into the vatican and he said you know that investigation of the american nuns . Make it go away. Because it went away and the day that it was out, the joke going around was everyone was trying to figure out how to say oops in latin. The children are presenting their projects to the pope, i believe, and they have different projects from each of the four schools represented here in this group. St. Anns has a project st. Pauls, Holy Communion and stewartship of our resources and conservative vegas. One of the things you asked before was what makes these schools so dynamic. And so effective and i think partially, its that its about education, yes, but its about formation. And its about this profoundly humanistic foundation, so, it is the cultivation of a person of each individual life. Of each individual student. According to the values that we embrace and by the way, no matter what their religious tradition is, because many, many of our schools are populated by young people who are not Roman Catholic and they neednt be, but this as you could see with the projects, this Cultivation Society is really important. It is. I mentioned earlier that there were just a selective number of children allowed inside the school with the pope, but there are at least 250 outside, the other kids of the school couldnt get in and ray is among them. Hey, chuck, i told you that some folks were disappointed. I found the folks that are happy they got to see the pope. They got to see pope francis. Tell me, you said you were able to get up there. What did you see . I saw the car. How did it make you feel . Happen p pi. Why were you so excited to him . I dont know. Did your twin sister and brother get to see him . My mom was holding me. What did you see . Pope. I saw, i saw him like he was waving at me. How did it make you feel . Happy. Are you happy you got to see him . You said you got to see him, too. What did you get to see . I had a great experience seeing him. I seen him passing by the car and i see him waving at everybody. Great experience. Where were you standing . I was standing like right there. In the corn er er . Is and so, come over, this is one of the mothers who actually helped get some of the kids up there. How are you feeling . Great. This was my desire and i got to see him, so im very happen yhappy. So exciting. You came from long island. Yeah. This was chance because we didnt think he was going to come down this way, so, how are dream come true. You see these little ones are excited. She wants to get up how are you feeling . All right, as you can see, they are so happy. These are some of the folks that got to see the pope. Pope francis, as he made a turn on east 11 on his way to the school, where he is now talking to the children. Hes talking to third and fourth graders right now and those are the children that are the children that would go through sacraments right now, so thats why he chose that age group at the school. As you can see, these kids are really excited. Wouldnt be . A lot of folks didnt get to see him. But you can see theres a lot of people out here waiting and hoping he turns on to this street on his way to central park. Thats right, theres a lot more on the popes agenda today. Obviously, hes at the cool right now, then goes to central park as ray was saying. And then, of course, he ends the night of course leading the mass at Madison Square garden and that is where david ushery is right now. David, whats the feeling like out there . We are here and were starting to see people, we saw long lines for those people to get through the met dahl detectors to get in and we understand inside, martin sheen has been talking. Theyve heard an explanation of the papacy and there are going to be performances later. Im here with father gill mart Martinez Martinez martinez. Father gill, youre looking at these images as i am. You were over a Catholic School in two parishes and i think you can speak to the real challenges Catholic Schools are facing. We understand this is something specifically the pope wanted to see. He wants to see inner city Catholic Schools. Its a real challenge. It is. Thats the history of the Catholic School system is to work with immigrants and with all those who have, who had difficult times. A lot of, the number of minority students in all these areas was hard to raise money, but the good point, its not about the money. In the end, its about the dedication, the community that the pastor among his people, whats striking about pope francis is hes a priest. Mayor deblasio, his son is there. First lady mcray. I am noticing his appearances this morning were more somber at the u. N. And at the 9 11 memorial museum, so he couldnt be as animated, but i see it in his face. This is where he really enjoys being. It was great. The singing. Sing louder. Yeah. Its just really something to see these images, but it does now conform with what we heard. This is an important part of his stop and where we thought in his schedule he might start to run behind because he really wants to do this as good as the vatican security is about moving him along. They gently nudge him on, however, he will take his time, so well look to see what happens here. This is extremely carefully planned andal all plans work until the first shot is fired. He waited in there and got distracted almost immediately by all those wonderful people outside and the kids inside and the projects. We saw in the images from the school, we also saw the governor, andrew coy moe, and his girlfriend, got a special blessing from the pope at the end of the service last night. She was diagnosed with Early Stage Breast Cancer a number of months ago and elected to have a double mastectomy, just shortly, she was cancer free, so a miracle in her life. Very grateful for that. Absolutely. We want to go to checky, she is by columbus circle. Big crowds there as well. Yes, this is an especially crowded columbus circle. Want you to look at the crowds on the sidewalk and across is streets in the tentds. Thats where theyre letting the lottery winners in. They had tickets were online and left the line because they say they were waiting for some three hours. Its not just inside the park that people were hoping for a glimpse of the pope. Out here on the corner, take a look over to the fountain. People standing on the side there hoping gwen for just a brief glimpse of the pope over to Trump International center across the street, people lined up there. Columbus circle packed right now with all of these hopefuls. We talked to one man from san juan, puerto rico, who said he came all this way. He wasnt able to get inside the park, but hes going to be standing out here, hoping to see the pope. Weve been told by Police Officers this is not the best viewing spot. Theyve been telling people to go closer to 5th avenue because that is where the popemobile is expected to exit the park once the parade is over and he heads down to Madison Square garden, so a lot of people out here very theres a slim chance theyll gooechb even get a glimpse. Thank you. We just got this picture from central park. You can see huge crowds. As many as 80,000 people will be there for the popes procession. Andrew siff is out there. You have to trust us on the picture. There it is and look at that. Look at the crowds gathering there along 5th avenue. Thats not inside the park. Andrew siff is. Where are you . Hello, we are live in central park. It is a huge crowd. Take a look over here. There are thousands of people around lready and among this very happy and excited sea of faces, we have maria adair from bedford sigh ves. The pope is going to be in central park . I went online. I snagged the ticket, my birthday was yesterday, called me and i am here. I had two tickets and i gave one two another blessed person, paid in fully, yes. Now, why is this important to you . What does this mean . Actually, i went to Catholic School all my life, but its something about this pope that really makes me feel the spirit. Pope francis is like really a spiritual person, unlike no other pope as far as im concerned and i wouldnt miss this for anything. I am feeling his spirit. What about this new york moment . Did you take the train . Oh, yes. Weve got people taking the subway, what does it say about the tristate area out here . Here feeling the spirit, central park. Well thank you very much. Friend, this is Jessica Phillips from farmingville on long island. Youre a seventh grader, right . What does it mean for you to be here . It means the world to