NEW YORK— In a day of both forceful words and eloquent silence, Pope Francis stood before the United Nations on Friday to decry the destruction of the environment through the “selfish and boundless thirst” for profit, then paid tribute to the victims of 9/11 with a prayer service at ground zero.
Francis’ agenda for his first full day in New York was packed with contrasts befitting a head of state dubbed the “slum pope.”
With a schedule expected to take him from the U.N. halls of power to a classroom in East Harlem, a parade through Central Park and a Mass in Madison Square Garden, Francis swept into a city riding a rock-star wave of popularity and was met with cheering, sometimes shrieking, crowds.
On Saturday morning, he flies to Philadelphia for a big Vatican-sponsored rally for Catholic families. As many as 1 million people are expected for the final Mass on Sunday.
The pope started Day 4 of his first-ever trip to the U.S. at the United Nations, where he declared that the environment itself has rights and that mankind has no authority to abuse them.
