(2 of 5)
The morning was brisk, bright and blustery when the papal jet landed at Kennedy Airport. There was the customary exchange of greetings with a phalanx of dignitaries, and soon Paul was bundled off on a 24-mile, two-hour motorcade through Queens and Manhattan (including parts of Negro and Spanish Harlem), where more than 2,000,000 exuberant but respectful New Yorkers crushed to the curbstones. In some places the cheering onlookers were packed five and ten deep along the streets, and Fifth Avenue was a solid sea of faces. But embarrassingly long stretches of the papal route were almost bereft of welcomers, as millions of other New Yorkers apparently used the cool October weather as an excuse to obey police suggestions that they stay home and watch it all on television.*
Cheers in the Cathedral. The journey ended at Fifth Avenue's St. Patrick's Cathedral. As the Pope entered the great grey church, 3,500 invited guests welcomed him with a roof-raising hosanna of cheers and applause, a response never heard before in the cathedral's staid confines. Moist-eyed at the greeting, Paul prayed briefly before the high altar; a chorus intoned the traditional Tu Es Petrus (Thou Art Peter). In response to Francis Cardinal Spellman's welcome, Paul reiterated the purpose of his mission and asked "for your prayerful support of our message of peace." Then, he came out a side door of the cathedral to walk along its stone terrace, smiling and waving to the more than 50,000 people who thronged the surrounding streets. At one point, the Pope's grim-faced security guards had to dissuade him from walking down the cathedral steps into the crowd.
Waiting for Paul in a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria was Lyndon Johnson. Officially, the first meeting of Pontiff and President on U.S. soil was expected to last about half an hour, but it was unthinkable that a normally voluble Italian and an incurably loquacious Texan could stick to schedule—so the two men, assisted by two interpreters, talked on for 46 minutes about Viet Nam, India, Pakistan, the Dominican Republic, the conquest of hunger. Paul praised recent U.S. efforts to advance the cause of civil rights. Johnson thought that the Pope's visit would provide a much needed stimulant to the prestige and power of the U.N. "It has been to me a very inspiring conversation," said the President, who gave the Pope a small vermeil globe as a memento. Paul, who distributed gifts every where he went, gave Johnson a contemporary painting of the resurrected Christ by an Italian painter named Luigi Filocamo.
Overstatement. Though he mentioned peace everywhere Paul spoke nowhere more passionately than in his address before delegates, heads of state and foreign ministers at the United Nations Speaking in French (one of the five official U.N. languages), he—perhaps intentionally—overstated the world position and role of the U.N. "This organization," he told the delegates "represents the sole and only path of modern civilization and of world peace." He applauded the wisdom of the Assembly in opening its membership to new nations, and pointedly urged the U.N. to "strive to bring back among you any who have left you, and seek a means of bringing into your pact of brotherhood, in honor and loyalty, those who do not yet share in it."