The NYPD is in its final stages of preparing for its biggest security job ever — to protect the Pope, the US President and a many world leaders this week in New York City.
President Obama is expected to stop by the city during the Pope’s visit, while the U.N. General Assembly meets with 170 world leaders.
The NYPD is up to the challenge, as the force has a “layered approach” that will utilize plain-clothed officers in the background and “a network of cameras” to keep everyone safe.
However, not even the police can tell the pontiff what to do. Pope Francis, known embracing his faithful fans, will be allowed to exit his protective Popemobile while in New York, even if the move makes security-worried detail uneasy.
The Pope will appear at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the U.N. General Assembly, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem, Central Park and Madison Square Garden before leaving on Saturday morning for Philadelphia.
The Pope will pray at the newly refurbished St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where anywhere from 80 to 100 workers clambered up ladders and across platforms that stretch into the heights of the Neo-Gothic vaulted ceilings. They painstakingly rub masks over marble and plaster surfaces to remove decades of dirt, restore wood detailing to its former luster, and brighten each tiny, luminous shard of the discolored stained-glass windows. It’s was part of the $175 million restoration of the iconic house of worship, which opened its doors in 1879 and last underwent a major fix-up in 1970s. The project started in 2012 and is finished just in time for the Pope’s visit.