Pope Francis left his mark on New York City during 2015 visit

New York is a seen-it-all kind of town, but Pope Francis still managed to send it into a tizzy when he visited in late September 2015 on his only trip to the United States.

Madison Square Garden exploded with enthusiasm when he celebrated Mass there. People waited for hours to catch a glimpse of him as his open-air popemobile took a 15-minute jaunt through Central Park. He visited schoolchildren in Harlem and at the United Nations laid out a blueprint for what his papacy would become — a call to arms on issues from the environment to poverty.

He spoke at Ground Zero, too, and intentionally invited faith leaders of many religions including Islam to send a message of peace.

“The warmth in his smile and his face” galvanized famously jaded New Yorkers, said Rick Hinshaw, a former editor of The Long Island Catholic newspaper. “Even if they were watching him on TV or if they were far away from him in a crowd … they somehow felt personally touched by him.”

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: Pope Francis through the years

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, noted on Monday that he hosted Francis on his trip to the city, which the pontiff easily won over. “He touched us all with his simplicity, with his heart of a humble servant,” Dolan said in a statement.

Francis arrived in New York on Sept. 24, 2015, after his first stop in the United States, in Washington, D.C., and before his final stop, in Philadelphia. He had started his journey in Cuba, where he spent three days.

When he stepped off the Boeing 777 dubbed Shepherd One onto a red carpet at Kennedy Airport, the Xaverian High School Band played Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”

Later, rapturous fans lined the streets of Manhattan as his motorcade slowly made its way up Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “I can feel the chills running through my body,” Belinda Ramos, 45, of lower Manhattan, told Newsday.

Then, as he stepped inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a crowd of 2,500 roared in excitement.

The next day, his only full one in New York, was a whirlwind. He addressed the United Nations, paid his respects at Ground Zero, rode uptown to Harlem, spun through Central Park, and ended with the thunderous service at Madison Square Garden.

In Central Park, “he ignited shrieks and screams of ecstasy and left tears in his wake” among some of the 80,000 ticket holders, Newsday reported at the time.

“The energy was amazing,” Vincenzo Fuduli, 48, of Westbury, told Newsday. “As soon as we saw him turn the corner, and we got a glimpse of the pope, everybody went berserk.”

At the U.N., he focused on environmental destruction and connected it to many of the world’s ills — from poverty to war. The speech “really gave that vision of what his papacy was going to be about, speaking out about the poor and marginalized” and the environment, Hinshaw said.

The following morning, he took off from the airport for Philadelphia, leaving a city changed forever.