Interfaith leaders, former Catholic school students reflect on Pope Francis' 2015 visit to New York City
When Pope Francis visited New York City in 2015, he met and prayed with religious leaders of other faiths to spread a message of peace, and had an impact on Catholic school students in East Harlem.
CBS News New York's Jennifer Bisram and Ali Bauman spoke with New Yorkers who had a chance to meet him as they reflect on their memories with the late pontiff.
"That was a moment in time that I'll always hold sacred"
Pope Francis is being remembered for fostering solidarity not just among Catholics, but people of all faiths.
Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove, of the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, was one of about a dozen religious leaders who met and prayed with the pope during his historic trip to the city.
"I'll never forget that day. That was a moment in time that I'll always hold sacred," he said.
"I was invited there as a Muslim woman interfaith leader," said Manhattan College Professor Mehnaz Afridi. "It was just an unbelievably moving experience because he spoke to all of us leaders and talked to us about being prophets of the future."
"Pope Francis, his ministry was one of prophetic leadership, but also pastoral humility. There was a human touch that he had," Cosgrove said.
"He was just so humble and so open to other faiths. I don't think we've ever seen that in the history of the Catholic Church," Afridi said.
"His message lives on here"
The meeting was held at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
"What he did here on this site will be healing. No matter that he is gone, his message lives on here," said Josh Cherwin, chief advancement and communication officer for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
The visit lasted for two hours but left behind a trail of hope and healing.
"A place that the grief is palpable there, that is a searing scar in the heart of New York, where religion was instrumentalized to do evil, he wanted to bring people together in a culture of dialogue," Cosgrove said.
The rabbi attended a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Tuesday, where grief was shared across all religious communities.
"Cardinal Dolan invited religious leadership. It's really a mission of Pope Francis' that is lived and breathed here in New York City," Cosgrove said. "We wanted to be there to offer comfort to the Catholic community."
Daughter says father with cancer lived longer than expected after she met Pope Francis
Pope Francis received a rockstar welcome when he visited Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem. Twelve high school honors students from schools across New York were chosen to meet with the pontiff. They were nicknamed the "Divine Dozen."
Kara Fragola asked the Holy Father to pray for her father, who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given one month to live.
At the time, Fragola told CBS News New York, "He just immediately took the picture, blessed it. He asked what his name was. I told him Robert, and he said, 'I'll pray for him.'"
A decade later, she reflects on what happened next.
"My father's cancer was metastasized when we found it, so meaning it had started in his esophagus and it spread to his liver, and a couple weeks after meeting the pope, the doctors reported that the cancer in his esophagus had vanished. And they could not explain how or why," Fragola said.
Fragola's father ended up surviving for nearly a year longer than what doctors predicted.
"It did give me that hope of feeling like there was an answer to what the prayers that we had, you know, sent up for my dad," she said.
"I'm always going to have a foundation of hope"
Richard Portas says Pope Francis gifted him a rosary.
"Every time I pray, I kind of always pull out those rosaries and always brought back to that moment," he said.
He added, "I remember this huge sense of ease just come over me, and he had said, 'Pray for me.' And I was like, it's amazing just to see how humble of a man he was. He was the pope, and he's asking me, just a high school student, to pray for him."
A decade later, the rosary beads are worn, but Portas' faith is strong.
"For the rest of my life, I'm just always going to have, like, a foundation of hope," he said.
