The police lined up and set out to curb, their eyes stripped away from the Cardinal any moment.
Tuesday at 6:32 pm, about 39 hours after the death of Pope Francis was announced. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York was booked on the AZ611 and at 9:10 pm ITA Airlines flew uninterrupted to Fiumicino Airport in Rome, with the departure gate 4.
“How are my partner!” he said, smiling and greeting the closest policeman as he walked out of the passenger seat of Toyota Sienna. The assistant cluttered the bags and removed them from the trunk.
Of the 10 American cardinals who will elect the next pope, the Cardinal was one of the first to go to Rome. In Washington, Cardinal Robert W. McIlroy (Robert W.
The passenger looked at the Haberbub around the man in a black suit, a Roman collar and a large metal cross as he was taken to the special check-in counter. Cardinal Dolan did not check any bags for his regular trip to Rome. But this time, he expects the funeral, meeting and the installation of the next pope to last for weeks.
He put Vatican labels on the handle of his suitcase. “I didn't realize it!” he said. “This is from the 2013 conference! I've never deleted it.”
It was his first meeting when the Cardinal surprised the world and elected the then-heart Jorge Bergoglio as the pope – the first Latino, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. This is the conclusion: dozens of men arrive as cardinals. One person leaves as a pope.
“I wish I had a new one,” Cardinal Dolan said of the label, when he took pictures with the gate agent.
He looked around the phone. At that moment, his driver rushed into the terminal and stretched it out. “He knows me,” Cardinal Doran said. “Did you bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?”
Coincidentally, Cardinal Doran's flight was booked three months ago. He led a pilgrimage to 200 participants, all of whom went to Rome for the Jubilee Year and planned to start the event on Wednesday.
He wanted to know what else was in the plan. A private tour of Sistine Church? When the room is being set up for the meeting room, it is almost certainly cancelled. Visit Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the four major cathedrals? Tough. That was where Pope Francis chose to be buried.
“I hope at least we pass through the door,” he said.
Escorts cut their entourage into the front of the Transport Safety Administration's safety line. Before the screening, he passed a baby with a stroller and then reached for a slap in the cheek and offered blessings. The baby started crying.
The metal cross appeared, packing his small protein in the TSA bin. After passing the checkpoint, he carefully put it back on his neck.
He was soon taken to the Lufthansa restaurant, where he sized a buffet table. “I don't like drinking a lot of beer before flying,” he said. “I don't like eating on the plane.”
If everyone stays on time, he will arrive in Rome for a bath, then the general congregation meeting in the afternoon, and the Cardinals are preparing to choose the start date of the meeting.
It's not the way he intends to spend the week after Easter.
“Easter Monday…you’re looking forward to Easter Monday because it’s a day off,” he sat down in front of the window overlooking the door. He said, but the assistant's phone call said that the Pope passed away at 3:45 a.m.
In recent months, he has received some personal notes from Pope Francis and answered the letter he sent to the Pope Health. But the last time he talked to Pope Francis himself was at the church meeting in October 2023.
“I was moved – he asked how the Jewish community in New York was after the October 7 attack,” he said. “We only had about 10 minutes of chatting. He asked me to convey his love and unity with them.”
He said the Easter visit by Vice President JD Vance with Pope Francis was surprising. “I want to know how I happened because there is no ambassador at the moment,” he said. President Trump's nominee Brian Burch is awaiting a vote on his confirmation in the Senate.
Announcements for departure flights are bold through the lounge.
“I'm so eager to get close to my brother Cardinal,” he said. “Because even if I know of They're all, I'll Know Maybe one third. ”
The Vatican's ritual lawsuit – “Anti-Pasto before the meeting”, he called them for them – was helpful. In general congregation meetings, the Cardinals can say eight to ten minutes respectively, sharing everything inside them.
He said he hadn't considered what he wanted to say when it was his turn. He said his first priority was to get to know his cardinal.
A woman wanders around. “How are you?” he said, as she approached to seek blessings. “where are you going?”
When she said she was going to Portugal, he asked her if she was going to Fatima, where the pilgrimage remembered Marian's phantom. She hopes she is.
“I hope you too – you can remember me,” he said. “Pray for me.”
A few years after his election to Francis, it was reported that Cardinal Dolan won two votes. When asked about the prospects for this time, he couldn't see it for the first time that afternoon.
“Oh, I'm not betting on lunch money on it, so I hope no one else will do it,” he said. “I have a better chance to clean up the Yankees than I became the Pope's Yankees.”
It's time to board the plane. He smiled when asked if he had watched the movie “conference”. “I'm in there!” he joked. He hasn't seen it yet. Maybe he will watch in the air.
“Unless there is 'John Wick',” he said.
