Select students from Catholic schools across New York City will meet, greet and even sing for Pope Francis during his visit to an elementary school in East Harlem on September 25, with a socio-economically and culturally diverse student population.

Third grader Emely Rodiguez, who will participate in singing “The Prayer of Saint Francis,” says he is a caring person.

“He cares about the poor, and he doesn’t care if the poor are bad, he finds a way to get money to give to them,” Emely said.

Mia Waterman likes him because “he loves everybody.”

The students will meet Francis at Our Lady Queen of Angels, an elementary school in East Harlem that serves a predominantly minority student population — 70% Hispanic, 22% African-American. Sixty-nine percent of them qualify for need-based scholarships.

The pope will visit the school because of his desire to focus on under-served immigrant families and to assess inner-city Catholic education.

For participating school principal Monsignor Edmund Whalen, the visit is an opportunity to reinforce the school’s mission.

“Our Catholic schools welcome students of every background,” said Whalen, “and form them as daughters and sons of God who make a difference in our world and make the world a better place.”

12 to meet Pope

Twelve high school seniors were selected, on merit, to meet with the pontiff.

Danielle Armato says it’s an opportunity to thank him for reaching out to their generation.

“He’s trying to help modernize the church, which is great because like, we are growing up in our society where things are a bit different than the church,” she said.

Daniel Afrifa, like many of his peers, says Pope Francis is “inspiring.”

“It’’s kind of popular to kind of steer away from religion, but he’s sort of making it cool again to be religious, you know. He’s very accepting of multiple groups. He has a lot of liberal views.”

Daniel calls the Pope “a breath of fresh air,” — not only for Catholicism, but religion in general.
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