A fond farewell
"We are delighted for his arrival," said Hsing Cheng, the head of the Buddhist Institute in New York City's Chinatown. "His travels around the world make people happy. It's good for this country."
Cheng, who speaks no English, talked about the Pope through an interpreter. "Although we are different," she said. "The aim is one."
Billy Sabri, a Muslim, had parked his ice cream truck a few blocks away. He too admires the Pope. "He's the kind of guy that can give you advice. Some people need advice."
On Essex Street, Chiel Dembitzer shares a homeland but not a religion with the Polish Pope. Dembitzer, an Orthodox Rabbi who now owns an electronics store, had Jewish friends who took courses from John Paul II at the University of Krakow. "His message is good for the youth. It gives them some religion, and some ethics, and some boundaries."
