Pope Benedict Met with Ronald McDonald Kid Late Last Night

It will be interesting to learn over the next few weeks what else the Pope did that was not on the official schedule.
I found the following at Pope2008 that I suspect will have some more stories up over the next fews days to recap the trip. The Title is a tad wrong because these kids did have disabilities like the ones that he met earlier.

Pope Meets With More Disabled Kids
I just got off the phone with Patrick Lenz, director of major gifts for the Ronald McDonald House here in New York City. Thanks to New York’s Finest, who have been providing outstanding security for the Holy Father, several children and their families staying at the RM house were able to meet the Pope last night. It was the end of a very long day for the Holy Father, but he agreed to take half an hour and bless some kids being treated for various kinds of cancer at some of the best hospitals in the world, here in the Big Apple.

Officers at the 19th Precinct, where the RM House is located, volunteer to help the kids, so they’ve already had a relationship.

“We just finished an activity with the kids, when they came and said, 'If you want to see the pope, let’s go,'” Lenz said. Several of them went with families. In the end, four large passenger vans full of kids and the families staying with them made the trip 10 blocks south and four blocks over to the west, to Archbisho Migliore’s residence on 72nd Street. “They got us through security quickly … He came out, walked one way, then the other, held some our children and blessed them.”

Babies were passed up to the front row, and the Pope blessed them. “You could see the twinkle in his eyes,” Lenz told me.

The residence, which the McDonald organization started with seed money, is a home away from home for kids and their families from all over the world who come here for treatment. Though celebrities often drop in to visit the kids, to Lenz’ knowledge, nothing like this has happened in Ronald McDonald House’s 30 years.
Though the agency is non-denominational, it provides religious services, and St. Monica’s, the local parish, arranges for Mass in the home every Thursday.

Saturday night’s meeting, which took place around 9, came at the end of a long day for Pope Benedict, what with the Mass in St. Patrick’s and the encounter with young people. But Lenz said the Pope didn’t seem tired. “He seemed even more energized,” said Lenz.
--John Burger