Pope-ular Francis kicks off U.S. tour in city

A mural in honor of Pope Francis’s visit as it was recently being painted on a building in West Midtown Manhattan. — A mural in honor of Pope Francis’s visit as it was recently being painted on a building near Madison Square Garden.

BY SHAVANA ABRUZZO | The “slum bishop” won’t be slumming it in the Big Apple.

Septuagenarian superstar Pope Francis will receive a rock star’s welcome when he disembarks from “Shepherd One” at J.F.K. Airport next week (likely lugging his own bag), as part of a three-city apostolic trek on the East Coast, featuring a 40-hour spirit around Gotham that would leave Batman breathless.

Soon after landing, the 78-year-old pontiff — the fourth pope to visit the U.S. — will hold a prayer service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown. The next day he will speak at the United Nations, visit a Harlem school and conduct services at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Then it’s off to meet the adoring masses selected by lottery in a procession through Central Park on his way to Madison Square Garden to lead a Mass using a high-backed chair. Outside the venue spectators can admire a 20-story mural of his holiness commissioned by the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Even New Yorkers unable to snag a freebie ticket are in seventh heaven.

“Just to know that the Holy Father is in town and that I am in the same airspace as him is good enough for me,” said Brooklyn resident Lucia Wells, who plans to take the day off and catch all the action on cable television’s “pope channel.”

FILE - In this Wednesday, May 20, 2015, file photo, Pope Francis waves to faithful during his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican. Pope Francis is joining a colorful cast of characters painted on the outside of buildings across Philadelphia. Officials announced Thursday, May 28, 2015, that hundreds of residents and visitors will help create a mural honoring the pontiff and families. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Philadelphia in September. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File) — FILE – In this Wednesday, May 20, 2015, file photo, Pope Francis waves to faithful during his weekly general audience, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican. Pope Francis is joining a colorful cast of characters painted on the outside of buildings across Philadelphia. Officials announced Thursday, May 28, 2015, that hundreds of residents and visitors will help create a mural honoring the pontiff and families. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Philadelphia in September. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Francis, who drives a 1984 Renault and rails against global warming and consumerism, has gained worldwide fans of all stripes and faiths since his March 2013 inauguration as head of the Catholic Church, bishop of Rome, sovereign of Vatican City and champion of the poor.

“I am a sinner,” he told some of his first audiences, with his trademark pastoral style.

Francis has baptized the babies of single mothers and installed showers at the Vatican for the homeless, with whom he sometimes sits down to a meal. He commemorated the Holy Thursday Mass of the Last Supper by washing the feet of inmates at the same Roman prison that Pope St. John Paul II visited in 1983 to forgive his attempted murderer, Mehmet Ali Agca.

The Pope will stay at the official residence of the Holy See mission on the Upper East Side. He has requested water and bananas in his room, and spartan meals of fish, chicken and white rice.

Community News Group and New York Community Media extends its best wishes to Pope Francis, and sincerely hopes the Holy Father ventures across the Brooklyn Bridge and into Queens and the Bronx his next visit!

Official New York schedule:

Thurs., Sept. 24

• Arrives at J.F.K. Airport, 5 p.m.

• Evening prayer at

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 6:45 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 25

• U.N. General Assembly, 8:30 a.m.

• Multi-religious service at 9/11

Memorial & Museum, World Trade

Center, 11:30 a.m.

• Visits Our Lady Queen of Angels

School in East Harlem, 4 p.m.