Kara Fragola has a deeply personal request for Pope Francis.
Announced Tuesday as one of a dozen Catholic high school seniors from the New York Archdiocese who will get to greet the pontiff in New York next week, the 17-year-old said she hopes to ask Francis to say a prayer for her father, Robert Fragola, diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“It started in his esophagus and it started spreading, and I know the pope is chosen by God and has a lot of influence in our religion,” said the student from Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale.
“I would ask him to say a prayer for my father. It means a lot. He’s my best friend. He’s my No. 1 fan and taught me everything I know,” Fragola said at Cathedral High School on East 56th Street, where she and 11 other student greeters were introduced.
“I’m very blessed. It’s such an honor. I feel like I won a golden ticket. Like I’m in ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ — but even better,” said Fragola, a peer minister and captain of her school’s basketball team.
Robert Ruszkowski, 17, from St. Joseph by the Sea High School on Staten Island, said he’d give the pope a big thumbs up for the job he is doing.
“I will thank him for all he has done and say that he is doing an excellent job and I support him,” he said, citing Francis’ platform of peace, helping the poor and social justice.
“It would be a good thing that I could tell others and hopefully it would inspire them to come back to the church for those people that aren’t as Catholic as I am,” said Ruszkowski, who is on the track team and attends Mass daily.
Daniel Afrifa, 17, of Cardinal Hayes School in the Bronx, said his family was even more excited than he was about his selection.
“When I told my mom, she was just bouncing off the wall. When I told my brothers, they were initially happy for me, then they were jealous and then happy for me again. I am thrilled and everyone in the house is thrilled,” said Afrifa, president of the school’s honor society.
“I’ll be 80 telling my kids, ‘That’s cool, but you’ll never meet the pope.’”
Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, said he welcomed the chance for the “student ambassadors” to greet Pope Francis.
“It gives us the opportunity to tell him that in New York, Catholic education is alive and well,” McNiff said. “These schools that we operate in our inner city are a doorway out of poverty.”
The seniors will greet Francis at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem on Friday afternoon before he celebrates Mass at Madison Square Garden.
The others selected were: Patrick McAvoy, 17, of Albertus Magnus in Bardonia; Brandon Cabaleiro, 17, of Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains; Veronica DiPaul, 17, of Burke Catholic in Goshen; Tiffany Le, 17, of Cardinal Spellman in the Bronx; Danielle Armato, 17, of Cathedral; Nicholas DiGrandi, 18, of Kennedy Catholic in Somers; Richard Portas, 17, of Monsignor Farrell on Staten Island; Stephanie Smallridge, 16, of Moore Catholic on Staten Island, and Julie Costigan, 17, of Our Lady of Lourdes in Poughkeepsie.
