Mayor Nutter Declares Papal Visit 'A Success'
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mayor Nutter and World Meeting of Families officials have declared the Pope's visit a success, providing hundreds of thousands of visitors a glimpse of the Catholic leader, with few problems reported.
Mayor Nutter would give no crowd estimate, though other officials say it was 850,000, a bit under the million-plus once predicted, but he said that's not how to judge the success of the event anyway.
"Did everything work well? The answer is yes. Did people seem to have a good time? The answer is yes. Did a lot of people come out? The answer is yes. Were people safe and secure-- participants and Pope Francis-- the answer again is yes."
The head of Philadelphia's Secret Service, David Beach, agreed. He says it was the largest National Special Security Event in the agency's history.
"It took a lot of coordination between a lot of agencies and a lot of hard work and sacrifice by a lot of selfless individuals."
There were just three event-related arrests, the most serious an attempt to bring drugs through a checkpoint.
The mayor says an after-action report will address the glitches there were, including lines at checkpoints that prevented some people from getting on the Parkway for Sunday's mass.
