Later on Saturday, the Pope is due to hold a farewell meeting with the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

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After a quick meeting and tearful farewell with his family, he is escorted into the first class compartment of a Northwest Airlines jumbo jet for a long flight to Detroit in the U.S. Upon landing, he gets a thorough medical examination by doctors at the Henry Ford Hospital, a clean bill of health, and delivers a speech to a sympathetic audience in New York.

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"I think that last meeting was God's way of granting us a farewell, " he said.

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