Metro

Cardinal Dolan returns to New York after Vatican trip

The cardinal has landed.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan is back in his beloved New York fold after a whirlwind Vatican voyage during which he was made a prince of the Catholic church.

The Big Apple’s archbishop arrived at Kennedy Airport shortly after 2 p.m. after a nine-hour flight, accompanied by plane load of faithful flock who made the trip to Rome for the occasion.

Dolan, sitting in business class, was whisked away to his residence behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where the NYPD’s Emerald Society Pipe and Drum band was waiting to salute him.

“”You make me feel at home,” Dolan said to the crowd outside St. Pats. after he arrived with his mother, Shirley.

“It’s good to be home. I know I got to do a lot of traveling but there’s nothing like just getting back home. And now to have my mom with me, it really makes it home. She’ll be with me until Monday. “

Dolan’s fans were glad to have him back.

We are proud as anything to play for him,” said Emerald Society drummer Sean Scanlan, 56, a retired detective. “I felt pride when I got the call to come and play.”

Dolan was elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI during a nine-day trip to the Vatican.

Among the highlights was introducing his mother to the pontiff.

There will be no rest for the weary Dolan.

Instead of sleeping in late tomorrow morning His Eminence will visit a Manhattan parish at 6 a.m. to hand out bread to the homeless.

“It’s great,” said Enza Fiorito, 51, who stopped by St. Francis of Assisi to pray on her lunch break.

”He’s really tired, but he’s getting up to come to this small church and to honor this church. I feel honored.”

Dolan, who will kick off Ash Wednesday celebrations on Wednesday, has said he may have to give up some of his beloved pasta for lent.