A little slice of New York life:

Patrick Michael Ward’s is the face that many visitors to New York City see smiling at them in photographs they take back to their homes around the world. He is the police officer who guards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the man in a blue uniform before a limestone and marble church facade with each black shoe planted in a different institution.

There he is, Officer Ward: a former military policeman in the Army, the officer with the big hazel eyes, hair cut short, and a black and silver mustache like a wire brush. Officer Ward: Jean and Thomas Ward’s son, easy with a laugh, still remembers his mother’s catechism lessons, wears his uncle Edward Murphy’s shield (No. 19712) and keeps a Mass card for Cardinal John J. O’Connor tucked inside his hat.

The police world and the Roman Catholic world are heavy with history. They are parallel societies whose roots run deep; both are hierarchical and ritualistic. Officer Ward’s radio crackles with calls from the precinct station, Midtown North. The radio chatter mingles with the church organ’s religious hymns. He keeps a list of soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless in his memo book.