Archdiocese chooses 'pilgrims' to see pope
Three thousand were selected out of 12,000 requests for the April 20 trip to Yankee Stadium.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia said yesterday that it had already selected the local "pilgrims" to attend a papal Mass in New York City next month, and had avoided the kind of problems encountered by the Archdiocese of Washington.
"We had an overwhelming response" in December when pastors in the Philadelphia Archdiocese invited parishioners to apply for tickets to the April 20 Mass at Yankee Stadium, said the Rev. Zachary Navit. "We got more than 12,000 requests."
Several weeks ago, however, the New York Archdiocese informed Philadelphia that it would receive just 3,000 of the 57,000 tickets.
After each parish learned its allotment, it selected who would attend, and on Feb. 15 Philadelphia sent the names, addresses and ages to New York, said Navit, who is coordinating the trip locally.
"I'm sure some people were disappointed," he said, but others dropped out when they learned what a long day it would be.
The Washington Archdiocese has reported that it has been inundated with ticket requests from across the nation for Pope Benedict XVI's April 17 Mass at Nationals Park. The archdiocese said it is working on how to deal with the requests.
In Philadelphia, the important details have been worked out by the archdiocese.
Buses will leave Philadelphia at 7 a.m. and are expected to arrive at Yankee Stadium around 10. After passing through security, the pilgrims are expected to be seated around noon. The Mass begins at 2:30.
Navit said the Mass will probably last two hours, and no one may leave until the pope has departed the stadium for his return to Rome.
The Philadelphia parishioners might be home as late as 11 p.m., Navit said.
Benedict is scheduled to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base on April 15 and meet with President Bush at the White House the next day. He will meet later with the nation's Catholic bishops at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and with interfaith leaders at the John Paul II Center, in Washington before the Mass at Nationals Park.
He is to address the United Nations on April 18, and will lead several events in New York-area churches and a seminary before the Yankee Stadium Mass.
Benedict's visit to the United States - his first as pontiff - honors the creation of the Dioceses of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Louisville (then Bardstown), Ky., which were split off from the then-national Diocese of Baltimore in April 1808.