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Pope in Philly? They're working on it

Francis needs no intro, but these six do

DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Pope Francis speaks from his window in Vatican City yesterday.
DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Pope Francis speaks from his window in Vatican City yesterday.Read more

ROME - Please allow the People Paper to introduce you to six members of the Philly delegation to the Vatican before the pope himself meets them:

ROBERT CIARUFFOLI

Ciaruffoli, president of the 2015 World Meeting of Families - which some have predicted will be the largest gathering in North American history - is chairman and CEO of the accounting firm ParenteBeard.

He's not underestimating the scale of his task.

"The chance to welcome any pope to our city is a joyous experience. To have an opportunity to welcome this pope - with all of his humility, grace and vision - would be a once-in-a-lifetime gift," Ciaruffoli wrote in an op-ed in yesterday's Inquirer. "It would put Philadelphia on a global stage, bringing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, from around the world."

Ciaruffoli, a graduate of King's College in Wilkes-Barre and a former Marine, is credited with growing ParenteBeard into a $165 million company with 1,000 employees. It is Philly's biggest accounting firm.

DONNA CRILLEY FARRELL

Crilley Farrell worked for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for years before leaving in 2012 to join Independence Blue Cross.

She returned just a year later to become executive director of the 2015 World Meeting of Families.

Crilley Farrell, who once worked at a Wilkes-Barre TV station, left her post as communications director for the Archdiocese to become Independence Blue Cross' director for external affairs.

She graduated from Cardinal O'Hara High School and the University of Pennsylvania.

Pope Benedict XVI awarded her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontiface cross, one of the highest recognitions the church gives to lay people.

DANIEL HILFERTY

Hilferty, president and CEO of Independence Blue Cross, is a St. Joseph's University graduate - and his Jesuit credentials don't stop there.

After college, he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which is similar to the Peace Corps, serving in Portland, Ore.

He previously led AmeriHealth Mercy, one of the nation's largest Medicaid providers.

"All my jobs have been based in the community," Hilferty told the Inquirer last year. "In order to make Medicaid-managed care work, you need to know the community."

JAMES MAGUIRE

Insurance magnate Maguire graduated from St. Joseph's University 55 years ago, but he never let the Jesuit tradition leave him.

The Maguire Foundation he founded with his wife, Frances, focuses on educational issues and scholarships for the needy - issues that could resonate with the first Jesuit pope.

Maguire, a Korean War veteran, ran the Philadelphia Insurance Cos. and shepherded its massive merger with a Japanese firm to establish the Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Co. in 2008.

He has been a strong supporter of his alma mater, which named its new Merion campus after him.

Maguire's autobiography, Just Show Up Every Day, details his work in the insurance world, his life as a parent of nine children and his fight against dyslexia.

JOSEPH NEUBAUER

If Pope Francis comes to Philly next year, he may give an outdoor Mass on the Ben Franklin Parkway, as John Paul II did in 1979.

That would be convenient for Neubauer, who recently was elected chairman of the parkway's newest crown jewel, the Barnes Foundation.

When he's not courting the pope or overseeing the Barnes, Neubauer is board chairman of Aramark, the massive Philly-based food-services company.

He has won numerous honors for civic engagement, including the Philadelphia Award in 2012 and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's William Penn Award this year.

Neubauer was born in Israel and came to the United States when he was 14. He has been an executive of PepsiCo and a board member of Macy's and Verizon.

BRIAN TIERNEY

Tierney, the former chief executive of the company that owned the Daily News and Inquirer, is serving as the World Meeting of Families' senior adviser.

Tierney founded the advertising firm named after him, although he no longer owns it.

His public-relations firm, Brian Communications, is handling press for the 2015 World Meeting of Families.