Tickets for Pope Francis events go quickly

At 8 Wednesday night, reservations for 10,000 tickets for the papal Mass on the Parkway on Sept. 27 - to be celebrated by Pope Francis - were made available to the public online. The tickets went within 30 seconds, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced soon afterward.

Ticket-seekers were limited to four per person and they were offered at no charge on a first-come, first-serve basis, the archdiocese said.

Soon afterward, however, some tickets were available for sale on the Internet. One seller on eBay was asking for $2,000 for four tickets. As proof that he had the tickets, he posted an image of a confirmation notice from the distributor.

Another seller posted what appeared to be a printable image of a single ticket.

At 4 p.m., the archdiocese made 10,000 tickets available for the World Meeting of Families on Sept. 26 on a similar basis. Francis will also be at that event. They were gone within two minutes.

- Robert Moran