Papal visit: a small but crucial problem for Lord Patten to solve
I’ve received the following letter from a lay Catholic who’s acting as his parish representative for the Mass in Cofton Park, Birmingham, at which the Pope will beatify John Henry Newman. It suggests that elderly people may have real problems getting to this event and could be exhausted by the time the Mass starts. I’m reproducing his appeal to Lord Patten (minus identifying details) because I don’t repose an awful lot of confidence in the Church organisers. Logistics aren’t their strong point, shall we say.
Our parish priest has asked me to be the co-ordinator (Pilgrim Leader) for the Parish for the Papal Visit.
The difficulty is that we have been told that pilgrims will have to walk for about a mile from where their coach drops them off to the site of the ceremony. This has put off the more elderly (and, in most cases) more devout members of our parish from attending, including our two fairly aged priests, one of whom is over 80.Indeed. It’s one thing to ask “pilgrims” to fork out up to £25 to attend an event that would otherwise leave the Church mired in debt; it’s quite another to frogmarch pensioners around the outskirts of Birmingham, quite possibly in the pouring rain. Let’s get this sorted out.I would imagine this difficulty is reflected across all parishes in the country and that a large number of people will feel excluded, because of this hurdle. The purpose of this letter is to ask you, please, to find a way for coaches to drop off and collect pilgrims from the site of the Beatification Mass. I imagine the logistics involved will be immense, but believe it can be done.
I fear you are over-generalising there. It may be true for areas near to the venues, but the only comments I have heard up here in NW England have been concerns over the cost, and also worry that there will be counter-demonstrations because of the child abuse scandal.Im sorry you feel the Papal visit is turning into a train wreck.The Catholics in UK are very excited and eagerly await the visit of Pope Benedict.Whether people are unable to get to certain sites or not we are all excited and cannot wait for the glorious visit.Let us pray the visit is successful and many people get to see the Holy Father in person.God bless
That’s a real shame.No excitement and eagerness round here.
That’s interesting! Our parish was only allocated ten tickets, (to our nearest venue, Birmingham) so obviously the vast majority don’t feel involved.That’s a real shame.
Most people in my parish have already paid for their place on the fleet of buses leaving from here.
There is a real sense of expectation building up a head of steam.