UPDATE: Tickets now required to get within 2.5 blocks of pope’s Mass (not 5 blocks as originally reported)

[gilliam]

Want a close-up view of Pope Francis celebrating Mass in Philadelphia? Three weeks before his visit, planners have announced you’ll need a ticket to do so.

What’s more, most of those tickets will be reserved for the 219 parishes in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, which serves the city and four surrounding counties.

Organizers said tickets will be required to get within five blocks, or about a half mile, of the altar on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Sept. 27.

The same requirement will be in place when Francis attends the closing ceremony of the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families a day earlier.

Some tickets are also being allotted to surrounding parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, as well as to other faith communities and church social service programs, church officials said.

The ticketing announcement came just a week after a new marketing campaign, “I’ll Be There,” was unveiled to encourage attendance at the papal events, driven in part by fears that months of discussions about tight security restrictions had scared many people away from attending. Officials have said hotel bookings, rail pass purchases and charter bus signups have all been running lower than expected.

cruxnow.com/us-papal-visit-2015/2015/09/03/tickets-now-required-to-get-within-5-blocks-of-popes-mass-2/

Updated: only 2.5 blocks, not 5 blocks. See: forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=13252722&postcount=12

 

[hwriggles4]

Last I heard, two million people were expected to be in Center City that weekend.

Raymond Arroyo announced on *The World Over * a few weeks ago that for $75 dollars a night, one can stay aboard the USS New Jersey. There’s not much privacy, but it’s cheap, and two meals will be served.

 

[DaveBj]

I won’t be there. If I had a ticket, I’d give it away.

 

[1990Domer]

Want a close-up view of Pope Francis celebrating Mass in Philadelphia? Three weeks before his visit, planners have announced you’ll need a ticket to do so.

What’s more, most of those tickets will be reserved for the 219 parishes in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, which serves the city and four surrounding counties.

Organizers said tickets will be required to get within five blocks, or about a half mile, of the altar on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Sept. 27.

The same requirement will be in place when Francis attends the closing ceremony of the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families a day earlier.

Some tickets are also being allotted to surrounding parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, as well as to other faith communities and church social service programs, church officials said.

The ticketing announcement came just a week after a new marketing campaign, “I’ll Be There,” was unveiled to encourage attendance at the papal events, driven in part by fears that months of discussions about tight security restrictions had scared many people away from attending. Officials have said hotel bookings, rail pass purchases and charter bus signups have all been running lower than expected.

cruxnow.com/us-papal-visit-2015/2015/09/03/tickets-now-required-to-get-within-5-blocks-of-popes-mass-2/

Our parish was allotted 302 of those tickets. We are blessed!

 

[Seamus_L]

I just can’t see going through all this trouble to catch a glimpse of the Pope, and I would also say that were it Benedict, John Paul or Paul.

 

[mikekle]

That is ridiculous, tickets to just be somewhat close?!

And they say terrorists havent won…yeah right.

 

[KCT]

Our parish has bus tickets, and I don’t think parishioners are asking for them.

There will be much walking involved, and attendees may only see Pope Francis on a big screen.

 

[ProVobis]

Our parish was allotted 302 of those tickets. We are blessed!

When this event is being treated like the BlackHawk players parading around Chicago after they won the Stanley Cup (and there were tickets for that too), I’m not so sure about the blessed part.

 

[J_Peterson]

We were planning on going down. I have some family in the area so we had a place to stay. Because it just seems too complicated with the tickets and whatnot we decided to go and eat fatty food and look at farm animals instead

bloomsburgfair.com/

 

[CaptFun]

Extra bonus: Jesus Christ Himself will be present at the ceremony … and others throughout the world: previously, simultaneously, and subsequently … wiith the Eucharist being available in a Catholic Church near YOU!

***Tickets are not necessary at all venues. - “Welcome!” ***

PS: I DO think that seeing 1.5 million people attending a mass will have a very positive effect. This ticket thing is a journalistic sidebar about a curious aspect of the problem of HAVING something so much in demand. It’s the story itself that begins with the slightly snarky tone (to my ears). No apologies for refocusing it all on Jesus.

It just might get lost in the secular hoopla of the “event” … and I’m hoping some of the “news coverage” IS about the mass … and not just every curious anomaly surrounding it.

Fox News sometimes has done well with its Catholic coverage. Of course EWTN’s is probably the best as it can focus more on the spiritual aspects than the historical, say.

 

[gilliam]

We were planning on going down. I have some family in the area so we had a place to stay. Because it just seems too complicated with the tickets and whatnot we decided to go and eat fatty food and look at farm animals instead

I would still go down if I were in the area. The tickets make sense to me to make sure local parishes have a chance to actually participate and not be overrun by people from out of town. But if I were in the area or could get to the area, I would go anyway. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

 

[gilliam]

NOTICE TICKET HOLDERS ARE ONLY 2.5 BLOCKS, NOT 5 BLOCKS AS ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN THE NEWS

A two-and-a-half block space from Francis’ stage and altar in a park near the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the fountain at Logan Circle is being restricted to ticketholders.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said late Thursday that a map released by the Secret Service had left the impression that the ticket zone was twice the size, putting non-ticket holders more than a half-mile, or five blocks, away from the pontiff.

cruxnow.com/us-papal-visit-2015/2015/09/03/tickets-now-required-to-get-within-2-blocks-of-popes-mass-2/

 

[ProVobis]

Extra bonus: Jesus Christ Himself will be present at the ceremony … and others throughout the world: previously, simultaneously, and subsequently … wiith the Eucharist being available in a Catholic Church near YOU!

Sort of like Palm Sunday?

 

[CaptFun]

THIS info puts me more at ease with the questions that popped into my mind about …" 2.5 blocks from mass"

nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philadelphia-Pope-Guide-Pope-Francis-World-Meeting-of-Families-321996702.html

WHAT IF I AM SO FAR AWAY I CAN BARELY SEE THE POPE?

From his arrival to his departure, his time in Philadelphia will be broadcast on dozens of large screens set up around the parkway and other key locations.

---

WHAT LANGUAGES WILL THE POPE SPEAK?

He is expected to speak primarily in Spanish. The big TV screens will provide English captions.

I had flashbacks of that slightly irreverent Monty Python skit about people in the back of the crowd at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount …

Man Squinting at small figure in the distance:

“WHAT did He say?”

**Another man cupping his ear: **“I think it was …'Blessed are the … cheesemakers …”.

Score one for technology in service to God here (I hope).