D.C. Ticket Allocations

The Archdiocese of Washington released a press release late this afternoon. It doesn't say a great deal more than what we've known previously, but here it is in full:

     "Ticket allocations for Pope Benedict XVI's April 17 Mass in Washington, DC continues as staff at the Archdiocese of Washington sift through more than 100,000 ticket requests - more than double the available seats. Earlier this week, dioceses nationwide were informed how many tickets they would receive. Today, parishes and missions in the Archdiocese of Washington are learning their quantities. 

     Of the nearly 45,000 tickets available for distribution, nearly 16,000 will go to 148 parishes and missions in the archdiocese. In addition, approximately 13,000 will be distributed to clergy and religious, Catholic high schools and campus ministries in the Archdiocese of Washington, Catholic organizations, volunteers and others. 

     Parishes are taking different approaches to ticket distribution, ranging from free lotteries to asking those interested to write letters saying why they would like a ticket. Tickets are free, non-replaceable and may not be sold.

     While the quantities are being announced now, the actual tickets to the Mass will be provided closer to the event."

The "Last" Time the Pope Came to Town

For a fascinating story on the "last" time a Pope visited the White House, read this Washington Post story by Debbi Wilgoren. The date was October 6, 1979.

I spoke with Boston priest Father Richard Shmaruk who broke the story about Pope John Paul II's proposed visit to the U.S. during a press conference at the White House. According to Fr. Shmaruk, President Carter had been secretly writing letters to the Pope regarding Communism. It was President Carter who started what President Reagan later received credit for.

Fr. Shmaruk told me the story of being asked by the Secret Service to break up a meeting between President Gerald Ford and Washington Cardinal William Baum because the president's plane was ready for departure for a campaign trip. Fr. Shmaruk says that when he entered the room, President Ford was imploring with Cardinal Baum to have Pope Paul VI visit the U.S. That visit never took place because of the pope's failing health, and the impression that pressure for such a visit might be for political reasons, especially with the forthcoming election.

According to documents available from the Jimmy Carter Library, the visit between Pope John Paul II and President Carter began upon the pope's arrival around 1:30 p.m. and ended at 5:00 p.m. During the D.C. trip, the Pope celebrated Mass for 1,500 priests at St. Matthew's Cathedral and a public Mass on Washington's Mall.

The historic nature of this visit cannot be stressed enough. Prior to this, no Pope had visited Washington. Under President Kennedy's leadership, of course, there was a strong desire to disassociate the presidency from the then Catholic president.

Pope Benedict XVI's visit then is equally historic. Not only will it have been 29 years since a Pope has visited Washington, D.C., but it will be only the second time in history that a Pope has visited the White House.

Excerpts from Ticket Seeker's Letters

The Washington Post has excerpts from letters received by Monsignor W. Ronald Jameson, rector of St. Matthew's Cathedral in D.C. from individuals asking for tickets to the papal Mass. There's one from someone with HIV, another from a wife whose husband has returned from Iraq, and another from a couple who are expecting a baby after years of being unable to achieve a pregnancy. There's no word on whether any of the letter writers will be receiving tickets. The word on the street has been that it's being done by some type of lottery system.

Will D.C. be Ready?

From the various individuals I’ve spoken to for stories, liturgically speaking, preparations for the pope’s visit seem well planned out. On the logistical, infrastructure planning side I would say that’s less true. Whereas the Church has been working on the visit continuously since last year, the secular world, if you will, is just now realizing the monumental preparations necessary. With the visit just six weeks out, it's as if they feel they still have plenty of time to figure out how they'll handle the visit, the crowds, etc. Here are some examples.

The White House press office told me that the events haven’t yet been determined or announced, so they couldn’t speak of preparations being made or expectations for the visit. They were also unable to tell me when the last time was that a pope visited the White House (if you know, drop me an email).

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority also is still developing and has not finalized its plans for increased transportation for folks attending the Mass at

Nationals

Park

. The only thing they seemed to know for certain was that they would be issuing a special one-day pass to allow commuters unlimited rides on both the subway and buses.

The Metropolitan police department told me they hadn’t yet assigned an officer to oversee security in

Washington for the event

, which seemed very hard for me to believe. However, since the pope is a visiting head of state, and all security is being handled by the U.S. Secret Service, it’s quite possible that the DC police department has a secondary role.

I suppose that in some respects this is to be expected. The Church, having an inside track on all of this since it is their event, has spent months planning for it. Those outside the Church do not know exactly what to expect, and likely found out later about the trip, and are just now getting things in place. Washington is no stranger to large gatherings, so I trust that it will all work out, but the level of indecision that I've encountered in my phone calls has been a bit surprising.

Ticket Requests Making their Way to eBay

Mercury News reprinted this article from the Washington Post about ticket requests for the New York Mass. According to the story, eBay and Craigslist are filled with people requesting tickets even though it has been quite clearly indicated that the tickets will be non-transferable. One man, for example, is asking for tickets so that he can propose to his girlfriend at the Mass site.

One Lucky Ticket Recipient

The Associated Press has a nice story on Lori Brown of Laurel, Maryland who has received a ticket voucher that will allow her to attend the Mass in Washington. According to the story, "Brown, who said she's been trying to become more spiritual in recent years by taking classes, believes the pope's visit is coming at an opportune time in her life."

Archdiocese of Louisville to Receive 650 Tickets

WAVE 3 TV has a written and video story on the difficulty in obtaining tickets for the papal Masses, saying that not even prayer will get you a seat at this point. According to the story, reporter Carrie Weil says that the Archdiocese of Louisville has already received 650 tickets, which is more than other dioceses of larger sizes. This is because the Archdiocese of Louisville is one of five celebrating its bicentennial at the Mass in New York. Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz will be one of five bishops (all those celebrating bicentennials) to celebrate the Mass at the altar with the Pope.

The Latest on Tickets

Originally, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. planned to announce ticket distribution for parishes on Friday, February 29. Susan Gibbs, director of communications for the archdiocese, said yesterday that they do not expect the allocation announcements to be sent to parishes until sometime in the early afternoon today. Staff were apparently double-checking numbers until late last night.

A Catholic News Agency story reports: "Archdiocese of New York spokesman Joseph Zwilling said security would be tight at the venues on the New York leg of the Pope’s trip.  Attendees will use bar-coded tickets and be required to show government identification. Security officials will also conduct searches of some people.

Both security concerns and religious principle will also forbid scalping the tickets, which are distributed to the ticket holders at no cost.  “We don’t charge people to come to Mass,” Zwilling said."

"Benny Bear": First Official U.S. Papal Visit Souvenir Announced

From USA Today: The first officially announced souvenir for Pope Benedict XVI's visit will be the "Benny Bear." That's the nickname Archdiocese of Washington spokeswoman Susan Gibbs has given the bear, which will be sold only at six Washington, D.C.-area Build-A-Bear Workshop stores. "It's cute. It's fun. It brings the Holy Father into secular culture and lets parents go into a family-friendly store and do something related to their faith," said Gibbs. The bears costs $10 to $20. The Christ Our Hope logo T-shirt costs $6, and a portion of the shirt sales will help pay for the pope's trip.

U.S. Vatican Envoy Leading the Way for the Pope

USA Today has this interesting story on Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican diplomat who serves as the Holy See's U.S. ambassador. During the Pope's visit to Washington, he will stay at the apostolic nunciature, the Vatican Embassy's home on Washington.

Archbishop Sambi offers some insight into the Pope's visit to Ground Zero.

"This will be a moment of solidarity with those who died and their families. He will walk alone to indicate the loneliness of those who went to their deaths and the loneliness of the survivors," said Sambi. "He will light a lamp. He will pray silently and make a public prayer (the only portion to be broadcast) for the remembrance of those who died, and for peace.

"There must be only silence and prayer here because not a single word will be enough to be convincing. Nothing will be adequate to touch the loneliness of those who died there and those who lost someone. Silence and prayer are what is required."

Also of interest, Archbishop Sambi says that the Pope will address the issue of clergy sexual abuse.

"The pope 'will address this — and more than once,'" USA Today quotes Sambi.