New Yorkers Set to Welcome the Pope

Excitement is building in New York City, which will receive Pope Benedict this Friday. A number of Catholic lay people have joined with some local religious communities to plan a welcome that evening. The event will combine prayer, evangelization and singing, which organizers hope Pope Benedict will hear.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the Knights of Columbus, the Sisters of Life, Communion and Liberation, the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, the Daughters of St. Paul and other Catholic groups are organizing what they are calling a “massive street evangelization event” at three locations in Manhattan. Their idea is to stand outside churches and invite people on the street to “encounter the Lord in Eucharistic Adoration and Mass.”

After Mass, those at each church will process to the 72^nd Street residence of Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, where Pope Benedict will be staying, and join together for a candlelight vigil and singing.

The event begins at 4:30 Friday afternoon at three locations:

 

                        · St. Malachy’s: 239 West 49^th St. between Broadway and 8^th Ave.

· St.   Jean Baptiste: Lexington Ave. between E. 75^th and E. 76^th Streets

                        · Our Lady of Good Counsel: 230 East 90^th St. between 2^nd and 3^rd Aves.

 

Evangelization is scheduled for two and a half hours, culminating with Eucharistic adoration at 7:00. Priests will be available for confessions. Mass begins at 8:30.

I’ll be covering the Pope’s speech at the United Nations that morning with Sabrina Arena Ferrisi, so I might just join one of these groups. It’s hard to decide which of the locations to go to. All three churches are beautiful and rich in spiritual history. St. Malachy’s is known as the Actor’s Chapel, for its proximity to Broadway’s theater district. St. Jean Baptiste, run by the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, is a massive temple that has been home to a choir and orchestra conducted by the eminent Swiss conductor Johannes Somary. And Our Lady of Good Counsel is another gorgeous old-style church that is lately reinvigorated by the pastorate of Father Kazimierz Kowalski, a convert from the Lutheran church. He opened the parish to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal’s Catholic Underground, and the church is brimming with young people every first Saturday for a prayerful vigil followed by good faith-based entertainment and Christian fellowship.

 

Other events to welcome Pope Benedict this Friday will take place at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village, 371 6^th Ave. between Washington and Waverly Places, where the Dominican Friars will be assisting the effort, and St. Vincent Ferrer,  869 Lexington Ave. between 65^th and 66^th Streets, which will have the Legionaries of Christ and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Young Adults group.

 

--John Burger

Comments

[benedictus]

Is something anyone can show up for? Does anyone know the public train options for getting to Our Lady of Good Counsel from Trenton NJ?

[Chad Toney]

I’ll be arriving at La Guardia at 3:59 PM but I have no idea if I can make to one of these or which would be closest. Are there any NY experts that could help me out? Thanks!!

chad (dot) toney (at) gmail (dot) com