The Popularity of the Pope

There's been some media attention focused on comparing Pope John Paul II to Pope Benedict XVI, a comparison that is natural but not really fair. Most of those reports suggest that Pope Benedict doesn't have the same "rock star" following that Pope John Paul II had.

Actually, though, as some have pointed out, Pope Benedict has been drawing greater numbers to Rome and at the Wednesday General Audiences. And, if ticket demand is any indication, both the Archdioceses of Washington and New York have indicated that they could have filled each stadium three times with the ticket requests they received. To further support the popularity of this Pope, consider this.

When 5,000 tickets became available two days ago for standing-room only positions outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Archdiocese of New York made them available online. The tickets were gone in four hours, according to this story from New York Daily News. For many of the faithful, that means contending with crowds to try to catch sight of the Pope during one of his few motorcades through each of the cities.

Suffice it to say, Pope Benedict doesn't seem to have an issue with popularity.