Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York City will be significantly more modest than the much-celebrated visit his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, made in 1995, as judged by a preliminary itinerary released by the Archdiocese of New York. Pope Benedict will arrive in New York on the morning of April 18, after spending two days in Washington. That day, he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly and give an ecumenical address at the Church of Saint Joseph in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. On April 19, the third anniversary of his election as pope, he will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and hold an afternoon youth rally at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. On April 20, he is to pay a visit to the World Trade Center site in the morning, then celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium in the afternoon.
Tuesday is the deadline for dioceses across the United States to submit requests for tickets to the Mass at Yankee Stadium. Individual Catholics can request tickets through their local parishes.
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the New York archdiocese, said in a phone interview today that about 60,000 people are expected to fill Yankee Stadium, including special seating that will be installed on the field. He said he was unsure how many tickets would be requested by dioceses across the country. All tickets are free. The archdiocese warned on its Web site, “Any tickets for sale on websites or through ticket brokers are fraudulent.”
“Until we have all the requests in, we won’t be sure what we’re dealing with,” Mr. Zwilling said. “I’m sure there are going to be more people who want to come than we’ll be able to accommodate.”
The largest share of tickets will go to churches within the archdiocese, which includes Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and several suburban counties north of the city. Neighboring dioceses, including the Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes Brooklyn and Queens, will also get a large share, Mr. Zwilling said.
Pope Benedict’s visit will be smaller in scale than the landmark visit of Pope John Paul II in October 1995. (There have been only two other papal visits to New York City: the first was by Pope Paul VI in 1965, and the second, by John Paul, in 1979.)
John Paul’s arrival on Oct. 4, 1995, was greeted with an outpouring of joy and celebration. The pope visited Newark, celebrated Mass before 83,000 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, addressed the United Nations, spoke to about 75,000 at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, then celebrated yet another Mass before 125,000 people in Central Park before wrapping up his visit to the United States with a grand finale in Baltimore.
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