As if tickets for a renowned music festival were at stake: within an hour and a half, all free individual tickets for the large open-air mass with Pope Francis on 29 September in Brussels' King Baudouin Stadium were sold out.
Several thousand users were online at the same time to get their hands on a ticket for the major event, which is expected to attract around 35,000 visitors, said Geert De Kerpel, communications officer for the Pope's visit to Belgium, to the Belgian portal "Cathobel" on Monday.
With around 50,000 seats, Belgium's largest stadium was one of the eight venues for the 2000 European Football Championship.
Parishes, church movements and participants in the Hope Happening youth festival will still be able to register groups for the papal mass, however. This also applies to people with reduced mobility.
The spokesperson for the Belgian Bishops' Conference, however, emphasised that the organisers will try to offer other places to those who did not have time to reserve a ticket online.
The head of the Church's trip begins on 26 September in Luxembourg and ends on 29 September with a church service in Brussels.
The highlights and actual reason for the trip are two speeches by the Pontiff at the Flemish Catholic University of Leuven and at the French-speaking Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve. Both universities will soon be celebrating the 600th anniversary of their joint foundation.
In Luxembourg, on the other hand, no church service is planned, just a meeting with the Catholics in Luxembourg City Cathedral.
In both countries, the Pope will also meet with the respective heads of state and heads of government.
Visits to EU institutions are not on the programme.