Hundreds of South Jersey parishioners will travel to New York for Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium

Five hundred parishioners from the parishes of the Diocese of Camden in the six counties of South Jersey will travel to New York next weekend for the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York on Sunday, April 20 at 2:30 PM. Tickets were mailed Thursday April 10 by the diocese to parishes, which will be responsible for forwarding the tickets to their parishioners who will be attending the event. 

Each diocese was allotted a fixed number of assigned seat tickets and each numbered, non-transferrable ticket has been assigned to a specific parishioner.  The names, addresses and birth dates of ticket holders, along with appropriate identifying information, was provided to the Archdiocese of New York for each ticket holder.  This is required by the United States Secret Service and the New York City Police Department for security purposes. 

Transportation for parish groups, including bus charters, have been coordinated directly with the Archdiocese of New York, which established a bus company to service all participating dioceses.  These buses will have access to the secured areas, secured parking, and access lanes on highways and streets.  No other buses will have this access. 

 The gates to Yankee Stadium will open at 9:00 AM and will close at 12:00 noon.  The Mass will be preceded at noon by a two hour “Concert of Hope” with Harry Connick, Jr., Marcello Giordano, Stephanie Mills, Jose Feliciano and Dana.   Prior to the afternoon Papal Mass, the Holy Father will visit Ground Zero, the site of the September 11, 2001 attack at the World Trade Center.  — more —– 2 – Parishioners to greet Pope in New York  

Meanwhile, another 200 high school students from area Catholic High Schools will attend a special youth rally and prayer service with the Holy Father on April 19 at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers.

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, will arrive in New York on Friday, April 18 for a morning  address to the United Nations.  That evening, he will participate in an ecumenical prayer service with leaders from other Christian denominations at St. Joseph‘s Church in Manhattan.   Saturday before the youth rally there will be a Mass for priests, deacons and religious Saturday morning at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.