Ticket distribution plan set for pope's Washington Mass

Published: 2008-02-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Close to 14,000 people out of the 45,000 expected to be in attendance at Pope Benedict XVI's April 17 Mass in Washington will hail from outside the Archdiocese of Washington. Of the 14,000 tickets to be distributed, the neighboring Diocese of Arlington, Va., will get 6,000 and the neighboring Archdiocese of Baltimore will receive 2,500. Nearly 120 U.S. dioceses that had requested tickets were sent letters Feb. 25 by the Archdiocese of Washington on how many tickets they will receive, according to an announcement by the archdiocese. The plan on how many tickets will be given to each parish in the Washington Archdiocese was to be disclosed Feb. 29. Parishes will then decide how tickets will be distributed within the parish. The Mass will take place at Nationals Park, the new stadium for the Washington Nationals baseball team. It will be the first nonbaseball event at the new stadium. More information about the pope's U.S. visit April 15-20 is available online at: www.uspapalvisit.org.

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