It’s a sellout as tickets for Pope Francis visit are all snapped up
THE faith is still strong – as all 500,000 tickets to see Pope Francis in the Phoenix Park have been snapped up, according to organisers.
The final 10,000 of the free tickets were allocated to worshippers at the weekend for the much-anticipated Mass, to be held on Sunday, August 26.
Organisers from the World Meeting of Families are understood to have been ‘overwhelmed’ by the huge interest in tickets for the final Mass in the Phoenix Park.
Some 45,000 tickets for the
‘People like what the Pope is saying’
Pope’s visit to Knock were snapped up almost immediately when they were released in the past few weeks. Tickets for the Pastoral Congress in the RDS are also sold out.
According to organisers, the WMOF received 37,000 registrations from 114 countries across the globe for the RDS event, and the congress is to see a high volume of young people in attendance.
Fr Timothy Bartlett, secretary general of the WMOF2018, said those involved in organising the event were ‘not surprised’ at the very high levels of interest.
‘While I was cautious at the beginning, and while I am a little surprised every part of the event is booked out six weeks in advance, including the Mass for half-a-million people in Phoenix Park, I am not surprised at all by the incredibly high levels of interest,’ he said.
‘Family is important to all of us. People like what Pope Francis is saying about family and the Church.
The WMOF told the Mail last week that anyone who tries to sell tickets as part of the event should be reported to the gardaí or to contact the WMOF.
‘If anyone is trying to sell tickets to any event then they should be reported to the gardaí, and certainly let us know because nobody should be paying,’ Brenda Drumm told the Mail.
‘The tickets, in particular for Knock, will be posted and there [are] all sorts of verifications that have to be gone through.’
When the tickets were released, a group of protesters from the ‘Say Nope To The Pope’ Facebook page claimed they were able to book hundreds of tickets to the Mass in the Phoenix Park, despite having no intentions to go. The page has been criticised as ‘petty and mean-spirited’ by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar amongst others.