ROME (CNS): Church and local government organisers are planning to accommodate at least 300,000 people in St Peter’s Square and the surrounding area for Pope John Paul II’s beatification Mass on May 1.
Head of the Vatican-related pilgrimage agency Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, told reporters on March 29, “Rome is ready to welcome every pilgrim who wants to come. Earlier, newspapers published megalithic numbers and said every hotel is booked.
“That’s not true.”
Fr Cesare Atuire, of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, said as soon as Pope Benedict XVI announced the beatification date, travel agents and others booked large blocks of hotel rooms. Now that the beatification looms, they have a more precise idea of how many rooms they will need and so they are freeing up the extras.
In addition, he said, two camping grounds outside of Rome would be reserved for pilgrims who wanted to keep their costs to a minimum.
The commuter trains, which usually do not run on weekends, will be on a special schedule to get them to the prayer vigil on April 30 in Rome’s Circus Maximus and to the Mass the next morning.
Msgr Andreatta said that, because the pope was the bishop of Rome and the pilgrims would spend most of their time in Rome, not at the Vatican, the Diocese of Rome was responsible for much of the cost of the event.
The diocese was passing the collection basket to large Italian companies to come up with at least $1.7 million to cover the costs of handling 300,000 pilgrims for the beatification, Msgr. Andreatta said.
Although the city of Rome and its hotels, restaurants and shops would benefit financially from the pilgrims, Msgr Andreatta said the financial crisis still weighing on Italy made the diocese look to donors instead of the local government for funding.
Fr Atuire said that as of March 29, the largest numbers of pilgrims were coming from Italy, then Pope John Paul’s native Poland, followed by Spain and the United States.
Opera Romano Pellegrinaggi has launched a special website – www.jpiibeatus.org – to assist pilgrims with reservations and information. The information is available in five languages, including English.
