My husband, Joe, and I traveled
with a group led by Sister Bernarde Entress, a Mercy Sister, to Philadelphia to
see our wonderful Pope Francis. We started in the morning about 9:00 AM on
Friday September 25th. We departed from Irondequoit with over 40others lead by
Sister Bernarde on a Covered Wagon motor coach bus. The bus made it to
Binghamton then overheated so we had to change buses. We waited about 45
minutes for the new bus from Hornell. We finally arrived in Allentown, PA.,
that evening, where we stayed for the night at a Holiday Inn.
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Sports Complex |
Bright and early Saturday, about
8:30AM, we motor coached into Philadelphia. We traveled on route 76 which was
completely shut down near Philadelphia except for bus traffic. We were the only
ones on the road. It was very strange as this is a major road into
Philadelphia. Only buses with special signs were allowed on Route 76 as
the state police and local police blocked all entrances and exits. We arrived at
the Philadelphia Sports Complex. Later, several hundred buses would fill the
parking lot. Then we had to take a fifteen minute ride from the Sports Complex
on the SEPTA subway train into the center of the city.
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Security Checkpoint |
All the streets in the center of
Philadelphia where closed to regular traffic. Only police, dignitary buses, and
ambulances were allowed. We proceeded on foot about five blocks to a security
checkpoint. Security was much more stringent than at our local airport. They
checked each bag by hand. Bags were limited to a small size, had bomb sniffing
dogs checking peoples folding chairs, and us. Metal detectors along with hand
metal detecting wands were used on everyone. We were lucky it only took about
an hour to clear security. I heard that people arriving later that day waited
three hours to clear security check points.
Unfortunately, we were
unsuccessful in obtaining special tickets to Pope Francis’s speech on Saturday
or the Mass on Sunday in Benjamin Franklin Parkway, as they were distributed
online in about two minutes. Tickets to the events were available on line at
specific times and dates but were distributed in a few minutes. We heard
10,000 tickets were available for each event but we suspected they went to the
local Philadelphia parishes.
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Our location waiting for Pope Francis |
We positioned our group near
Philadelphia City Hall about noon on Saturday where there were numerous vendors
for food plus portable toilet facilities to handle the large crowds. Pope
Francis was supposed to parade by City Hall in his Pope mobile around 4PM. It
turned out to be about 7:15PM, after his speech at Independence Hall.
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Pope Francis driving by City Hall in his Pope Mobile blessing
us.
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After the Pope Francis drove by,
we positioned our group in front of a Jumbotron near City Hall to watch the
entertainment provided for the Pope and the crowds. We left City Center to
return to our bus around 8:30PM and arrived back in Allen Town at 11:00PM.
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Sunday Mass at a Jumbotron |
The next day Sunday, we tried to
repeat what we did the day before but security was backed up over three blocks.
Several hundred additional motor coaches were arriving from all over the United
States for Pope Francis’s final Mass. The best we could do was to position our
group in front of a Jumbotron outside the security area. We were at JFK Blvd.
and 16th street. The streets were packed with people watching the
Mass on the Jumbotrons. Pope Francis’s Mass was Beautiful and Inspiring.
After Mass, it took us about three
hours to return to our motor coach even with the SEPTA trains running non stop
as the crowds were like New Year’s Eve in Times Square. We finally left
Philadelphia around 9PM on Sunday and arrived home Monday morning around 3:45AM.
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Sister Bernarde Entress after Mass on Sunday at JFK and 16th
street- Sept 27
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Sister Bernarde is wonderful and
did a wonderful job planning and organizing this pilgrimage.
It was a Wonderful Once in a
Lifetime Experience!