PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religion Dispatches
BY ANTHEA BUTLER SEPTEMBER 14, 2015
On the the eve of the papal visit, William Penn’s City of brotherly love, Philadelphia, is feeling anything but. With each twist and turn over the long hot summer in the planning for the papal visit, Philadelphia’s citizens have become restless, and their ire has been focused on Mayor Nutter and the Secret Service.
In a hastily put together meeting last week, Donna Crilley Farrell, the executive director of the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) announced that the papal events were going to be ticketed—after having already promoted the Papal visit as “free and open” to the public on the conference website. As a result, some hotel rooms are being cancelled, people are angry, and shopkeepers are worried.
It’s not the Philadelphia nativist riots of 1844, but hey…
Don’t worry, if you’re coming to Philly and can’t get a ticket, this picture from my friends at Billy Penn shows just how close you can get to the altar—that dot in the distance in the background is where the altar will be.
Yup, stay at home, post up, get your drinks and popcorn, and watch in your jammies.
Much of the confusion and drama lies with the poor messaging of the World Meeting of Families and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Both have managed to make both Catholics and non-Catholics so angry that many will certainly stay away.
What happened? Why has the WMOF and the Archdiocese mangled the messaging of what should be a feel-good, uplifting papal visit? Simple: the Archdiocese is still in disarray from the administrations of Cardinals Rigali and Bevilacqua.
Pope Benedict XXVI knew exactly what he was doing when he announced in June 2012 that Philadelphia would get the 2015 WMOF—the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has suffered from poor management for years and the now-emeritus Pope was trying to get Philly Catholics off life support.
Sex abuse scandals, two grand jury investigations, the imprisonment of a archdiocesan administrator, financial mismanagement, and the closure of Catholic schools have contributed to the decline of an archdiocese that once rivaled Boston or New York.
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