Tickets for pope’s Independence Mall speech to be released Tuesday

 Tourists gather around the Liberty Bell on Independence Mall. (Matt Rourke/AP, file)

Tourists gather around the Liberty Bell on Independence Mall. (Matt Rourke/AP, file)

On Tuesday, the World Meeting of Families will release 10,000 tickets to the public for Pope Francis’s speech in front of Independence Hall. 

The pope is expected to speak about immigration and religious liberty.

 

The tickets are first-come, first-served, and they’re free. They will be available starting at noon on the World Meeting of Families website.

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When SEPTA put regional rail passes for the pope’s visit up for sale in July, its website quickly crashed.

The World Meeting of Families is working with a third-party vendor called TRS to create a website that can handle the demand for tickets, said spokesperson Meg Kane. “We feel confident in the system that’s being built and feel it will be able to allow all who wish to access those tickets to do so,” she said. 

The World Meeting of Families expects that there will be tremendous demand for the tickets. “This is a historic occasion with Pope Francis making his remarks in front of a very important place for the city of Philadelphia but also the United States,” she said. “And the topics that he will be addressing are certainly part of the national conversation.”

For those who don’t get tickets, the pope’s speech will be broadcasted on jumbotrons across the city.

On Wednesday, tickets to see the papal Mass on the Ben Franklin Parkway are supposed to be released.  The World Meeting of Families has already been promising tickets to parishes in the region so the faithful can attend.  Some parishes have been told to expect hundreds of tickets based on how many members signed up to ride in on chartered buses.  More than one million people are expected to show up for the outdoor Mass, but thos without tickets will have to stay in a back section blocks away from the altar.

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