Pope Francis will visit New York City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia during September visit to U.S.: report

The papal visit to the Big Apple would likely include an address at the United Nations and possibly a Mass at Madison Square Garden. The first U.S. visit by a Pope since 2008 will include a White House visit and an address at Philadelphia's World Meeting of Families.

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN  

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Published: Monday, January 19, 2015, 8:54 AM

Updated: Monday, January 19, 2015, 9:34 AM

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AARON FAVILA/APPope Francis waves to the crowd beside Philippine President Benigno Aquino III before boarding his plane as he departs Manila on Monday.

Pope Francis may be the hottest ticket at Madison Square Garden this year.

A preliminary outline of the Pope’s September visit to the United States would have him stop by the United Nations and celebrate Mass at Madison Square Garden during a three-city swing, according to a member of the organizing committee for the visit.

The New York City Mass would be a pared down version so as not to overshadow a Philadelphia stop where Francis will likely address the World Meeting of Families.

“He would arrive on the 22nd (of September) and he would leave the evening of the 27th. It’s really a full six days, plus the travel, so it’s really one week,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza, a Philippines native and the Holy See’s permanent observer to the UN, told the Catholic News Agency on Sunday.

Details of the trip were discussed last week during a meeting of the U.S. trip organizers. Francis just wrapped up a four-day trip to Southeast Asia and is headed back to the Vatican after a Sunday Mass in front of an estimated 6 million people at Manila’s Rizal Park in the Philippines.

TED ALJIBE/AFP/GETTY IMAGESPope Francis greets the crowd after celebrating Mass at a park in Manila on Sunday.

September’s visit to the United States, the first papal trek stateside since Pope Benedict XVI appeared in 2008, will likely begin the evening of Sept. 22 in Washington, D.C. Pope Francis would visit the White House the next morning and meet President Obama during an official welcoming ceremony, according to CNA.

Francis, the spiritual leader of the world’s 78.2 million Catholics, would likely celebrate Mass at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“And we might say really the highlight of the Washington visit might be his speech to the joint meeting of Congress, so the Senate and the House of Representatives,” Archbishop Auza told CNA.

Then, it’s off to the Big Apple, where Francis would likely arrive the afternoon of Sept. 24.

AARON FAVILA/APOfficials says was a record crowd of 6 million faithful visited a Manila park to celebrate Mass with the Pope.

The next morning, the pontiff would address the UN General Assembly, where a three-day Post-2014 Sustainable Development Summit is set to open.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is said to be “extremely thrilled” by the Pope’s impending visit.

Francis would stop by St. Patrick’s Cathedral at some point before celebrating Mass at MSG.

“Our plan is not to have a huge Mass outside of Philadelphia, because the focus will really be Philadelphia, because the Pope is going to the United States for the World Meeting of Families,” Auza told CNA.

OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AFP/GETTY IMAGESPope Francis, shown in Manila, will greet adoring crowds in the United States in September when he visits three cities during a weeklong swing.

The New York Archdiocese could not immediately be reached for comment Monday morning, but “we’re hoping and praying for good news from the Vatican,” spokesman Joe Zwilling told the Daily News in August after the U.S. visit was announced.

Francis may fit in a stop at Ground Zero to visit the scene of the 9/11 attacks and the newly opened memorial and museum.

Then, it’s off to Philadelphia, the only confirmed stop of the papal visit. There, Francis will hold a prayer vigil the evening of the 26th and Mass on Sunday, Sept. 27. He’d also likely include “a visit either to a children’s hospital or a juvenile prison,” Auza told CNA.

“But these are just proposals. At the end of February there will be the first organizational visit (from a Vatican delegation), and then we will see what we could really fill in,” the archbishop the outlet.