By now you will have been asked by your Parish Priest or Parish Pilgrim Leader to let us know if you would like to see the Pope at either Hyde Park on Saturday 18th September or at Cofton Park on Sunday 19th September. Details are with your parishes as to how you go about filling your details in and sending them to the Curial Office. Every Parish Priest has been asked to appoint a Parish Pilgrim Leader and there are set dates that we are having to work with in order to get the final list of pilgrim names for these events.
The cost for the Hyde Park Vigil is not yet totally known, but for the Cofton Park event it is £25.00 per person. Coaches will pick up from these venues:
- St Mary’s Cathedral, Middlesbrough
- St Wilfrid’s, York
- Our Lady’s, Acomb
- St Charles Borromeo, Hull.
Your parish will have been allocated a pick up venue and will return you to that venue. Middlesbrough Diocese has been given a good allocation of tickets for the Hyde Park Vigil and for the Cofton Park Beatification Mass, both events where the Pope will appear. We hope as many pilgrims as possible will be able to go to this most historic visit of Pope Benedict to the UK. If there is further information required, please don’t hesitate to contact your Parish Priest, your named Parish Pilgrim Leader, or indeed Judy or Katherine at the Curial Office.
At the beginning of September, Pilgrim Packs will be made available for those travelling to either of the events, and for those unable to go to any of the Papal events, you can follow a great deal of Pope Benedict’s travel here in the UK on television and there will be a booklet called ‘Magnificat‘ that will be available in parishes which gives the itinerary and liturgies, and events that the Pope will be attending day by day.
The Diocesan Co-ordinator for the Pope’s visit to the UK is Fr Gerard Robinson and a message can be left for him at the Curial Office, again through Judy or Katherine.