Papal Audience

[batoryfirst]

Has anyone attended the Wednesday Papal Audience in St. Peter's Square?

I understand you need to have tickets and be in place between 10 & 10:30a.

What time does the Pope appear and how long does he speak?

How far in advance do I need to purchase tickets?

[travellgirl]

Unless things have changed, you do not need tickets.

We were there last May for one of the first audiences with Pope Benedict. It was crowded, but you were able to move slowly closer to the front. Then he came around in the Popemobile and we got a great picture. It was a wonderful experience. We wound up spending the entire day at the Vatican and never saw the rest of Rome. We are planning on being back next year and then we will see the other sights.

[deb1835]

We attended the Papal audience on May 31. We arrived at our hotel at 9:00 a.m. just after we got off of the ship. The hotel had obtained a ticket for us although no one was checking for tickets when we went to St. Peter's Square.

[luvz2run2000]

As it gets later in the summer they will begin checking tickets and those without tickets will not be allowed in. When we were there last month as it got closer to time for the Pope to speak and the crowd grew larger,they stopped allowing people with out tickets in. Even though no one had looked at our tickets when we entered.

He started speaking at 10:30 and it lasted for close to three hours. Everything is translated into multiple (6-8) languages.

If you are going to be in Rome on Tuesday evening you can pick tickets up for free. If not check with www.goporta.com . They only charge 3 euros per ticket and leave them at a location in St. Peter's square so you can easily pick them up Wednesday morning. We used them and were very happy with the service.

[michael83163]

Just a quick question please:

We will be in Rome on a Wednesday on a RCCL cruise -- does the Pope still appear at his window for the Angelus at noon or only the Tuesday audience.

Thanks for any info

Michael:)

[Marebear]

Papal audiences are usually held on Wednesday mornings around 10:00.

[batoryfirst]

Luvz2run - the Papal Audience lasts almost 3 hours? Wow, that's a long time. Are you allowed to leave when you choose? Are there seats for everyone?

 

There are 22 of us that will be there in mid-October. I don't know that they will all want to stay there that long and listen to 6-8 translations.

 

What did you think of the overall experience? None of us are Catholic, but would like to see the new pope. We have such a short time in Rome, I don't know that we can afford that much time.

[michael83163]

Just a quick question please:

We will be in Rome on a Wednesday on a RCCL cruise -- does the Pope still appear at his window for the Angelus at noon or only the Tuesday audience.

Thanks for any info

Michael:)

 

Sorry I made a mistake we will be in Rome on a Tueday and was wondering if he Pope makes an appearance at his window to bless the crowds in the square.

Thanks

Michael:rolleyes:

[nparmelee]

We were at the papal audience a couple of weeks ago, on June 7, the Pope was driven around the square starting just after 10:00 or so. Tickets are free and you only seem to need the tickets if you want to sit in the seats. They repeat a lot in a lot of different languages, I think there were 6 languages the day we were there, so it does take a while. We were able to leave a little early, we had SCAVI tour tickets and that was well worth the time and $10/person to go on.

[luvz2run2000]

Luvz2run - the Papal Audience lasts almost 3 hours? Wow, that's a long time. Are you allowed to leave when you choose? Are there seats for everyone?

What did you think of the overall experience? None of us are Catholic, but would like to see the new pope. We have such a short time in Rome, I don't know that we can afford that much time.

 

Tickets guarantee you seats, so as long as you have tickets you'll be fine. We left after about 2 hours becuase we'd had enough and we were starving. We ate at a little sidewalk cafe right by the Vatican so that's how we know when it was over.

 

As it progressed more and more people left at every break or lull in the action. If you know you're not going to stay for the whole thing I'd suggest sitting closer to the back and on the aisle. We unfortunately were near the very front and had to practically climb over these sweet older Italian people to get out.

 

I'm not Catholic but my husband is. I'd say it's about the same as seeing the president or leader of some other country. It's one of those things that I can say I did (and people are kind of impressed) but I wouldn't go out of my way to do it again. It was more about the position, than the actually person for me.

[Cruising Retired Army SGM]

We were there on 5/31/06 and we had tickets. We had put in a request about 4 months in advance and received a very nice letter back granting our request. On the afternoon of 5/30/06 we went to the Vatican and picked up our tickets. The next morning we got to the Vatican at 9:00 AM and the place was packed already. With our tickets we were able to get some good seats. As stated before the Pope arrives in his open Popemobile and was driven thru all the people and the had all the lanes well blocked off. My grandson got six real nice pictures of the Pope coming down the lane. The last picture we were only about 5 feet away from his vehicle. He started talking about 10:30 AM and after an hour we got up and left since we had to beat the subway people and make our way to our ship that afternoon. We did not know at that time that it had lasted 3 hours.

 

Several people have asked about the Pope appearing at the window. I do not know if they have changed their policy but I believe the Pope stands at the window on Sunday at noon time. They did this years ago so maybe they still do it.

[The Cruise Advantage]

As of today June 24 the Pope's schedule for August is somewhat up in the air. The only confirmed date for an audience so far is August 2nd. For July there will be no audience on the 12th,19th, or 26th. You can confirm this information along with ordering tickets from the following web site www.santasusanna.org It is staffed and run by the Paulist's, who seem to run the show when it comes to ordering tickets to see the Pope. It also provides you with information about museum times and closings due to holy days. I have ordered tickets through this site, but now have found out that my August 16th audience may be cancelled. Hope this helps.

Michael

[batoryfirst]

Thanks to everyone for all your input.

I think we will probably go and sneak out when we can.

[carlmm]

You can get an idea of what His Holiness talks about on

http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/indice.asp?RedaSel=43&CategSel=16