The name that William Penn gave his colony’s capital city is a combination of Greek words for love: phileo and brother: adelphos, setting up the enduring nickname for Philadelphia, PA, the City of Brotherly Love. It is the place where the founding fathers of the United States signed the Declaration of Independence, and Constitution, where the cheese steak sandwich was invented, and where Pope Francis will be coming on Sept. 26th & 27th, 2015 to attend the World Meeting of Families event. One and a half to two million visitors are expected to flood into a city of 1.5 million, some from as far away as Pope Francis’ native South America. Hotels within a 10-mile radius of downtown Philadelphia have already sold out, and organizers are hoping local families will volunteer to host visitors. The leader of Philadelphia’s Catholics – Archbishop Charles Chaput has urging his flock to show some brotherly love during Pope Francis’ visit to the city. He has asked Catholics, and non-Christians alike, to open their homes to offer lodging to visitors via the “Host a Family Program. Any one with a furnished guest
bedroom, apartment or home (including vacation homes) within 120 miles of Center City Philadelphia is encouraged to take part.” “You’ll be asked to create a ‘Host a Family’ profile and include a description about yourself and your home, including the number of bedrooms available for guests, distance to Center City Philadelphia, photos, household rules and any other relevant information about your home or community.” The World Meeting of Families is expected to draw thousands to Philadelphia from Sept. 22 to Sept. 27 with the number of visitors swelling to possibly millions as the Pope spends the last weekend of September in Philadelphia. He will attend the closing festival of the World Meeting of Families and the next day he will celebrate a public mass on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Serious traffic problems are trying to be avoided. To reduce congestion, the professional baseball and football teams will be out of town that weekend and the date of an annual half marathon race has been moved. Public school students in Philadelphia will get the day off before Pope Francis comes to town since street closures will take effect then and make it too hard to get to class. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia says that it needs 10,000 volunteers or more. As a comparison the London Olympics required 70,000 volunteers for the two-week Olympiad. All volunteers must be U.S. citizens and be at least 18 years old and must also complete an online background check. Archbishop Chaput admitted he’s still trying to process just how massive the event will be. “Almost every day there’s a moment when I’m holding my breath,” he said. Chaput put the enormity of the event in perspective when he revealed the cost of porta-potties. “We think more than $1.2 million just for those extra bathrooms we’re bringing in,” he said. “There’s not enough just from Eastern Pennsylvania. We have to import them from other states actually.”
To be continued.
Sources: nj.com, NBC10.com, ABC news