{"id":3904,"date":"2008-04-24T10:01:39","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T10:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2025-09-29T03:46:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T03:46:22","slug":"sundays-papal-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3904","title":{"rendered":"Sunday’s Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

See my other two posts about the day here Tom Faranda’s Folly: Local Croton priests upstage Holy Father at Yankee Stadium<\/a> and here Tom Faranda’s Folly: Some pictures from the “Concert for Hope” that preceded the Papal Mass<\/a> . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been at two other Papal Masses – Denver in 1993 with about 400,000 people – and Central Park in 1995 with about 100,000. While nothing could surpass Denver, with John Paul the celebrant, the Stadium was also a happening. We were seated directly to the left of Benedict, about 100 yards away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the concert and before the Mass, there was a parade around the stage with performers carrying models of large doves, and a release of real doves. See if you can spot Fr. Mike in the lower right hand corner in the first picture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For a theology professor who supposedly lacks the charisma of John Paul, Benedict is able to elicit a tremendous response. Despite the Papal pomp, he comes across as a humble person. And I think that’s how he connects with whatever audience or group he’s in front of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After coming in down the left field line and around the stage in the Popemobile (He received a thunderous welcome), he stepped into the Yankee dugout to vest (this from an insider – he changed in Joe Girardi’s office). Check out all the clergy on the stage, rushing over with their cameras to take a picture of Benedict as he headed into the dugout. That is Regina Riely’s arm in the foreground, waving her flag like mad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ten minutes later out he popped with his entourage and up onto the stage –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And to the altar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The layout of the stage and altar was like this, with the altar over second base. This was taken during the concert. I suppose I should have gone back up to the upper deck during the Mass, and the picture would have been stunning, but I didn’t. Hey, it was a Mass!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back to the altar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Pope’s homily was relatively short (and excellent) – 20 minutes in English and five minutes in Spanish.  My recollection of John Paul’s homilies in 1993 and 1995 was that they were much longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How do you give communion to 55,000+ people in a stadium? As I mentioned in Monday’s post, our pastor Fr. Mike was one of four priests in charge of organizing this. First, you get several hundred priests up surrounding the altar with ciboriums holding hosts. After the consecration, the priests scatter to their assigned stations throughout the stadium with the consecrated hosts. Each priest was escorted by either a 4th degree member of the Knights of Columbus, or a New York fireman or policeman, in their dress uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was a group of Dominican sisters from Michigan in the section next to ours – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now the Pope says the concluding prayers and makes some closing remarks, and the crowd starts going crazy again, waving the white and yellow flags (Although Joe is cool. Both boys seemed to enjoy the day.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Pope heads back to the Yankee dugout, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and this is funny – again the clergy up on the stage looking to take his picture. Our associate pastor, Fr. Loyola is there very near the middle with his camera. He is to the left of the very big bearded priest. And see the priest to Fr. Loyola’s left on his cell phone. He’s probably saying “Mom you won’t believe how close I am to the Pope!” They are waiting for Benedict to re-emerge from the dugout and get into the popemobile for the trip up the right field line and around the outfield, back into the left field bullpen area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>And here’s Benedict!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the Popemobile passed by one of the press booths I took a picture (not knowing it was a press booth until later). You can see what the Pope is doing on the diamondvision to the right. But all the press guys are taking photos! And who are the people in the black suits almost directly above the popemobile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why it’s the FOX news commentators – Shepherd Smith with the light colored tie. And next to him is Catholic priest, Fr. Lisante, waving to Benedict, and another priest, Fr. Jonathan Smith, taking a picture, while a technical guy leans over behind him with his cell phone camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aren’t press people usually pretty jaded about this kind of stuff? I guess not when it’s the Pope. Oh, and note Monument Park behind everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are a couple of pics of people we were with from Croton – names left out to protect the guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And amazingly in the crowd as we were leaving, we ran into Mary Blake and Laurie Hurley. I’d mentioned\/featured them in Tuesday’s post about the concert. They had come down with a Boston contingent and were in the upper deck behind home plate – where I’d taken the panoramic picture above. here they are with Brigid and the boys –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leaving the stadium was a madhouse. Joe and Brigid got separated from Tim and I, and we got back to the bus in different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And then back to the bus and home around 8 o’clock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the last four pictures.  (I promise.) Of course Yankee Stadium is being replaced with a NEW Yankee Stadium and you can see it in the background of the first picture. Then a picture of a banner I shot from the stadium, then the stadium as we headed to the parking lot, and the last one needs no explanation. …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See my other two posts about the day here Tom Faranda’s Folly: Local Croton priests upstage Holy Father at Yankee Stadium and here Tom Faranda’s Folly: Some pictures from the “Concert for Hope” that preceded the Papal Mass . I have been at two other Papal Masses – Denver in 1993 with about 400,000 people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12606,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions\/12606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}