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Archives Local Catholics prepare to travel to see Pope Francis

September 16, 2015

Among more than one million people expected to travel to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. or New York City to join Pope Francis for his first visit to the United States are Bishop Terry R. LaValley and scores of Catholics from the Diocese of Ogdensburg.

Bishop LaValley plans to attend an 11:30 a.m. midday prayer Sept. 23 with Pope Francis and other U.S. bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington.

Later in the day Bishop LaValley will be in attendance as Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, also in Washington. During the service Pope Francis will canonize Blessed Junipero Serra, a Spanish-born Franciscan Friar credited with starting nine Spanish missions in California in the 1700s.

While in the nation’s capital, Sept. 24, Pope Francis will also address Congress. Rep. Elise Stefanik, like each of the U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives, was allowed to invite one guest to attend the session. She selected Bob White, a Catholic lawyer from Saranac Lake.

According to a report in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Stefanik said, "Bob is a friend and a man of deep faith and I am honored to extend my invitation to him."

The Enterprise article continues:
White, a Conservative Party committee member, helped the Republican from Willsboro in her campaign last year, but he said they hadn't had a one-on-one conversation since the election until a few weeks ago, when she happened to be in Saranac Lake. They had lunch at the Belvedere Restaurant.

"And as we were getting ready to leave, she said, 'Oh, the pope is going to be addressing Congress, and I'm allotted one ticket. Would you like to have it?'" White said.

"There's only one person on earth that I would take the time, trouble and expense to go to Washington, D.C., to hear, and it's the pope,"  White told the Enterprise.

Pope Francis moves from Washington to New York City on Sept. 25. Bishop LaValley is scheduled to attend a multi-religious service with the pontiff at 11:30 a.m. at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, World Trade Center building.

That service will be followed by a 6 p.m. Mass at Madison Square Garden. The Diocese of Ogdensburg received 200 tickets which were claimed within a day of the announcement that they were available.

On to Philadelphia
The pope will spend the last two days of his trip to the United States in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Four 52-passenger busses will be traveling from points in the North Country to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia for a Papal Mass Sept. 27.

Stephen Tartaglia, diocesan director of family life, has organized the bus trips and, along with Father Douglas J. Lucia, will also lead a diocesan delegation at the World Meeting of Families earlier in the week.

Father Lucia, pastor of St. Mary’s in Canton, also serves the diocese as episcopal vicar for worship and family life. The other delegates are Pamela Ballantine, Plattsburgh regional director of faith formation; Jamie Burns, teacher and DRE at St. Mary’s Parish in Canton; Marika Donders, director of the diocesan Office of the New Evangelization; Father Thomas Higman, parochial vicar of St. Bernard’s in Saranac Lake; Deacon Henry and Dayna Leader, diocesan Pre-Cana coordinators; and John and Colleen Miner, diocesan directors of respect life ministry.

 

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