1st South American Pope Visits Ecuador, 2-Million May See Quito Mass

cccmedia wrote:

Pope Francis from Argentina, who is the first Pontiff in over twelve centuries from outside Europe, is planning to visit Ecuador and at least two other South American countries in July of this year.

The 6-million who attended the final Papal Mass in Manila on Sunday was an unprecedented turnout.

Sources:  Associated Press, CBS News.

You can imagine how long it took 6 million to take communion.  I attended a papal visit to Philadelphia some years back, and I am sure it will be the same as in Manila and will be in Ecuador, a very unifying experience for everyone involved, especially in Ecuador, which is 95% Catholic.  In Philadelphia it was like when the Phillies won the 1980 World Series, everyone had an excuse to ditch school and celebrate, perhaps the same will happen in Ecuador..

Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II visited Ecuador.

According to Wikipedia, John Paul II was the most-traveled Pope in history, visiting 104 countries;  he visited more countries than all previous Popes combined.

That's saying something since there have been over 260 Popes in a period of continuous succession going back almost 2,000 years.

During that 1985 visit, John Paul II visited Quito, Latacunga and Guayaquil, in that order, according to Ecuador Times.

The Pope's weeklong visit to his home continent will start in Ecuador on July 5th (2015) and include 22 speeches overall.

He will present a Mass on July 6th outside the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Guayaquil, according to his detailed itinerary released by the Vatican this weekend.

He will also present a Mass here in Quito on July 7th, at Bicentenario Park, the former site of the old international airport.

His itinerary still includes Bolivia and Paraguay, but he will spend only a few hours in Bolivia due to the high altitude in La Paz.  That city is at about 12,000 feet, several thousand feet higher than Quito, Ecuador.

The Pope plans to meet with the heads of state in all three countries, including a meeting with Ecuador's Rafael Correa at Carondelet Palace.

cccmedia in Quito

Pope Francis is expected to draw a crowd of 2,000,000 attendees at his free open-air mass in Quito next week, according to the Andes news agency.  (10:30 a.m., July 7, 2015).

Thousands are expected to sleep the previous night on the runways and green spaces of the old Quito Airport site, which is now called Parque Bicentenario.  A prayer vigil will be held there starting at 8:30 the night of July 6th.

There will be no parking or food stalls at the site. (Sorry, Pizza Dave.)  Sleepers are advised to bring food and blankets.

source: www.andes.info.ec

cccmedia in Quito

I imagine the Pope's visit will make it more difficult for all the Baptist and other "missionaries" in Loja and elsewhere with a calling to convert Catholics to their version of Christianity!

Traffic in Quito will also be made difficult from July 5-8 by Su Santidad and his motorcade/entourage.

El Centro and other areas to be traveled by El Papa's group will be closed to vehicular traffic at times as they move in and around Quito and back and forth to Guayaquil.

More on this is available at www.dayinquito.blogspot.com

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Traffic in Quito will also be made difficult from July 5-8 by Su Santidad and his motorcade/entourage.cccmedia in Quito

Traffic in Quito can be problematic anytime.  Add in about 2 million folks (isn't that about 2/3rds of the population?) going to the open air mass to be celebrated by the Pope and i bet the kindest thing that will be said about traffic is "soup sandwich".  But then, maybe I'm being too optimistic...

I rode home last night from the 4th of July party at the South American XXXXXXXX Clubhouse with a taxista who not only will attend the Pope's Quito mass on Tuesday, he also attended the previous papal mass in Quito 30 years ago.

This 70-something driver told me only 5,000 attended John Paul II's mass at Parque la Carolina.  He said one reason the crowd will be more massive this time at Parque Bicentenario is that many Catholics are flocking here from Peru, Colombia and Venzuela.

cccmedia in Quito