By Mary DeTurris Poust

New Yorkers' enthusiasm for visitor reveals vitality of faith

Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York, has spent the past several months preparing for the visit by Pope Benedict, who will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral and at Yankee Stadium, along with visiting Ground Zero. Zwilling told Our Sunday Visitor his hopes for the faithful of New York during the pontiff's visit.

Our Sunday Visitor: What are you hoping the papal visit accomplishes for the Church in New York?

Joseph Zwilling: I think this will be an opportunity for the faithful of the Archdiocese of New York to get to know Pope Benedict XVI a little better and for our Holy Father to get to know us a little better.

And I think, in that, we will have our faith strengthened and renewed, and I would hope that the Holy Father would see the vitality of the faith that exists here amongst the people of the archdiocese and, indeed, across the whole country, as so many of our brothers and sisters from every part of the country will be with us at Yankee Stadium, at St. Patrick's Cathedral and elsewhere.

OSV: What are you seeing among the faithful in terms of anticipation and excitement?

Zwilling: It's really been gratifying in one way to see the tremendous interest from people who want to participate in any way possible in the papal visit. We could have easily filled Yankee Stadium four or five times over if we had had the capacity for people to be there. We got requests from every corner of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, from Canada, from Central and South America, from Europe. When the visit was announced, the requests just poured in, and they're still coming in today.

People are still writing at the last minute, begging for an opportunity to simply have one or two tickets to be at some location with the Holy Father. That's been very gratifying and encouraging to see, even as it's forced us to unfortunately limit the number of people who can be there simply because of the size of the venues.

Beyond that I also see here in the Archdiocese of New York many parishes and vicariates turning toward spiritual preparation for the Holy Father's visit. It's not simply just an opportunity to want to be there to catch a glimpse of him, although of course that's a part of it, but for people to pray, to prepare themselves to be with the Vicar of Christ on earth and also to pray for the success of his journey, that he might inspire us and lead us in this country and in this archdiocese.

That's also been very moving to see, that this is more than just a visit by a very famous person that everybody wants to get to see. People do understand the special nature of having the leader of our faith here amongst us, even for just a few days.

OSV: What is the possible long-term impact of this visit on Catholics in this country?

Zwilling: In all honesty, the number of people I have heard who have really thought about their vocations as a result of these kinds of visits. ... Paulist Father Dave Dwyer of BustedHalo [a radio program which airs weekdays on The Catholic Channel, Sirius Satellite Radio] decided to enter the seminary after attending World Youth Day in Denver [in 1993], and there are other people in our seminary who say they saw the pope in '95, and that's what really planted the seed. So, who knows what kind of impact this is going to have.