April 21, 2014 - Less than a week before Pope Francis canonizes two of his predecessors
in a ceremony in St. Peter's Square, Romans are bracing for the arrival of as many
as 3 million visitors and pilgrims from outside. Nineteen heads of state, 24 prime
ministers and 23 government ministers from various countries are due in Rome for the
canonization on Sunday, April 27, of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II,
Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said. The event will be the climax of an
Easter-season tourist boom for what one newspaper dubbed "superstar Rome." Alfano,
who chaired a meeting April 17 attended by Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino and the heads
of police and intelligence agencies, predicted attendance by at least 800,000 pilgrims,
including some 5,000 coming from Poland on five special trains.
"We see a
consistent influx of pilgrims and tourists arriving for Easter and the canonizations,"
Msgr. Liberio Andreatta, head of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican-related pilgrimage
agency, told Catholic News Service. Seventeen maxi-screens are being set up in the
historical center of Rome in time for the canonizations. "The surge in religious
tourism to Rome and the Vatican this season over the previous will be an imposing
30 percent or so," said Flavio Mollicone, spokesman for ADOC, a union of Italian consumers.
He told CNS the estimate is based on reports from hotel, travel and business associations.
(Source: CNS)