St Peter’s area closed as human sea of pilgrims attend Beatification

Rome City Police have closed off all access to the St. Peter’s area within a radius of 500 metres as the zone has reached its maximum capacity. Since dawn a sea of pilgrims have been pouring into the Square, Via della Conciliazione, Castel Sant’Angelo area. For safety reasons the Civil Defense are asking pilgrims still arriving to make their way to one of the 14 Giant Screens that have been installed around the city to follow the ceremony. They can be found at; Circo Massimo, Piazza Adriana, Piazza del Risorgimento, the Basilicas of St John Lateran, Saint Mary Major and St Paul’s outside-the-walls.

First Aid, Red Cross and Civil Defense points can be found at Castel SantAngelo, in front of St Peter’s Square and at the midway point of Via della Conciliazione. Pilgrims wishing to do so can follow the ceremony with commentary in English by tuning their radio’s to 105 FM, or accessing the following http address on their iphones: http://rv.va/5, or by clicking on the Vatican Player icon on the right hand corner of our home page. For all the latest updates on the Beatification and important notices follow us on Vatican twitter feed. http://twitter.com/#!/news_va_en.