Papal Audience at St. Peter's

How to get tickets to hang with his Holiness on St. Peter's Square in Rome

The former pope granting a papal audience.
The former pope (John Paul II) granting his weekly papal audience.
** Papal audience at the Vatican
 Piazza San Pietro
www.vatican.va

Write or fax 6 weeks ahead for tickets:
Prefettura della Casa Pontifica
Città del Vaticano
00120 ITALIA
fax. +39-06-6988-5863

Wednesdays only, 10am

Viator.com tours
• Audience with Pope Benedict XVI at Vatican City (includes transport/bus tour to Vatican)
• Papal Audience Tickets and Presentation (includes a guide to explain the history of the Papacy, etc.)
• Papal Blessing at Castelgandolfo Day Trip from Rome (summer only)

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Tickets are free for the weekly mass audiences held in Piazza San Pietro in front of St. Peter's every Wednesday around 10am (sometimes 9am in summer—to beat the heat).

Keep in mind, you'll be just one in a horde of thousands filling the plastic chairs in Piazza San Pietro (or, in the dead of winter or during inclement weather, in a grand audience hall).

Now, I haven't been to an event with the Big Guy since Benedict XVI took over—last time I elbowed in with the crowds was back in John Paul II's day, during the summer of Jubilee Year 2000—but supposedly things still work pretty much the same way.

Other chances to see the pope
If you don't want to bother with the audience, you can always just show up Sundays for the noon Angelus papal blessing the pope flings from his Vatican office balcony (to the right of St. Peter's). It's free, and no tickets are required.

His Holiness also presides over various liturgical celebrations, from vespers to mass, throughout the year. You can get dates, details, and tickets at www.vatican.va.(Also, Benedict seems to be upholding JPII's tradition of decamping to the Papal palace in Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, for a few weeks each summer, so audiences may not necessarily run year-round—though in 2010 at least, Benedict did hold blessings in Castelgandolfo on Sundays in summer.)

What the weekly papal audience is like

The Pope usually wheels around the crowd filling St. Peter's Square his Plexiglas Popemobile for a little while before heading to the steps to the basilica, which serve as his stage for the event.

The Blessing of Your Stuff
Make sure you bring something you want to have sanctified during the mass blessing the Pope performs as part of the ceremony. Most folks bring (or buy from a nearby gift shop) a handful of little Crucifix necklaces, either for themselves or to give to Catholic friends back home. Last time I went, I brought my group of Boy Scouts to the event—partly because it would be neat, but mostly because it was a Jubilee Year and they, being teenage boys, certainly could use the soul-cleansing. However, I forgot to bring anything to get blessed. In a moment of inspiration, as the Pope flung his blessing over the crowd, I held aloft my plastic bottle of water. It now sits in my fridge, with a hastily scribbled note around the top in Sharpie marker: "Holy Water: Do Not Drink."

His Holiness sits upon a bishop's throne to oversee the ceremony—which consists largely of ecclesiastical flunkies reading out a list of groups in attendance that day, pausing for each to clap and cheer when their name is called.

There are also Jumbotron TV screens connected to cameras trained on His Holiness the whole time—to most of the crowd, the real thing is a white dot waaay at the other end of the piazza.

How to get tickets to attend the papal audience

Tickets are free, but you must get them ahead of time:

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This material was last updated August 2010. All information was accurate at the time.

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