The leader of the Roman Catholic faith will land in New York City on Thursday at 5 p.m. There are many things on his busy agenda, but most exciting is a concert/mass that will be held at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Sept. 25. The ceremony features the musical talents of Harry Connick Jr., Gloria Estefan and Jennifer Hudson.
The pope will hold mass at Madison Square Garden at 6 p.m., according to Connick's website. In order to get Catholics to arrive to the mass early, a presentation called "A Journey in Faith" will be given by the Archdiocese of New York. The presentation will start three hours before the mass is scheduled to begin and will feature musical performance by Connick, Estefan and Hudson. Other performers include Kelli O'Hara, Martin Sheen, James "D Train" Williams and Norm Lewis. The Broadway Inspirational Voices, a Grammy-nominated gospel choir, and the St. Charles Borromeo Choir will also sing at The Garden.
The chair that Pope Francis will sit on is handcrafted and made mostly by immigrant day laborers at Don Bosco Workers day labor center in Port Chester, N.Y., according to The New York Times. The altar that will appear at the Madison Square Garden mass was built by young men at Lincoln Hall Boys Haven. Cardinal Timothy Dolan says that he chose the two groups to keep the pope's emphasis on respecting workers, immigrants and those on the outside of society.
The legendary Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City will be turned into a house of worship for the pope's planned 90-minute mass. The championship banners for the Knicks and Rangers will be taken down as well as the American and Canadian flags.
The pre-mass show will last for about two hours as the pope makes his way down from East Harlem where he will visit the Our Lady Queen of Angeles School. On Friday the pope will meet with the United Nations General Assembly and hold a multi-religious service at the 9/11 memorial. While in NYC he will also hold an evening prayer service on Thursday at St. Patrick's Cathedral and will lead a procession through Central Park on Friday afternoon. About 80,000 tickets have been sold for the procession through a lottery, according to USA Today. Tickets for the event have already started to pop up on sites such as eBay and Craigslist.
After the pope leaves NYC on Saturday morning, he will make his third and final stop in the U.S. in Philadelphia.
