Papal Angelus

Hi,
I am curious about arrival time for just such an event. In my case we have tickets to the Sunday Vatican Mass, May 15th. Even though we have tickets I have been reading that you need to get there early. How early is the question. Wish I could help you. Maybe we will both be lucky enough to receive an response.

The audience will be crowded in July. Even though it is in the morning it can be very hot. Instead of getting tickets and entering through the security barrier and into the "corrals" we sometimes just go to St. Peter's Square around 8 am and stand along the barrier at the edge of the colonnade - towards the middle - when the Pope travels through the square before and after the audience he usually passes by this barrier. You can still see the TV screens and hear the prayers and other sounds of the audience but you can also walk away easily if members of the party get tired.
The Mass on Pentecost Sunday will be very crowded. We usually arrive by 7:30 am, get in line and wait for security to open up. Once you are through security it is a MAD dash from there into the Basilica and to seats - as others have noted look out for the nuns - .
After Mass can be quite hectic as well since security sweeps everyone out of the Basilica and into the square where thousands are usually waiting to hear the Angelus.
Not an ordinary Sunday!

Hi everyone, I just realized that the Sunday event (that we hope to attend) is called the Angelus, which (I'm guessing) is different than the audience or the mass. Any insights?

Thanks, Robert

Hi Robert
The Angelus is a prayer to the Blessed Mother recited every day at noon. The Pope comes to the window of his apartments and recites the prayer and blesses the crowd every Sunday (when he is Rome). No tickets are required but the crowd can be quite large, especially on Sundays when the Pope has celebrated Mass at St. Peter's. There will be people is the square just for the Angelus and there will be people exiting the basilica after Mass. The Angelus lasts about 8 to 10 minutes.

According to the Vatican website, all Wednesday Audiences are cancelled during July. The Sunday Angelus is presumably still going on, but it makes you wonder if the pontiff will be out of Rome for part the month, such as Castel Gandolfo or some other locale.

No matter how you slice it, you don't get a really close up view of the pope during the Angelus because he is way up in that window. They have a large video screen, however, that shows him close up. I assume that one needs to arrive quite early to get close. He adds a few additional remarks to his prayers, sometimes touching on current events and perhaps greeting some groups that are known to be in the square that day. You can often google and find a translation of his remarks online after the fact.

The Sunday Angelus is very special. I'm there in July and yes, it is crowded but no, it is not uncomfortably so. The Pope looks like a small speck of white up in the window but the giant screens in the Piazza and the excellent sound system help. Honestly, I've arrived at 11:30 for the noon event and wandered through the crowd til I got where I wanted to be. No problem. Finding shade will be a problem so bring water and sun visors. As one Robert to another Robert - DO IT! You won't regret it.