Papal Pilgrims

Pope Francis fever gripped Jesuit High School and the local media in the spring of 2013, when he became the first Jesuit Pope.

The fever is back.

The six Jesuit students and two chaperones heading to Philadelphia this weekend for Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States have been inundated with media requests, as enormous national and global attention is focused on this seminal event.

Wednesday morning (Sept. 23) at the conclusion of all-school Mass, the eight pilgrims received a special blessing from celebrant Fr. Patrick Hough, S.J., as a television camera captured the moment. 

During the course of September, every major local network has been to Jesuit High School to speak with the pilgrims about their impending weekend-trip-of-a-lifetime, and/or made arrangements to connect with the contingent while they are in Philadelphia. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, are expected to descend on the City of Brotherly Love in the next few days to see the Pope.

The Jesuit High School students – seniors Jett Angel, Alexander Barcenas, Brett Gajewski, Sean Lanoue, Michael Lee, and J.J. Niekro – will be among some 300 students from Jesuit-affiliated high schools across the country who will be staying at St. Joseph’s Prep, a Jesuit high school in Philadelphia. The trip chaperones are assistant director of campus ministry Michael Miller ’09, and school president Fr. Richard C. Hermes, S.J., and you can follow their trip on Twitter, @TigerPilgrims. 

The Jesuit contingent departs early Thursday morning (Sept. 24), and they have a full slate of activities planned for each day of the trip. Perhaps most noteworthy are Saturday’s Festival of Families event (Andrea Bocelli is among the performers), and Sunday’s open-air Papal Mass at 4:00pm, at which upwards of one million are expected.

Click here for the full schedule for Pope Francis this week in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia.

See below or click here for a photo slidesow from Wednesday's Mass - Feast of Padre Pio.