The 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site. (Credit: Peter Haskell/WCBS 880)
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A lottery is opening Wednesday for those who want see Pope Francis at the World Trade Center site when he comes to New York.
The pope will pay his respects and host an interfaith service at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Sept. 25.
“He’s going to spend some time on the memorial itself, paying respects to all those who died on 9/11 from 92 different countries,” museum president Joe Daniels told WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell. “This is one of these very sacred places of all the places in the world where he is comfortable doing a multi-religious service.”
Approximately 1,000 tickets are available and are limited to 9/11 family members, survivors and first responders.
“To see Pope Francis come there and connect with them I think certainly it will be an experience of a lifetime,” Daniels said. “It is a true honor to have Pope Francis come to the museum.”
Andrea Bartoli, Dean of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, said this is an important visit.
“He’s looking at the U.S. through the lens of 9/11,” Bartoli told 1010 WINS. “It’s an important message to everybody that indeed that moment is in the heart and memory of humanity as a whole.”
Pope Benedict visited the site in 2008, when ground zero was still an open wound.
“It was sort of a signal of the specialness of the grounds itself,” Daniels said.
