Boom: nearly 6 million attended papal events at Vatican in 2014

Photo: by Edgar Jiminez / Wikipedia

Tour operators must be thrilled. That’s nearly three times the number from Benedict’s final year as pontiff.

From Vatican Information Service: 

In a communique published today, the Prefecture of the Papal Household reports that during the year 2014, more than 5,900,000 faithful participated in the various encounters with Pope Francis: audiences, both general (1,199,000) and special (567,100); liturgical celebrations in the Vatican Basilica and St. Peter’s Square (1,110,700), and the Angelus and Regina Coeli (3,040,000). These data refer only to the encounters that took place in the Vatican and do not include other activities that involved a high level of participation among the faithful, such as the apostolic trips to the Republic of Korea, Turkey or the Holy Land, or the various trips in Italy and visits within the diocese of Rome. The total number of faithful involved in the Vatican events is estimated at 5,916,800.

The Irish Times offers some context:

Numbers taking part in papal events at the Vatican have almost trebled [tripled] since the election of Pope Francis in March 2013. Figures for 2014, the first full year of his papacy, show that almost six million people attended papal audiences, the Sunday Angelus, and liturgies at the Vatican in which he took part.

Figures for 2012, the last full year of the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, showed that over 2.3 million people attended Vatican events at which he presided.

The figures, from the Prefecture of the Papal Household at the Vatican, do not include those who attended events at which the Pope presided outside the Vatican. In 2014 Pope Francis visited the Holy Land, Korea, Albania, Strasbourg, and Turkey.