Archdiocese Of Philadelphia Seeking 10,000 Volunteers For Pope Francis' Visit
By Steve Beck, Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — If you are interested in volunteering during Pope Francis' visit to the city of Brotherly Love, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is looking for you.
As part of his weekly column, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said the World Meeting of Families is looking for approximately 10,000 volunteers for the event.
Donna Farrell, World Meeting of Families Philadelphia executive director, acknowledges many people have already emailed or called the organization and are already standing at the starting gate:
"It's really interesting, it's all ages. It's the college students and it's the people who recently retired and it's someone who says I'm going to take the week off from work. So, from every walk of life we're hearing from people who want to volunteer."
The World Meeting of Families will be held in Philadelphia from September 22nd-27th, culminating with a mass celebrated by Pope Francis on the Ben Franklin Parkway.
Volunteer registration will open soon on the World Meeting of Families website at http://www.worldmeeting2015.org/.
All volunteers must be a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old.
"Every volunteer will go through a background check," Farrell says. "We will pay for it, it's extremely important."
The WMOF website has information on the wide variety of volunteer opportunities available.
President Obama tweeted Thursday he and the First Lady will welcome the pope to the White House on Sept. 23.
