Palm Sunday at the Vatican
 

Does anyone have information on Palm Sunday at the Vatican? I seem to be able to find a lot on Easter, but not Palm Sunday. I believe you need tickets to go the Papal Mass on Palm Sunday, correct? How far in advance do you need to request tickets?
How long is the mass? (I know the Palm Sunday mass is long to begin with and my non-catholic boyfriend probably would not be too happy standing during a 3 hour mass). Is the blessing of the palms separate from the mass and do you need tickets to that as well?...or is it part of the Papal mass? Will the Pope also do a blessing from his balcony on noon on Palm Sunday (I understand you do NOT need tickets for the blessing at noon).

Thank you.

Looks like you need tickets. here's the official web site. Click the links and you'll see the details about how far ahead to order tickets and such.

http://www.vatican.va/various/prefettura/index_en.html

Here are the images from last year's Palm Sunday Mass at St Peter's. As you can see, it's celebrated outdoors in the Square. For seating places you need tickets in advance from Prefettura or (perhaps better) from Bishops' Office for US Visitors at http://www.pnac.org/general/visiting_vatican.htm
The Mass with Blessing of Palms start at 9.30 am and finishes just before 12 noon, when the Papal Blessing with Angelus takes place. There are standing places at the far side of the Square, but you need to get there early to bag a good place (though there are TV screens to relay the proceddings). Some queue up overnight.

Images from last year's celebration:
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/...008/index.html

Thank you. This is very helpful. Based on this info - can you "sneak out" of the mass early, or is it virtually impossible once there? And maybe this is silly - but our there bathrooms available? Assuming you get there early, seems like a long time to be stuck without access to a restroom.

"can you "sneak out" of the mass early?" Yes, and you'll find many, many, people not just sneaking out, but moving around for all sorts or reasons.

Lavatories: yes, but I don't know how long the queues might be.

Perhaps your boyfriend could go and do something else while you are there. a)he'll be bored b) he'll take a place away from a Catholic who'd love to be there, which seems a trifle unfair to me.

Nona's absolutely right.

Mrs F and I have had this problem for decades. I'm a liturgy freak: she can put up with a mass if it's got a first rate choir and decent setting (usually the case for major feastdays at HQ, especially if the Fuhrer's celebrating it), but still hits the pain threshold at about 90 mins. Which on Palm Sunday is about how long Vittoria's setting of the Passion gospel alone can take - and few prods or heathens can relate to the palm procession at all.

There've been overwrought Christmas midnight masses in dull neighbourhoods that would have driven us to divorce if we'd been married (above all, Bombay cathedral, which has to have the worst choir and most underdeveloped liturgical sense in all of Christendom, though there's a guitar-playing church in Queensland she'd burn down given half a chance). But St Peter's Square is surrounded by things the bf will like (if it isn't, dump him). Decide which bits of the service he'll tolerate, put your energy into exposing him to those bits alone, then give him a guidebook to the nice strolls round the periphery of the Vatican.

And to identifying:
a) the bar you'll meet in afterwards, and
b) how you'll afford to pay for it.

From my trip report of a few years ago, with Barb and Seashell, outside of St. Peter's, Palm Sunday:

We strolled over to St. Peters and past the metal detectors, we opened our purses for inspection then sat on the marble steps in the shade, it was warm by this time, about 11:30 AM. The square was full but not packed tightly and there was a lot of breathing room. People were carrying olive branches and some palm fronds and waving them or tucking them under their arms as they knelt in prayer on the stones.

There was a feeling of high emotion in the air, the Pope had just been released from the hospital, seemed to be rallying and it was hoped he would appear at his window. The red flag was draped outside his window so it was a good sign that he was well enough to appear before us.

A Cardinal was saying the mass, the choir was singing and some of the crowd were responding to the mass. People would break into laughter and cheers looking up at his apartments.

I decided to call my other lifelong friend, who is a devoted Catholic, back in California and surprise her. It was 3AM her time but I knew she would have loved to have been there with me at such a joyous occasion, she hasn't been able to travel overseas yet. I dialed her on my cell phone and when the answering machine answered, I was overcome with emotion knowing her devotion matched the devotion of the crowd around me. Once again I let go to the moment and started sobbing into the phone, so I held the phone up so she could hear the choir and the blessings. I hung up, collected myself, and hoped she wouldn't think it was a particularly obscene phone call of anonymous gasping person with a choir in the background!

I asked an Italian lady next to me on the steps, in Italian, if she thought the Pope would appear. She said, in Italian, yes she was sure, touching her heart and smiling assurance. She said to wait until the end of the service, we had our olive banches we had picked in Sorrento so we held them up and waited. None of the three of us are Catholic so we had no idea of where we were in the mass.

All of a sudden the Pope's window curtains parted and there he was! All of the crowd cheered, crossed themselves and waved their branches, the Pope looking down on us. We knew he was weak from his illness but you could feel his strength and determination shining through. My Italian seatmate tapped me on the shoulder, pointed to the Pope and touched her heart again as tears came to her eyes. Her husband was wiping his eyes and smiling.

I called my friend again and this time was able to leave an intelligent message before I held up the phone and started tearing up again. (I really am not a crier usually!!)

He stood there looking at the crowd for a long time, for him, waving and blessing us. There was such joy sweeping over us that you could feel it like a warm mist.

After the ceremony, the crowd, which had grown, filed so peacefully around the barriers that we all remarked that how serene everyone was. People were greeting other strangers and saying happy Palm Sunday in whatever language they used. We walked peacefully with the crowd down that main street towards the river.

A cardinal was walking next to us and I asked him if I could take his photograph, he said si si and posed, laughing and talking the whole while to me in rapid Italian. I said to Barb and Seashell as we continued walking, that in time he could be the next Pope. I could say I knew him when he was a Cardinal. Little did we know that those events would occur so soon.