Tickets for a non-existent event in Beauport Bay have been put on sale at high prices in anticipation of Pope Francis’ visit to Quebec, found The duty. The whole under the background of the lack of places provided to meet the demand, in particular with the indigenous communities from which the Holy Father wishes to obtain “pardon”.
As part of his visit to the country from July 24 to 29, Pope Francis will make a remarkable stop on July 28 at the sanctuary of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, where he will give a mass. In order to attend the mass outdoors, 2000 general admission places were available free of charge to the general public, which sold out in 10 minutes. “We compete with Céline in her shows! », throws to the To have to the former mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre, who decided to get involved on a voluntary basis as responsible for financing the papal visit to eastern Canada.
Except that, like the shows of Celine Dion’s shows, the appearances of Pope Francis in the country stimulate one-upmanship on resale sites. Tickets to attend the July 26 mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton went on sale Tuesday on the TicketNetwork website at prices ranging from $56 to more than $250, depending on the location of the seat chosen.
The online ticket sales site even goes so far as to offer to reserve its seat for an alleged visit of the Holy Father on July 28 to Beauport Bay, in Quebec City. It encourages Internet users to get a ticket quickly for this event, for which tickets vary from 105 to more than 285 dollars, not including the “service charge”. However, Pope Francis does not plan any stop at the bay of Beauport, confirms the company Gestev, responsible for the management of the site of the bay of Beauport for the City of Quebec. It is therefore a scam.
“This is a blatant example showing that so-called tickets offered on resale sites should not be trusted,” lamented the director of communications for the Catholic Church of Quebec, Valérie Roberge-Dion, when told done this scam.
“It is unacceptable and indecent”, for his part lamented Denis Coderre, who believes that “all those who want to use this event to try to extract money in any way whatsoever are to be denounced and condemned. “.
Joined by The duty, Ticket Network’s director of communications, Sean Burns, thanked Le Devoir on Tuesday for having “made him aware of this situation”. “Our market team has been notified and these events and all related ticket listings are being removed.”
The Catholic Church of Quebec has not yet identified free tickets for resale concerning the visit of Pope Francis to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, but “we fear it”, notes Denis Coderre. More than 100,000 people are also expected on the Plains of Abraham on July 27 to follow His Holiness’ activities on giant screens.
“He will go to the field” to apologize and obtain “forgiveness”, notes Denis Coderre, a believer, according to whom the pope’s visit to the country represents “a historic moment” which, he hopes, will allow to follow through on the “circle of healing” between the Church and the indigenous communities who suffered its abuse.
Indigenous Reserved Tickets
While these tickets are on sale at a high price, dissatisfaction is brewing in some Aboriginal communities, since not all residential school survivors will be able to attend mass in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
A few days ago, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, Ghislain Picard, publicly expressed his dissatisfaction, recalling that the number of residential school survivors is several thousand. However, only about 980 Aboriginal people – First Nations, Inuit and Métis combined – will be able to attend mass. Some 420 tickets were allocated to members of delegations from Eastern Canadian dioceses.
According to Bishop Raymond Poisson, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, part of the dissatisfaction stems from the fact that the number of tickets distributed to each of the Aboriginal peoples corresponds to their national representation. “So when the pope is in Quebec, […] the representativeness of the Aboriginal people who will be inside the basilica has been determined based on the whole country, rather than the region, he explains. I hope they will be able to discuss together [pour trouver une solution].” Chief Picard did not immediately respond to our interview request.
Some 9,000 tickets were also distributed to attend the outdoor broadcast of the mass on the site of the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré sanctuary, including 7,000 to indigenous associations.
Bishop Poisson also notes that because of the Pope’s difficulties in traveling, the two great masses that the Holy Father will celebrate in Canada will be in interior places where the reception capacity is limited. On large outdoor sites, “there would have been too much travel for the pope,” he says.
“Autonomous” funding
In anticipation of the Pope’s visit to the country, a budget target of $18 million has been put in place to fund infrastructure related to the Holy Father’s speeches and travel. Of this sum, the objective of three million dollars for the pope’s visit to Quebec has “quite a lot” been achieved, essentially thanks to donations from individuals and “major donors”, which continue to flow in, indicates Mr. Coderre.
Part of the bill for this visit will be assumed by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, but the Vatican will not be called upon to contribute. “When you invite someone to come to your house for supper, do you charge them? says Mr. Coderre.
The various levels of government will pay their share to ensure the safety of Pope Francis. In Quebec, the City assesses “between one and two million dollars” its financial contribution to the Pope’s visit to the capital, “but there are agreements between the government of Quebec and Canada that will be used to separate the bill thereafter,” said Thomas Gaudreault, press secretary to the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand.