More than 2.3 million pilgrims
came to see the Pope in 2012
Translated from the 1/3/13 issue of
The Prefesture of the Pontifical Household has released figures
indicative of attendance at the audiences and various public events of Benedict XVI in the Vatican and at Castel Gandolfo in 2012.
[One is glad to note the use of the adjective 'indicative', which avoids the implication given in previous years that the Household figures necessarily represent the comprehensive total of such attendance figures, when they only represent a low estimate based on the number of tickets actually given out. Yet is is a well=known fact that often twice as many pilgrims turn up for ticketed events than those that who have been given tickets - and unless the event is inside St. Peter's or one of the other papal basilicas, no one is turned away for lack of a ticket.]
Based on the requests for tickets alone to ticketed events (and police estimates for the Angelus gatherings), it is estimated that some 2,351,200 faithful took part in public events with the Pope, broken down as follows: 447,000 for 43 General Audiences; 146,000 at special audiences (for large groups on special occasions); 501,000 to liturgical celebrations; and some 1,356,000 at the Angelus prayers in St. Peter's Square and Castel Gandolfo.
The Pontifical Household estimates about 20,545,000 pilgrims who have attended papal events since Benedict XVI became Pope.
[That comes to an annual average of 2,651,000 every year in the past seven and three-fourth years. As impressive as the figure is, it represents a significant under=estimation, of course, not just because of the poor expedient of basing the numbers on tickets given, but because in past years, there were very glaring omissions.
To mention just a few: In 2011, the total attendance at the Pope's liturgies was estimated at 800,000, when for the beatification Mass of John Paul II alone, more than a million people came; or in 2009, when the 250,000 faithful mobilized by the Diocese of Rome to express support for the Pope after the disgraceful La Sapienza episode was not factored in - an omission repeated in 2010 for a similar attendance at the Angelus in support of the Pope after all the unmerited assaults connected with sex abuses by priests.
Since the Roman police are always present at the Pope's public events, I would hope that the Pontifical Household under Mons. Gaenswein will modify its attendance reporting henceforth by tallying both the tickets given for each event and the police estimate of the actual attendance, and to cite the police estimates for the Angelus assemblies. That would give a better overview of the attendance than the arbitrary method that has been used so far.
By way of comparison, using the same 'indicative' figures released yearly by the Pontifical Household, John Paul’s peak annual number in the 26 years of his Pontificate was reached in 1979, the first full year of his Pontificate – 1,585,000. Then the numbers decreased, and did not pick up again except in the Jubilee Year of 2000, when there were 1,400,000. Benedict XVI's peak year was 2006, also the first full year of his Pontificate, when the Household reported 3,300,000 attendees. Which does not necessarily mean that Benedict XVI is twice as popular with the faithful than the late Blessed Pope was, but that he is obviously not less popular at all.
Speaking as a vintage Benaddict, I think only those who have an axe to grind against Joseph Ratzinger would not find him eminently admirable and lovable, very much worth 'visiting' when one is in Rome.
