Remembering Mass on Ben Franklin Parkway: 10 Years Later

In September 2015, just two years after becoming pope, Pope Francis visited the United States. He took part in a pilgrimage to New York, Washington, DC, and finally Philadelphia to celebrate Mass on the famed Ben Franklin Parkway to conclude the 8th World Meeting of Families. The theme of the event was “Building the Domestic Church,” which was taken from St. Irenaeus. I remember a friend of mine reaching out to me as I reminisced with him about everything that transpired during that week of Pope Francis’s visit to the United States. The conversation would hit us harder after the passing of the late Pope Francis back in April 2025.

On September 27th, nearly one million pilgrims from around the world descended on the parkway to attend Mass with Pope Francis. I was one of the ushers who helped with the Mass, and to this day remember how I was a part of something greater than myself. Just a day before, he visited the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral gave an address to pilgrims at Independence Hall, and would drive around the city waving and greeting pilgrims.

I can remember walking along the parkway and visualizing going back in time as I remember the scores of people who anticipated the Mass on the parkway. Pope Francis was the first since St. John Paul the Great to come to the City of Brotherly Love.

I can remember being with hundreds of volunteers, mainly members of the Knights of Columbus, as we awaited our job to escort a priest to their station to give communion to attendees. I was nervous, but it was worthwhile to be a part of history. I even got close to Pope Francis as he drove away in a Fiat on his way to the airport to fly home to Rome.

I also recall words in his homily as I was at that point struggling to find my vocation and my faith, despite my staying with my Catholic faith and not leaving the church. The pope stated, “That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith."

Those words resonated with me as I felt called to be a part of a domestic church. While I was part of a family, I gained a bigger one when I got more involved with my Catholic faith. My Catholic faith became more alive through the pope’s words that day.

Being a part of such a historic event was humbling but also an experience of a lifetime that I may never get to relive for years to come. I remember stopping somewhere before going home and thinking to myself, “I was a part of something. I will never forget.”

One thing that has stuck with me since that historic day is that God planted you right where you needed to be. I took the advice of someone to sign up to volunteer for both the Mass and the conference that preceded it. I never knew that I would be able to live through the event. I enjoyed stories from my mom when she saw JP II coming to Philadelphia.

This event planted a seed for my vocation that I would find a decade later. Before the World Meeting of Families took place, I had just finished my undergraduate degree at La Salle University and was discerning military service, but it soon fell apart. My vocation that I would soon answer yes to was the call to be a husband in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Now, as a husband, I credit the event for showing me what my vocation in the church was, and that was to say yes to sacrifice and service in the household that I will build as a husband and, in time, a father.