Bishop Burbidge leads Triangle Catholics to see Pope
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Many local Catholics are making their way to Philadelphia to take part in the World Meeting of Families this weekend.
Raleigh's Bishop Michael Burbidge will be among them. Philadelphia is the bishop's hometown, and to have the Holy Father visit there on his first trip to America is very special for Burbidge.
"The Mass altar will be on the art museum steps where the famous movie Rocky was filmed. So it's going to be really exciting," he said.
Two million people are expected to pack the City of Brotherly Love to see Pope Francis. Bishop Burbidge will actually get to meet one-on-one with the pontiff in Washington at a gathering for all of the country's bishops.
"I was very fortunate they picked only one of the committees to be the official representative to shake his hand after he talks with us. For once, I got lucky. I'm on the right committee. So I'll get a chance to personally greet him," said Burbidge.
Bishop Burbidge will never forget the day he met Pope John Paul II as a seminarian in Philadelphia many years ago. He hopes the same will happen for others this weekend.
"In fact, a number of our men studying to be priests from Raleigh are studying at St. Charles seminary in Philadelphia and that's where the Pope will be staying two nights, so it would not be unlikely if they just happen to bump into the Pope because you know how he likes to be out in the people," said Burbidge.
And they will come in droves to see the man who is changing the Catholic Church and touching some many lives.
"Probably one of the main reasons is his ability to speak heart-to-heart. That he really does engage the people in front of him and he doesn't try to speak above people or at people but speaking heart to heart, and he speaks the truth and he speaks it in love and I think that's probably the greatest lesson he's teaching us as a church, but also as a nation," said Burbidge.
