Take a deep breath.
It's here.
The Papal Visit Playbook [PVP] was released at noon Monday on the website for the World Meeting of Families. At first blush, it's a bit thin on information but it's meant to grow into a more robust portal as key information changes/progresses. It's worth signing up for those alerts.
Right now the PVP has 6 key sections related to the Papal Visit, which is the last weekend of September, Saturday and Sunday the 26th and 27th.
We found it easiest to navigate by topic rather than their homepage:
- Timeline — Where/when Pope Francis will be in Philly & WMOF/Papal Visit overviews
- If You're Attending — Plan ahead, register your bus, fully charge your phones/device (s) and bring extra batteries
- Resources — Contact information for key City departments (police/fire/transit) as well as key city leaders.
- How to Prepare — How to navigate the city during Pope Week, including mass transit info and major road closures.
- Pope Gear — Links off to another WMOF page of "official" pope memorabilia
- Fun To Be Had — Suggestions for folks who aren't part of the WMOF but still want to experience the Pope Francis visit and special events/attractions planned around the visit.
Steve Klein owns Klein's Supermarket right near the Museum of Art. He was excited about the launch of the PVP, but after logging on, his anticipation morphed into a feeling of disappointment.
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"There's nothing on here to help a businessman plan for when the pope's here," he said
A couple of key things to remember:
#1 — It's a living document, which means it's not the be-all, end-all, one-time manifesto. It will get updated as things progress and/or change.
#2 — If you want those updates, sign up for them on the WMOF website.
And hey, while you're planning your pope week and if you want to learn about Pope Francis before he was elected leader of the Catholic Church, get an insider's perspective from NBC10's Jim Rosenfield's special reports from Argentina, the pope's homeland.
