Back in 1995, I had the wonderful grace and blessing to assist as deacon at Pope John Paul II's Mass in Queens, New York. During the consecration, because of the amount of hosts that were used for the Holy Sacrifice, I held a ciborium in my hands as the Holy Father prayed the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. I was overwhelmed with happiness because I was actually picked at the last minute to serve when they realized they needed more clergy. At Communion time, I went up to the top level (see photo) and distributed Holy Communion to the Faithful. Oh, so many people! It was wonderful to be able to serve the Lord that day. My wife Marianne was also there and she had a front seat with the other deacon's wives. I thank God for these memories (there are many more, like the babies I baptized and the children I taught catechism to, etc.) which have stayed with me during this past decade, to give me consolation from the sufferings I have endured as a deacon in the Holy Roman Catholic Church! Below is a news story of the event!
By AARON RUTKOFF & LIZ GOFF
For New York City’s nearly two million Catholics, Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park was a place of prayer on Oct. 6, 1995 as Pope John Paul II held mass before throngs of eager worshippers.
The morning sun beamed down on the 100,000 people who attended the papal mass. The Pope arrived to the Aqueduct at around 9 a.m. aboard the bubble-domed vehicle often dubbed the “Popemobile,” but ticket holders lucky enough to participate in the ceremony began to file into the racetrack as early as 5 a.m.
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As many as 700 priests and deacons participated in the mass, with over 400 distributing Communion to the crowds, according to Monsignor Otto L. Garcia, the Vicar General and Chancellor who headed the planning committee for the event.
Tickets were distributed to each parish in the Brooklyn and Queens Diocese based on a percentage of reported Sunday Mass attendance. Pope John Paul II chose to emphasize youth participation at the mass, and officials said that two-thirds of the tickets distributed to the event would be earmarked for young people.
In his homily, the Pope said, “The Church constantly invokes the Holy spirit upon individual communities, and today we renew that invocation here, at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens,” and asked the crowd, “In the midst of the magnificent scientific and technological civilization of which America is proud, and especially here in Queens, in New York, is there room for the mystery of God?”
While the Pope’s presence was a blessing for the City’s Catholics, it created a logistical nightmare for the Police Department and federal agencies charged with his safety, especially since his visit came one week after the sentencing of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. Air space over the areas the Pope visited was closed and special cameras tracked his every movement.
Officials put the cost of security at around $6 million.
The Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens spent $1.5 million preparing Aqueduct for the visit, which included the construction of a main platform for the Papal altar and the placement of 60,000 seats on the track itself.
Nine volunteer ambulance corps from Queens patrolled the crowd to tend to health emergencies, and ended up treating 142 people, mostly for heat exhaustion and minor injuries. The biggest crisis at the event stemmed from a malfunction in the track’s water system. Spectators reported lines stretching the length of a city block waiting for one of the few functioning fountains.
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