With a little over a month to go before Pope Francis makes a historic visit to Juarez, officials with the Diocese of El Paso are warning of ticket scams related to the visit.
Elizabeth O’Hara, Communications Director for the Diocese of El Paso shared that the Pastoral Center had received information about residents being offered tickets to the Papal Mass
 O’Hara stated,  “Tickets to the Mass in Juarez are not for sale…the sale of tickets is a scam.”
She went on to say that the Diocese of Juarez has not yet determined how many tickets will be allotted to the Diocese of El Paso, and the tickets are not yet available.
“Once the Diocese of El Paso has received tickets, a plan is underway for ticket distribution to the parishes,” O’Hara said, “An announcement for that will come only after the Diocese of El Paso receives tickets from Juarez.”
Vatican officials announced that Pope Francis will come to Juárez on February 17, at the end of his six-day tour of Mexico. The pontiff will fly into Juárez and is expected to visit CeReSo prison, meet with workers, and then celebrate a Mass at the border.
Pope Francis will celebrate Mass with more than 200,000 in attendance at the fairgrounds where the former Juárez Feria was held, in the Benito Juárez Olympic Stadium parking lot, and ending at the Chamizal Park near the Rio Grande.
A reminder that the second collection at Masses this weekend will be held to help the Diocese of Juarez offset some of their costs.
For those who can’t go to Mass this weekend, there is now an online option as well.  It can be found at: http://www.elpasodiocesefoundation.org/
