Tickets for Pope Francis’ Mass in King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels at the end of September sold out in record time on 26 August.
After becoming available for free online, 32,000 tickets for the Sept. 29 Mass were snatched up in just 90 minutes, surprising local organizers of the pope’s three-day trip to Belgium.
“This pleasantly surprised us; it’s very positive to see such a high demand,” the spokesman for the Belgian bishops’ conference, Tommy Scholtes, told French Catholic newspaper La Croix.
During the Mass, Pope Francis will beatify Carmelite Sister Ana de Jesús, a spiritual daughter of St. Teresa of Ávila and a friend to St. John of the Cross. Born Ana de Lobera y Torres, the religious helped expand the Discalced Carmelites to France and Belgium at the turn of the 17th century.
The Brussels soccer stadium is Belgium’s largest, with a seating capacity of almost 50,000 people. Besides hosting the matches of the national soccer team, it has also been the venue for concerts by world-class music artists, such as Madonna, U2, and the Rolling Stones.
Organizers explained that the approximately 18,000 remaining seats in the city-owned stadium are being reserved for groups from parishes, dioceses, and movements. After group registration closes, they may be able to release a few hundred more individual tickets for those who missed out on August 26th morning.