Nats' New Cathedral to Baseball Prepares for Pontiff

Planning for the Mass began months ago. The day will begin at 5:30 a.m. with a video program of messages sent from Catholic churches throughout the country that will be broadcast on the high-definition LED scoreboard screen.

A program anchored by Andrea Roane of WUSA (Channel 9) will begin at 6 a.m., with interviews and features broadcast on the scoreboard screen. "It's to entertain, evangelize and educate," archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said.

Concession stands with coffee, juice and muffins will be open from 6 to 9 a.m. After the Mass, which is to start at 10 a.m., the stands will reopen and serve regular ballgame fare. No alcohol will be sold.

Two of the three plush private clubs will be used Thursday. Concessions will be sold at the Stars and Stripes Club, but the elite Presidents Club will be a dressing room for 400 priests co-celebrating the Mass.

Fourteen cardinals and members of the papal entourage will use the Nationals' oval-shaped clubhouse to dress. Bishops will dress in the visitors' clubhouse. And the pope will use the office of the team's manager, Manny Acta, said Heather Westrom, director of ballpark enterprises for the Nationals.

From 6 to 8 a.m., 100 priests will hear confessions on the concourse under the scoreboard. Also, dozens of priests will gather at 8 a.m. for a private Mass to consecrate thousands of hosts, believed by Catholics to become the body of Christ. They will be held by priests and lay Eucharistic ministers throughout the ballpark and distributed during the papal Mass to save time.

Four choirs, totaling 570 voices, and an orchestra will be in the stands in left field. Opera stars Placido Domingo and Denyce Graves will perform before the Mass. They will also sing during the service, with Domingo performing "Panis Angelicus" as a post-Communion meditation.

The outfield will be covered by 150,000 square feet of plastic flooring. There will be no seating in the infield or on the pitcher's mound, which will be covered with a tarp. All of the Mass furnishings must be removed in time for the turf to be repaired for the Nationals' next home game, April 23.

The planners are trying to make the event as spiritually uplifting as possible amid the baseball surroundings, said Blayne Candy, whose company, Showcall, is preparing the ballpark.

"It's a Mass. The people are here to worship and to pray with the pope," he said. His company has produced major concerts and other events in the Washington area, but this is his first time working with the Church. "Being Catholic, there's special events, and then there are special, special events. To be part of a papal visit is surreal."