Tens of Thousands Anticipate Pope's Visit

Tens of Thousands Await Pope's US Visit, by Karen Mahabir. Associated Press. February 29, 2008:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lori Brown keeps the winning ticket voucher in her purse as a good luck charm, and tells practically everyone she runs into about it.

"It's ridiculous," said Brown, a mother of two from Laurel, Md., recalling how excited she was when her raffle ticket won her a seat at the April Mass that Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate in Washington. "I'm just so out of my skin jumping for joy with this."

Brown is one of tens of thousands of people eagerly awaiting the first visit by a pope to Washington since 1979. The Archdiocese of Washington is distributing about 46,000 tickets for the event, and has set aside 14,000 seats for Catholic dioceses nationwide, archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said. [...]