Pilgrims arrive from everywhere

THE PILGRIMS arriving in our fair city for the World Meeting of Families come from near and far, but they have a lot in common: their passion for family, the Catholic Church and Pope Francis, a/k/a Papa Francisco.

One other thing they share: Most everyone is impressed with the conference, which many viewed as "very organized."

Here are some of the pilgrims' stories:

This isn't the first World Meeting of Families for Antonio and Yolanda Tejeda, who hail from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. They traveled in 2010 to Milan, Italy, for their first one, but this one - in comparison - is "very organized," Yolanda Tejeda said in an interview conducted in Spanish.

Her husband said the event so far was "spectacular."

Both were about to enter the event's opening ceremony inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

"We expect good things from the pope," Yolanda Tejeda added. "We have hope the Holy Father will rejuvenate many families."

Too many people have, in the pursuit of material goods, "forgotten the most important thing, the family," she said.

Gertrude Hammond and Mary Ellen Mahon, who both work at the Diocese of Manchester in New Hampshire, walked around the conference corridors after the opening ceremony, enthused to be in attendance.

"It was a great welcome. Very energetic. Very warm," said Mahon, a Mount Ephraim, N.J., native, who is the cabinet secretary for the New Hampshire diocese.

Hammond and Mahon thought they'd leave the convention center after they registered on Monday. It didn't work out that way, much to their delight.

"It was just so wonderful to see people walking [into the convention center] either with their country's flag or they had some identifying jacket or knapsack," Mahon said. The trio instead snapped pictures of all the different people they saw milling about and emailed the shots back to their diocesan communications office, which posted them on its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

And the ladies agree with other participants that the Philadelphia conference is "very organized," Hammond said. "We had no trouble registering. We got in and out of this building very easily."

Mahon said that - as a person who for two years planned a regional conference in New England - she had "great respect" for the World Meeting of Families organizers. "It's just really amazing."

Iris Campos and her husband, Wilson Afanador, landed Monday in New York City from Colombia, but Philadelphia is forming their first real impression of the U.S.

Campos called the logistics "excellent" and agreed with fellow attendees that the conference was very well-organized.

That top-notch organization also extends to the city proper, she added. "The cars give way to the pedestrian and the streets are very clean," Campos said in an interview conducted in Spanish. "There's a lot of cleanliness. A lot of order."

Afanador said he's impressed with all the new construction here and the wide array of Pope Francis images throughout the city. But he also said he was concerned over the number of homeless people he saw.

The couple left their three children behind in the Santander region of Colombia, but they constantly text each other.

They'll attend Sunday's Mass on the parkway and expect Pope Francis to talk about the importance of families.

"If there is no family, all of this will go in reverse," Afanador said.

Pittsburgh mom Trisha Murphy apparently thought she and her family would be getting a less-enthusiastic reaction from their interstate rivals in Philadelphia. She was wrong.

"Everybody's been really friendly even though we're from Pittsburgh," she said. "We feel it's going to be OK." She said the conference had a "great atmosphere" and is in a "great city."

Her husband, Mike, and their two children, Marigrace, 10, and David, 6, attend Sacred Heart Parish in the Steel City. They are playing it by ear as to which public events to attend. The big crowd sizes are intimidating, they said.

"None of us have experienced a million-plus-persons [crowd]," Murphy said. But, "it really seems like Philly has got the capability of handling it - if any city could."

On Twitter: @ReginaMedina

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