Candles, Clergy and Communion for 57,000

By SEWELL CHAN
Published: April 12, 2008

The pope will straddle second base in Yankee Stadium, but stand over center field at Nationals Park in Washington. There are 100,000 ponchos on hand in the Bronx in case of rain, while three Polish nuns have dusted off a gold and silver garment, hand-woven more than a century ago, for the pontiff to wear at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the capital.

Tickets for the stadium Mass, many of them allocated to parishes based on average Sunday attendance and distributed by lottery, have been issued only to people who gave their names, addresses and dates of birth; a government-issued photo identification is required, and selling the tickets is forbidden. the rest