Papal Visit to Marseille: Costs Not Covered

“57,000 people at the stadium... and very few donors! Without your donation, we will not be able to cover the cost for the Rencontres méditerranéennes and especially the Mass at Orange Vélodrome stadium, which was an enormous expense. Thank you for making your donation now and forwarding this call for donations to all those close to you! Every donation counts!”

This call for help was sent on September 28, 2023, by the organizers of the Mass celebrated a few days earlier by Pope Francis at the Orange Vélodrome stadium in Marseille. It was in an email addressed to those who were registered online to attend the extraordinary religious event.

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, himself requested in the October 3 issue of La Provence: “You who write to thank us, you who participated in this historic event, wherever you were during the festival—at the stadium, on the [Avenue du] Prado, or at home behind a screen—help us! Every donation counts!”

The Rencontres méditerranéennes (MED23) held in Marseille from September 18 to 24, 2023—in order to face the “challenge of inequality,” among other things—costed 2.3 million euros for the diocese. That cost includes both the Rencontres in themselves—which the Pope came to close on Saturday, September 23 at the Palais du Pharo—and the visit of the Supreme Pontiff.

The diocese hoped to collect 500,000 euros in donations during the papal Mass at the Orange Vélodrome stadium, but the total was far from that. Traditional collection baskets as well as card readers were not enough to close the gap:“We got closer to the regular average—that is, a donation of around 4 euros [per donor]—for a total of around 250,000 euros,” explained Fr. Romain Louge, master of ceremonies for the archbishop, on September 29, speaking to RTL.

“Through their generous donations, the sponsors and partners financed half of the budget for the event,” the archbishopric emphasized. To the starting sum were added around 600,000 euros, coming from diverse sources of financing such as collections, diocesan pilgrimages, the sale of derivative products, etc.

Institutions and sponsors already donated and cannot contribute more. “We have a deficit of 600,000 euros. We are launching an appeal for donations, really just to cover our costs for this papal visit,” admits Cardinal Aveline.

It’s important to note that when it comes to expenditures, some costs were incurred at the last minute, like getting large screens to place on the Avenue du Prado to broadcast the Mass: “We made the choice to install giant screens so that people could follow the event that way. We also proposed the broadcasting of the Mass,” explains the diocese.

That is a choice that the Church stands by: “We did not go into the event recklessly—we were happy that people could participate in the event, even from afar. We are happy that we didn’t do all that for nothing.”