Seven months have passed quickly since the Vatican announced that Pope Francis is coming to Philadelphia in September. With three months to go, there’s still a lot of planning as well as opportunities for regular people to get involved.

Francis will be there to attend the World Meeting of Families-Philadelphia 2015, a global congress of 15,000 Catholic families from more than 150 countries. The convention has gathered every third year since 1994. Francis will attend the final two days, Sept. 26 and 27.

Francis also is scheduled to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Sept. 24. He will be the first head of the Catholic Church to do so.

His visit will culminate in a Festival of Families on Sept. 26 and celebration of an outdoor Sunday Mass Sept. 27. Both events will take place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the heart of Philadelphia and will be open to the public, no tickets required.

A few days from now, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Archbishop Charles Caput will lead a city delegation to Rome for a final planning session with the Vatican.

It will be a crush of humanity, with an anticipated 2 million or more people converging on Philadelphia to see and hear the pontiff, eat a cheesesteak and buy official papal souvenirs. Hotels are booked solid for miles around. The weeklong event will to have an estimated economic impact of $418 million, $390 million of which will come from the pope’s visit alone, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The visit also will be a huge event in less measurable ways. It’s Francis’ first visit to the United States and only the fourth visit by a pope in our nation’s history. Pennsylvanians should feel honored to host the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide.

The archbishop anticipates a healing touch for his city. “His charisma, presence and voice will electrify the gathering,” Caput said. “As I’ve said many times before, I believe that the presence of the Holy Father will bring all of us — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — together in tremendously powerful, unifying and healing ways.”

The sponsors of the World Meeting of Families — the Vatican and the Philadelphia Archdiocese — so far have signed up about half of the 10,000 volunteers they’ll need to conduct the event. Anyone can volunteer. The only absolute requirement is that they pass a comprehensive, level 3 background check — the same background check required of anyone peforming work in the archdiocese.

There’s a particular need for volunteers who speak one or more foreign languages. However, anyone — Catholic or non-Catholic — with time and a desire to serve should consider applying for a volunteer position.

More information can be found online at www.worldmeeting2015.org/get-involved/volunteer/

There will be much more published in the coming weeks about this widely anticipated occasion.

Maybe there could be a good number of volunteers from Butler County at this historic event.