One woman from Butler County will be more than a spectator at Pope Francis' Mass Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia.

Sister Patricia, a sister of the Holy Spirit, who is a pastoral minister at St. Gregory Parish in Zelienople, will be among those distributing Communion at the Mass.

She is one of many from Butler County traveling east for the pope's visit.

Helene Paharik, associate general secretary of the Pittsburgh Diocese, said 300 people from the diocese are heading to Philadelphia in five chartered buses. Three buses are leaving today and two more are leaving Friday.

“But with all the trips organized by schools, parishes and churches, there are between 600 and 800 people from the diocese going,” Paharik said.

Pope Francis will spend Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia.

Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh Diocese will attend major papal events in both Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, including the Sunday Mass.

The pontiff in Philadelphia will attend the closing ceremonies of the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families Saturday night and celebrate Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Sister Patricia said, “We will be part of the papal Mass, accompanying the priests with the Communion to be distributed to the expected 1.5 million. They've got lots of volunteers, but it will take some time.”

“I don't know how close I will get,” she said referring to the pope. “I don't expect to get real close, but it is very exciting to be on the same ground as the pope.”

She left Monday to take part in the World Meeting of Families this week.

“Another sister of the Holy Spirit, Sister Theresa Margaret, is going with me. We'll be staying with her family in northeast Philadelphia,” Sister Patricia said.

“At the world meeting, we are going to work with the youth congress,” she said.

Sister Patricia added, “The young people will be engaged in multidimensional activities that bring faith to life. Participants are welcomed to join in faith-filled fun with an emphasis on religious education.”

“They call it a global event because it will bring together young people from all around the world for a unique opportunity to explore and share the treasures of faith,” she said.

She said she and Sister Theresa Margaret also will be greeters Friday at the closing Mass of the conference.

“Sister Theresa Margaret, since her hometown was Philadelphia, wanted to get involved in the papal event,” Sister Patricia said. “We started a long process, had to go through security measures and background checks.”

After months, she said “We got official notice that we had been accepted to be at the papal Mass after Labor Day.”

For Barbara and Roy Brandon of Butler, their trip to Philadelphia will be the chance finally to see Pope Francis.

The Brandons, members of St. Fidelis Roman Catholic Church in Meridian, traveled to Germany and Italy in June and just missed seeing the pope twice, said Barbara Brandon.

“We arrived in Rome too late for the papal audience,” said Barbara Brandon. “And three days later, we were supposed to be in Turin at the same time as the pope, but he changed his schedule.”

“I'm looking so very much forward to this,” she said. “To have him say a Mass, even if we are a mile away. They will have 10 TV screens set up so we can get a better look at him.”

Laura and Phillip Mansfield of Worth Township will take their 9-year-old granddaughter, Leah Mansfield, to Philadelphia.

Phillip Mansfield said, “We're going for the family conference and staying over for the pope's visit.

“My granddaughter is real interested in this.”

Leah Mansfield also may be interested to know Pope Francis will deliver all but four of his 18 addresses during his visit to the United States in Spanish.

Though the pontiff has been practicing his English, he is more at ease speaking in his native language, Ein News quoted Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi as saying.