Detroit — Gerarda Tobin is no stranger to high-profile events both in and out of a Church setting.

Besides working for the city of Detroit for 17 years — including during the city’s pitch for the Super Bowl — she’s got a bit of an insider’s perspective on the Church, too, as the sister of Detroit native and Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin.

Still, even for someone of Tobin’s pedigree, the prospect of coordinating perhaps the most significant Catholic event in Detroit since the 1987 visit of Pope St. John Paul II is a daunting one.

Tobin is Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron’s chairperson for the Nov. 18 beatification Mass for Fr. Solanus Casey.

How is this Mass different?

“Let me start with 66,000 reasons, because it’s looking like it’s going to be a full stadium,” Tobin mused during an interview with The Michigan Catholic about the ongoing preparations for the Ford Field liturgy.

Tobin, whose background includes working alongside then-Mayor Dennis Archer during the years leading up to Detroit’s pitch for the 2006 Super Bowl, said she received the initial call from Archbishop Vigneron in November 2016.

“My brother happened to run into Archbishop Vigneron at the fall bishops’ meeting, and he said, ‘I want to ask your sister if she would plan this process.’ I used to work for the city of Detroit for 17 years, and Joe knows that my heart is definitely here,” said Tobin, who has also worked with the Capuchins on a number of projects over the years.

Best kept secret

Though the beatification hadn’t yet been announced by Rome — and wouldn’t be for another six months — Tobin was charged with putting together a team of individuals to begin quietly working to plan some of the most important details.

Tobin’s all-pro team is a veritable “who’s who” of Detroit Catholics and longtime Church supporters: Michael O’Callaghan, vice president of the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau; former deputy mayor Ike McKinnon; former Archer chief of staff Nettie Seabrooks; archdiocese deputy moderator of the curia Fr. Jeff Day and several other priests, Capuchins and community movers and shakers — all of whom were more than happy to help, Tobin said.

“At the time, we couldn’t say anything, but had to plan,” Tobin said. “Everything had to remain confidential, but I felt like it was the best kept secret in town. The Caps have been working on this since 1957, but we obviously couldn’t pre-empt the Holy Father.”

With regular updates from the archdiocese’s contacts in Rome, Tobin said the preparations kicked into high gear when it became apparent the announcement was coming soon.

The group’s first choice was perhaps the most impactful: where would the historic liturgy take place?

“In my mind, I always think when I’m planning a party, no one is going to come,” Tobin said. “That’s always my biggest worry. But when you talk to people, it’s pretty obvious. My mother was a lifelong Detroiter. She’s 94, but she still talks about Fr. Solanus and people she knows who’ve been touched by his life. Very rarely does someone not know about Fr. Solanus.”

With that in mind, a stadium seemed a good choice, and Detroit just happened to have a brand-new one.

“One of the archbishop’s real priorities was how to tie this event to the rebirth of the city,” Tobin said. “We really thought Little Caesars Arena (which opened Sept. 5) would be a great venue, plus it seats 20,000 people.”

It quickly became apparent, however, that even 20,000 seats wouldn’t be nearly enough.



Fr. Solanus ‘changes the dynamic’

Simply put, the only venue in the city of Detroit big enough to host the simple friar’s beatification was an NFL stadium.

After settling on Ford Field — which took several months of back-and-forth, given that the Detroit Lions had yet to release their 2017 game schedule — Tobin said the second most pressing issue was getting a date from Rome.

“It was really imperative for the Capuchins that it happen in 2017, because it’s the 60th anniversary of Fr. Solanus’ death,” Tobin said. “As my mother always says, ‘Put it in God’s hands.’ So we picked two dates in November, Solanus’ birth month, and two in April 2018, per Rome’s request.”

Fortunately, Nov. 18 worked with the schedule of Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect for the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who will fly in from Rome to celebrate the beatification liturgy on behalf of Pope Francis.

As for the date also falling on the one-year anniversary of Detroit’s Synod 16, Tobin said, “Someone bigger than us planned that.”

Though Fr. Solanus’ beatification will not be the only one in the U.S. this year — Oklahoma City priest and martyr Fr. Stanley Rother will be beatified Sept. 23 — it will be nearly unprecedented in size for a U.S. beatification Mass.

“There are some parallels with the one in Oklahoma City, which will be in a convention center,” said Fr. Larry Webber, OFM Cap., vice postulator for Fr. Solanus’ sainthood cause and co-chair of the beatification Mass’ liturgy committee. “But most of the time beatifications happen in a cathedral. Having it in a huge stadium with that many people — with all of the security concerns and ticketing issues — those things have to be taken into consideration.”

Fr. Webber said committee members have been in contact with other U.S. dioceses that have recently hosted beatifications and canonizations, including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., but the sheer number of Detroiters and others with connections and devotion to Fr. Solanus makes his situation unique.

“Fr. Solanus is different from many others in that he is associated with healing, whereas many other sainthood candidates are not associated with it as much,” Fr. Webber said. “So it changes the dynamic because of that.”



Volunteers still needed

Tobin said the planning committees — 11 in all, with dozens of members — are still seeking volunteers for a number of roles, including ushers, greeters, ticket mailers and media ambassadors for the 4 p.m. Mass and the two hours beforehand. Those interested can visit beatification.visitdetroit.com.

On the liturgical front, Communion distribution is among the chief logistical concerns, Tobin said. Approximately 300-400 deacons will be deployed for that task, which will follow the model set by Pope St. John Paul II’s 1987 Silverdome Mass.

For the Mass itself, a simple altar will be set up on a stage, which, while consistent with Fr. Solanus’ spirituality, was almost made a necessity because of Ford Field’s own tight schedule.

“The 18th is the day after the Hob Nobble Gobble, which is a huge fundraiser for The Parade Company. They turn the whole field into an amusement park, with a Ferris wheel, tons of people, it’s a big production,” Tobin said.

“We went back and forth for weeks about when the earliest we could have the Mass was. They said, ‘Short of you putting the Ferris wheel on your back, it’s going to be later in the afternoon.’”

In order to cut down on setup time, which could normally take days, Tobin said, the beatification coordinators are planning to reuse as much as possible from the prior event, including the stage, A/V equipment and electrical cables.

Another consideration will be the on-field seating, which will be reserved for approximately 6,000 VIPs — which, in the case of Fr. Solanus, will include bishops, priests and fellow Capuchins, but also those who for decades have labored to advance the saintly friar’s cause.

“The biggest component (of VIPs) for the Capuchins is the Father Solanus Guild,” Tobin said. “The guild is not just in Michigan, but in other states, people who have been praying and working for this day since 1957.”

Tobin said it isn’t lost on her that should, God willing, Fr. Solanus be canonized one day, that liturgy is likely to take place in Rome — making November’s beatification Mass the best chance for Detroiters and American pilgrims to properly celebrate the Motor City’s saint.

“A lot of people never have the opportunity to go to Rome, but when I’m there and walking on the streets where Peter and the saints walked, to me that’s what this is about, too,” Tobin said. “People will be coming here as a pilgrimage, to walk the streets where a saint has lived and worked and gave his life. We have to give people that experience on Nov. 18.”

An example of service

Some of the planning committees’ responsibilities — ticketing, public relations, logistics, volunteer coordination — are what one might expect of an event of such magnitude. But others are unique to Fr. Solanus.

From the very beginning, Archbishop Vigneron has made clear he would like the beatification not just to be an occasion to celebrate Detroit’s “blessed,” but to introduce anew the values of the “porter of St. Bonaventure.”

“The archbishop has — as a lot of us do — a fondness for Fr. Solanus, and he wanted to use this as an opportunity for catechesis, to discuss the new evangelization, but also to highlight the ministries of the Capuchins,” Tobin said.

Tobin added she gets emotional when she thinks about the tremendous amount of good the Capuchins do for the city on a daily basis.

“They feed 1,700 people a day, but it’s not just feeding people,” Tobin said. “They take offenders who are released and have no support system. At On the Rise Bakery, they employ individuals who can’t get employment anywhere else. Except for the grace of God, that could be any one of us. I tell my children that every day.”

To keep that message of hope and service alive for the younger generation, one of the committees is focused exclusively on encouraging youth involvement in the beatification, Tobin said, through service both at the Mass and throughout the city’s many soup kitchens and volunteer opportunities.

“What better time than now to reinforce not only what Fr. Solanus believed, but what he did every day and what the Capuchins do every day?” Tobin said. “We’re trying to get the kids out of their phones and games and into volunteering.”

While it’s a big undertaking, it’s one that’s well-worth the sleepless nights and hard work, Tobin said, especially when she thinks about 66,000 people singing and praising God for the blessing of Detroit’s hero of faith.

“This is new to all of us. New to the U.S., really,” Tobin continued. “Fr. Rother will have his beatification in September, but I remember the archbishop saying in our meeting, ‘I think this city and this archdiocese are ripe for this.’

“People want this now. And that’s being reinforced every day through this.”