Was the Pope's visit to Philadelphia a success? A local chef weighs in

Expressed his frustrations in Facebook post

With Pope Francis's papal visit to Philadelphia, several security measures were set, including the closure of schools and establishments following a blocking-off of of major roads. Unfortunately, the security measures hurt local businesses.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Catholic Online) - Marc Vetri, a chef from Philadelphia, expressed his sentiments about the preparations made in their area for the papal visit on Facebook. He wrote: "We're clearly all thrilled that Pope Francis is here. Never has there been a Pope in history that people have such admiration for while having such a gentle voice that transcends all religions and all walks of life. I can say that I was thrilled that the Pope has chosen Philadelphia to spread his message ... and I remained thrilled."

Even though Vetri appreciates the papal visit and was thrilled about the papal visit, he felt bad about Philadelphia leaders' lack of consideration for local businesses. His post continued: "My only regret is the decisions of Philadelphia leaders. Instead of engaging the citizens and businesses around this great city in welcoming the Pope, they have instead decided to roll out the red carpet for everyone making the pilgrimage, and roll us up in the carpet to place in storage until Monday."

The chef also stated that he imagined a man like Pope Francis would like to see Philadelphia as it is. His post added: "We didn't need to close every street, bridge, and alley, scaring most people. The goal was to give a shot of adrenaline into our economy, not hurt our small and large business alike so they had to close."

Vetri also emphasized that the homeless people in the streets shouldn't have been shooed away as they are also part of the city and, just like all other cities, Philadelphia has problems that the leaders and its residents need to deal with. For him, it was also impractical for people to spend so much money just to beautify the city for the papal visit while they continued to fall short of financially supporting schools.

Although the event was inspirational for a lot of people, Vetri believes that Philadelphia lost its sense of pride and community over the weekend during the papal visit -all because the ones who had it have already left.

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