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No one can say Al Kelly, chairman of the 2015 Papal Visit to New York City, doesn’t have the right kind of experience to deal with an event of this magnitude. You might even say he is uniquely qualified, having served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of the 2014 New York/New Jersey Super Bowl Host Company for the big game played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
His management experience developed over the 23 years he spent at American Express, where he rose to become president of the company. A parishioner of Resurrection in Rye, he serves on the archdiocesan Finance Council and on the boards of St. Joseph’s Seminary and College and the New York Catholic Foundation, and serves and supports a host of other Catholic institutions and initiatives.
Those associations have put Kelly into close and regular contact with Cardinal Dolan during His Eminence’s six and a half years as Archbishop of New York. So when the cardinal, over a beer last December, asked Kelly to assume the chairmanship of the upcoming, yet still unofficial, papal visit, he said he felt there was only one appropriate answer.
“He’s a difficult man to say no to,” Kelly said of the cardinal.
He accepted the assignment on a pro bono basis, “for the good of the Church, and for my friend, the cardinal.”
On the day Kelly was interviewed by Catholic New York in his offices at the New York Catholic Center, Sept. 1, the key word was motorcade. That morning, the City of New York had announced a papal motorcade through Central Park and an associated ticket lottery.
“We’re still working through the details of how the tickets will be distributed,” he said then.
What Kelly did know was that the two papal motorcades in New York, including the first on Fifth Avenue leading to the “magnificent front doors” of the newly restored St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where the pope will lead vespers for clergy and religious men and women on Sept. 24, the first evening of his 38-hour stay, and a second, longer one through parts of Central Park the next day, would afford approximately five times as many of New York’s Catholics and ordinary citizens an opportunity to see the Holy Father as his other public events here in the archdiocese.
With a figure who generates as much public interest and acclaim as Pope Francis, finding a way to allow more people to see him was definitely a good thing, Kelly said.
“A lot of excitement is generated by something so historic,” he added. “With limitations on the number of tickets we have, and limitations on the short time the Holy Father is here, it’s very challenging to make everybody happy.”
Kelly and his team of Mary Musca, executive director of the papal visit, and Ann Bave, director of operations, both of whom worked with him on the Super Bowl, are now trying to accommodate as many people as possible while working with other entities to ensure that the papal events are as spiritually significant and secure for both the pontiff and attendees. Along with Cardinal Dolan, with whom Kelly said he is in touch “multiple times” most weeks, the other key member of the “core team” is Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo, vicar general and chancellor of the archdiocese.
Extending outward across the archdiocese, Kelly said, is a group of about five dozen people, working full or part time, in liturgical, operational or production capacities as the visit draws near. Add to them a cohort of literally hundreds, if not thousands of others, from agencies at the city, state and federal levels as well as the Vatican planning teams and personnel from the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“It takes a tremendous village to pull off a trip like this,” Kelly said.
“This would never happen without high quality people all doing great work,” he added.
The management lessons Kelly learned at American Express and in his leading role with the Super Bowl keep coming back to him. “This is a leadership assignment,” he said. “It’s about putting good people in place, having good systems in place.”
“It’s about looking around corners and anticipating things that might come up, and having solutions in place when they do come up,” Kelly said.
Now just a week before the Holy Father’s arrival, Kelly anticipated much of his time would be spent on ticket-related issues and security matters as well as fine-tuning “executional details” during rehearsals and walk-throughs of each of the celebrations and events involving Pope Francis.
The brisk pace now contrasts with a much slower one when Kelly came on board. What began as a few hours a week in January and February has morphed into a seven-day-a-week assignment.
Early on, it was Cardinal Dolan who inquired whether “key elements of the Mass” such as the altar and ambo, and the papal chair, could be constructed “by people we help and serve through Catholic Charities.” Day laborers from Don Bosco Workers Inc. Mission in Port Chester and Obreros Unidos Mission in Yonkers constructed the pope’s chair, and teens from Lincoln Hall Boys’ Haven in Lincolndale made the oak altar and matching ambo.
Their quality workmanship resulted in creating altar furnishings that “exceeded my expectations,” Kelly said.
“I’m extraordinarily pleased at what they did.”
Kelly’s professional associations and contacts have also paid dividends, as he knew Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio and key members of their administrations from his work with the Super Bowl.
He also enjoys strong working relationships with leading executives at Madison Square Garden, where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass on Sept. 25. He said both MSG and the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum have been “extremely generous” in allowing the archdiocese to use their facilities for papal events.
Initially he was less familiar with members of the Vatican’s teams in charge of advance planning, security and liturgical ceremonies, but six visits over the past five months as well as countless emails and phone calls have brought him up to speed.
Kelly did offer a piece of common-sense advice for New Yorkers attending the pope’s public events in the city: take public transportation and leave plenty of extra time.
“Things in the city are going to be moving a little slower the week the Holy Father is here,” he said.
