Despite leaving diocese with small debt, ‘Two Nations, One Faith’ event a ‘success’

Officials with the Catholic Diocese of El Paso are taking a deep sigh of relief this afternoon calling the “Two Nations, One Faith” celebration was a success.

“I don’t think people understand that what just got pulled off in our area is something that has never happened before,” said diocese spokesperson Elizabeth O’Hara.

Attendance was lower than what was needed to break even though.The diocese rented the Sun Bowl for the event, and it had to sell out the stadium in order to break even. The numbers are still coming in, but it’s looking like they fell about 21,000 tickets short.

UTEP Office of Special Events officials said depending on various production logistics, including audio, video, staging, labor, security, and traffic control, among many other factors, an event at the Sun Bowl can cost, on average, between $50,000-$100,000.

ABC-7 submitted and open records request asking UTEP’s Office of Special Events how much it charged the diocese. UTEP told the attorney general it didn’t have to release the price, citing Texas government codes pertaining to exceptions for requests that reveal trade secrets, financial and commericial/competitive information.

The diocese estimated 28,000 to 30,000 people attended. The Sun Bowl seats 51,000. Tickets sold for $8-$15 dollars, although many were given out free of charge. The diocese is still collecting the total revenue from tickets and merchandise sales and can’t give confirmed numbers, but admitted not selling out means it accrued a small debt for putting on the event.

“I don’t think that we would have made any decisions differently,” O’Hara said. “We were happy to provide this for El Paso. I think given the opportunity, we’d do it all over again.”

It received lots of help from the business community here, volunteers and the Catholic Extension, a national fundraising organization that helped the diocese with public relations. In the case of the musicians, Tony Melendez and Collin Raye didn’t charge the diocese, it just had to pay for their flight and hotel stay.

The diocese said overall, a little debt is worth giving the community a flawless event.

“The people deserved a really good viewing party and I think it was accomplished with the help of everybody that came together to produce this massive production,” said Father Fabian Marquez.

The Diocese did raise $85,000 to give to the Juarez Diocese. No word yet on how much the pope’s visit cost the Juarez diocese.