About 25 people from St. Michael Catholic Church in Gainesville will travel to New York today to attend one of the first papal ceremonies with Pope Benedict XVI in the United States.

The Gainesville group joins hundreds of local Catholics who are traveling to Washington, D.C., and New York to experience Benedict’s first visit to the United States, according to the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

While in New York, Benedict will lead a prayer service with Christian leaders at St. Joseph’s Church in Manhattan, meet with young Catholics at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, visit ground zero and hold a Mass at Yankee Stadium.