ARLINGTON — Getting a ticket to just one of the events Pope Francis is attending in Washington is a struggle for even some of the most well-connected people, but Virginia’s governor says he declined a ticket to the open-air mass.

“I had been invited to the mass here, but unfortunately — or fortunately – I am on a trade mission, I am off to Canada as soon as I leave the White House,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in an interview.

He will be at the White House with his wife Dorothy when the pope is welcomed to the United States. He says the Obama administration invited him.

“I’ve been a big Catholic my whole life,” McAuliffe says.

The only scheduled event for the general public to see Pope Francis without a ticket is a brief parade route around the Ellipse and part of the National Mall that the pope will travel in the popemobile the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 23.