Just three-quarters of the 100,000 tickets for Glasgow’s papal Mass next week have been sold.

Organisers of Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to Britain said that 75,000 passes have been allocated for the Mass at Bellahouston Park.

When Pope John Paul II came to Glasgow in 1982, he celebrated Mass with 250,000 people in the same venue. Some pilgrims attending this year’s Mass in the South Side park would be expected to fork out four times as much as those attending the Pope’s prayer vigil in London.

The £20 donation for the Glasgow appearance compares to a £5 charge for the Hyde Park visit.

A senior visit source said: “If you were to use a ball park of 75,000 you won’t be far out. That is how many are earmarked or spoken for.”

It is understood that, of more than 2500 tickets allocated to Ireland, fewer than one-fifth had so far been purchased.

One woman who decided against attending the event said: “For my husband and I to go would have cost £40, which is a lot of money during these times of supposed austerity and we decided it was too much.”

It is understood that, across the UK, hundreds of tickets have had to be reallocated by the Catholic Church following a failure of several dioceses to meet their uptake targets.

The Catholic Church in Scotland said 5% of parishes had still to put in applications for places and were still hopeful more would be taken up.

Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said: “The process is still ongoing … so there is a clearing house process working of matching demand and supply.

“How many people could come in the remainder of this week? I just don’t know.

“We don’t want anyone to be excluded because they left it late. On the other hand you have to make the point that you just can’t decide the day before.”

Pope Benedict will travel will fly into Edinburgh next Thursday, before heading for Glasgow.