CHURCH ASKS FOR €4M TO PAY DEBT FROM POPE’S VISIT
Parishioners approached for donations to cover cost of historic World Meeting of Families event
THE Catholic Church is appealing for donations from parishioners to help plug a €4million debt left over from staging the World Meeting of Families in Ireland in August.
The hosting of the religious event, which saw Pope Francis visit Dublin and Mayo, cost the Church here almost €20million in total.
More than €15million of the bill was raised through parish collections and other donations from home and abroad in the run-up to the religious celebration.
However, a current deficit of €4million remains, which senior clerics hope will be partially defrayed by the fifth national collection for the WMOF next month. Parish priests around the country have been asked to hold the WMOF collection at Masses over the weekend of Sunday, November 11.
Notices have begun appearing in parish newsletters nationwide.
In an appeal to its 85,000 parishioners in Kilkenny, Laois and Offaly, the Diocese of Ossory stated: ‘The overall cost to the Church in Ireland for hosting WMOF comes to €19.4million. To date, €15.4million has been raised by
way of local church collections and by other donations.
‘This leaves us with a deficit of €4million.
‘In order to help defray this debt, we are asking you, once again, for your support in promoting our fifth national collection, which will take place in churches over the weekend of November 10 and 11.
‘While we are acutely conscious of the many financial demands facing families and parishes at this time, all support offered would be greatly appreciated.’
By last night, the Catholic Communications Office and the World Meeting of Families had not replied to requests for comment.
The Church, through its donors and parishioners, had vowed to raise much of the costs of the first visit to Ireland by a Pope in almost four decades.
It had committed to raising €20million for the visit, much of it for the programme of the WMOF, a Church-organised festival that was based in Dublin’s RDS.
One highlight of the weekend was a concert in honour of the Pope in Croke Park attended by 80,000 people from around the world, and featuring performances by Daniel O’Donnell, Riverdance and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
The following afternoon, on Sunday, August 26, Pope Francis said Mass in the Phoenix Park.
There were significant security costs for the Popemobile’s tour around central Dublin and Knock, Co. Mayo.
Separately, it had been estimated that the State’s final bill for the events, includ- ing security and logistics, would top €10million.
Ahead of the visit, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the total cost to the State would be between €10million and €20million.
‘In other words, it will probably be more than €10million and less than €20million but that is only an estimate at this stage,’ he said just before the visit.
While the Papal visit was hailed as a success, and healing was the message issued by Francis to survivors of abuse in Church-run institutions, the turnout on the blustery Sunday of the visit at Dublin’s Phoenix Park fell far short of expectations.
Half a million free tickets were issued by the WMOF for the first Papal Mass there since John Paul II’s 1979 visit, but it was estimated that fewer than 200,000 people attended.
A group protesting against the visit of Francis claimed it had acquired hundreds of entry tickets, as part of a Facebook campaign group to disrupt the visit. It threatened to burn these tickets.
Much of the public funds for the trip, meanwhile, were spent through the Office of Public Works.
The OPW used €924,000 of taxpayers’ money on works to the gateways to the Phoenix Park that would help to cope with the crowds, but said this would be of long-lasting benefit to the public.
It also put out a €1.2million tender to Mongey Communications to provide temporary CCTV cameras and communications technology for the visit. Two further tenders, worth €900,000 each, were advertised for security and stewarding at the Phoenix Park.
The estimated Garda budget for the trip was about €5million.
The Irish Daily Mail previously reported that the Garda deployed snipers for both the visits to the capital and Knock, amid fears over protests. Ahead of the visit, security sources said at least one sniper would be stationed at Knock’s airport and others were to be fixed around the shrine’s basilica when the Pontiff visited the village.
Less than 200,000 attended Mass