Bells ring out to open 2018 World Meeting of Families

THREE brass bowls steaming forth fragrant incense were carried solemnly down the aisles, signifying the start of the prayers.

They came in their thousands for the official opening ceremony for the star t of the World Meeting of Families at the RDS.

But all across the island, North and south of the Border, bells were ringing out and simultaneous prayers were being uttered in all 26 dioceses in unity.

Pope Francis had issued a special video message ahead of his visit, in which he said he was excited at the thought of returning to Ireland.

He described the World Meeting of Families as an occasion for families from all over the world to meet and support one another.

And he said he hoped his visit to this country may further the growth of unity and reconciliation “among all Christ’s followers”.

At the RDS, Tom and Sinead McCloughlin from Lusk, Co Dublin, had brought their children Sophia (12), Muire (10) and Lúc (5). They plan on spending the whole day at the RDS tomorrow and will be at the Mass at the Phoenix Park, as well as thinking about doing the pilgrimage of churches around Dublin.

“Any time is a great time for the Pope to visit this countr y”, said Tom, but he added that it was certainly needed now.

“The timing of the Penn report is a bit unfortunate but we’re here to focus on the positive and on the healing of the family and the extended family,” he said.

Four Redemptorist nuns from Drumcondra in Dublin were holding a banner, waiting for the star t of the official procession.

Sr Monica Boggan said it was a great privilege to be there.

“We’ve been waiting for it for so long and praying for it so much in our hearts,” she said.

Sr Lucy Conway said she was in Co Galway for the papal visit and had not been a nun at that time.

“It was fabulous, amazing,” she remembered.

But she is equally excited this time round.

“Everyone’s buzzing – look at ever ybody, they’re so happy,” she said.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin strolled up to the RDS in his purple bishop’s robes, together with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect at the Vatican’s Dicaster y for Laity, Family and Life.

His attendance, along with two other cardinals, at the World Meeting of Families events this week has been criticised by a group representing clerical child sex sur vivors worldwide, in an open letter to Archbishop Martin, claiming he had assisted in a cover-up for clerg y who abused minors.

All three cardinals have denied this.

Organisers had been hazy on how many people were expected at this opening ceremony, saying only that the room held 5,000 people.

A scan of the room saw an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 people, as the events began.

In his address, Archbishop Martin went back to his own childhood, recalling how they had had little but that they had shared what they had.

A neighbour, who was a year younger than him, had recently reminded him how, as a child, he had received the Archbishop’s hand-me-down shoes, while his mother had baked cakes and handed them over the wall to the Archbishop’s family.

“There are those who would look at the World Meeting as some sort of ideological gathering to celebrate a type of family which probably does not exist,” he said.

But the family was not a remote ideological notion, said the archbishop, adding that it was “the place where compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience and forgiveness are learned, practised and spread”.