Green vestments for Pope’s Mass in the park
COMMUNION will be distributed out of 4,000 Eucharistic ciboria during the papal visit, along with 200 chalices – with Pope Francis donning green vestments for the Phoenix Park Mass.
The papal vestments, which will have a triple spiral, are a far cry from the more basic style made in Ireland for Pope John Paul II in 1979. They were produced in Poland.
Meanwhile, the ciboria were made by a company in Bluebell, Dublin, ahead of the visit.
While the distribution of communion is expected to be a challenge, Master of Ceremonies Fr Damian McNeice said the groundwork had been put in for an efficient process.
“There’s a lot of work... the great thing is that the people who volunteered are people who distribute Holy Communion all the time in their local parishes, sometimes daily as well as weekly, so they know how to do that.
“I don’t know whether everybody managed to receive communion in 1979, I think there was just so many people they didn’t have enough,” he said.
“Whereas this time we know the number, we’ve half a million hosts from the sisters of St Alphonsus... so we’re ready, it’s just a matter of trying to logistically marshal the forces on the day.
“The design of the vestments was worked out by our liturgy committee and the company that won the tender, Haftina, are a family run company in Poland.
“One thing particularly Irish is the triple spiral. You’d find a design very like that even in Newgrange, even in preChristianity, it’s the whole notion of the journey into the divine and almost like eternal life as well, too.”