Pontiff to visit Ireland in first papal visit to country in nearly four decades
Pope Francis will make the first papal visit to Ireland in nearly 40 years in August. When Pope John Paul II visited the country in 1979, more than a million people attended an open air mass at Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The 81-year-old will arrive in the capital on 25 August to take part in the Festival of Families, a faith-based cultural concert. Further details will be released at a later date but it has been announced that the Pope will celebrate mass in Phoenix Park the following day. It is not yet known if the pontiff will travel across the border to Northern Ireland.
The announcement of the visit was welcomed by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. In a statement, the bishops said: “We are deeply honoured that Pope Francis will come to our country to participate in this universal church celebration of faith and joy, as well as of the contemporary challenges which face families. With great anticipation we also look forward to hearing the apostolic guidance of his holiness during his stay with us.
“Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, as president of the World Meeting of Families 2018, has been charged with undertaking the significant task of organising this global celebration and each of the other 25 dioceses on the island of Ireland is supporting the host diocese to ensure its success for the whole country and for the world. We eagerly await the visit of Pope Francis, which no doubt will be an occasion of spiritual renewal for our laity, religious and clergy as well as a strengthening of Christian family life.”
It is anticipated that victims of clerical sex abuse will protest during Pope Francis’s visit. Campaigner Margaret McGuckin is leading calls for a special payment to child victims of institutional abuse and said that she believed the Pope has not done enough to help.
“I am sure there will be many of our survivor groups down south who will be protesting,” she told the BBC. “People could get quite angry and irate that the Pope is still coming, I don’t think it is a good time for him to come here.”