Pope Francis in Ireland: Why is the pontiff visiting Dublin and will he address abuse in the Catholic Church?

By Joe Sommerlad
Independent
August 20, 2018

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Pope Francis Photo by Max Rossi

Pope Francis will visit Ireland this weekend, the first time the head of the Catholic Church has done so since 1979.

The pontiff, 81, will touch down in Dublin to address the World Meeting of Families and find himself in a very different country to that John Paul II toured almost 40 years ago.

The prospect of his eminence’s imminence is nevertheless causing a stir, with enterprising retailers seizing the opportunity to shift merchandise to the devout and doing a roaring trade in everything from collapsible cardboard chairs to tote bags, candles, mugs, umbrellas and sticky “Lollipopes”.

Here’s everything you need to know.

The Pope will depart from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport by Alitalia flight AZ4000 at 8.15am on Saturday morning, touching down in the Irish capital at 10.30am and staying until 6.45pm on Sunday evening.

He is not expected to bless the runway tarmac with a kiss as his popular predecessor did.

The Pope’s first stop will be to Aras an Uachtarain, the residence of Ireland’s president, where he will be welcomed at the Phoenix Monument by Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina and, quite possibly, their dogs Brod and Sioda.

He will then meet with assorted luminaries including taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Dublin Castle at noon before visiting St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral at 3.30pm and the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless on Arran Quay at 4.30pm. 

At 7.45pm, he will speak at the Festival of Families concert at Croke Park, headlining a bill that also includes Andrea Bocelli and Daniel O’Donnell. Quite what B*witched are doing with themselves these days, we don’t know.

Where the Pope will stay overnight has not been disclosed for security reasons. Farmleigh House, the usual state guest house for visiting dignitaries, will reportedly not be in use.

On Sunday, the Pope will fly to Knock in County Mayo, complete with Popemobile, to visit the Apparition Chapel where he will lead the recitation of the Angelus before an audience of an anticipated 45,000.

He will finally return to Dublin for “a modest lunch” with his delegation, give the papal mass at the World Meeting of Families gathering in Phoenix Park – the centrepiece of his visit – before meeting with the Irish Bishops at the Convent of the Domincan Sisters in Cabra. 

No doubt exhausted, he will finally jet back to the Vatican from Dublin Airport on Sunday evening via a business class seat on Aer Lingus.

The event was inaugurated in 1994 by order of John Paul II and is held in cities around the world every three years, intended, rather pointedly, to celebrate the role of the nuclear family in society.

It was last staged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2015, an event at which no fewer than six women went into labour. Clear evidence of a miracle or a mere statistical formality, depending on your point of view.

Over 500,000 people are expected to attend the Pope’s Phoenix Park mass on Sunday, which is impressive but pales in comparison to the 1.25m who saw John Paul II at the same venue in 1979.

This is perhaps the clearest indication of the Catholic Church’s reduced influence over Irish public life, a more liberal society having emerged in recent decades and given rise to referendum results in favour of same-sex marriage and abortion in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

There will be 2,500 portable toilets on site for the big occasion, according to the BBC, as well as 150 food and drink outlets slicing up 25,000 loaves for sandwiches and pouring 31,250 litres of milk for tea. 

Around 4,000 Communion servers will be at work, catering to queues of 1,000 people each.

The event will be marshalled by 2,500 police with 1,000 paramedics on hand. There will even be a pop-up mortuary on site in case the sheer emotion of the moment or the strain of overcrowding should prove too much for frail older attendees.

Pope Francis will meet with the survivors of historic abuse at the hands of clergymen but the details will not be released in advance in order to protect the anonymity of the victims.

A “solidarity event” will meanwhile by held at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance at 3pm on Sunday for those abused by Catholic priests, intended to coincide with the papal mass.

“We cannot and will not allow this visit to simply disappear those who have suffered. This event will be a moment to assert and respect the dignity of those who have been abused, and to stand in solidarity with them. To mark an end to the Ireland that allowed this to happen,” Colm O’Gorman, founder of the support group One in Four, told The Irish Times.