DENVER (CO)
Crux
July 27, 2018
By Charles Collins
Dublin, Ireland – A month before Pope Francis touches down on his first visit to Ireland, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin says the entire nation – religious or not – is interested in what the pontiff has to say.
“The tickets were booked out within days. The big problem – both in Dublin and in Knock – there is no room to take in more people, and more people want to come,” Martin told Crux.
The pope will travel to the country Aug. 25-26 for the final two days of the week-long World Meeting of Families.
Francis will be coming to a very different Ireland than the one that last welcomed a pope in 1979, when millions came to see John Paul II.
The clerical abuse scandal has greatly damaged the reputation of the Church: Not only have same-sex marriage and abortion been legalized, but recent surveys show about half of Irish people under the age of 30 don’t even identify as Catholic.
Martin said young people were “horrified” by the scandal, and one of the challenges for the Church in the future is to learn to re-engage them.
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