The Pope in Ireland   The long-anticipated moment has arrived. Ever since Pope Francis chose Ireland three years ago to play host to the international World Meeting of Families gathering, he was determined to set foot on Irish soil. “I will come – if I don’t come, my successor will come,” he said. Pope Francis…

The Pope in Ireland   Praised globally for reaching out to those on the margins, and for touching the hearts and minds of millions of people, our current Pontiff has made a magnanimous impact in the world today. But what is the story behind the man in the white robes? Who is Pope Francis? Jorge…

The Pope in Ireland A two-year exile helped make the future Pope the man he is, writes Greg Daly   “I’m very pleased with the way things have gone,” Fr James Kelly SJ told The Irish Catholic in 2015, two years into Pope Francis’ papacy. “He has surprised me. He’s a changed man.” Fr Kelly,…

The Pope in Ireland Chai Brady discusses the Pope’s trips abroad and their importance   Although Pope Francis has travelled many times within Italy, it is his foreign trips that have drawn the most interest – and sometimes controversy. He is the first Pope to enter a warzone, is not afraid to tackle delicate political…

The Pope in Ireland After five years has Francis lived up to Irish expectations?   Fr Alan Hillard “No papacy is perfect”, says Fr Alan Hilliard, a Dublin-based priest and strong advocate of migrant’s rights, but in the five years that Francis has been Pope, he has exceeded expectations. Referencing the author Austen Ivereigh, Fr…

The Pope in Ireland Pope Francis is a Pope for a truly global Church, writes 
Prof. Eamonn Conway   The World Meeting of Families coincides with news of shameful sex crimes by clergy against children and vulnerable adults in the USA in recent past decades. At first glance it might seem that little progress has…

The Pope in Ireland The Pope’s most controversial document is an attempt to face reality, writes Greg Daly   “I see the Church as a field hospital after battle,” Pope Francis told the Jesuit Fr Antonio Spadaro in a September 2013 interview. “It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol…

The Pope in Ireland Pope Francis harbours no illusions about modern Ireland, Cardinal Kevin Farrell told Greg Daly   When it was announced at the closing ceremony of the 2015 World Meeting of Families that the Church’s next global celebration of the family would be held in Dublin, eyebrows inevitably were raised. The September 27…

Pope in Ireland Colm Fitzpatrick explores why the Pope chose the name ‘Francis’   Nowadays, the names that we are given or ascribe usually have no abiding meaning or significance, but merely act as markers for identifying one another. However, in the Jewish tradition, names carried spiritual significance – they held a certain symbolic meaning…

Pope in Ireland   In the papal apartments the next morning after Joseph Ratzinger was declared Pope in 2005, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio paused longer than almost any other cardinal to converse with the new German Pontiff and express his deferential respect and loyalty – a tradition that has been carried out by cardinals since the…