Matthew Carlson
Anticipation is growing in Ireland ahead of the World Meeting of Families, with event organisers set to release details tomorrow of how pilgrims can attend WMOF2018 events led by Pope Francis on the last day of the festival.
At a press conference tomorrow, WMOF2018 Secretary General Fr Timothy Bartlett, general manager Anne Griffin, and media and communications manager Brenda Drumm will outline how Pope Francis will visit Knock Shrine on August 26 to pray for families before presiding at the Closing Mass for the WMOF2018 in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The conference organisers will explain how 45,000 tickets will be available for booking for the papal visit to Knock, where the Pope will visit the Apparition Chapel and give the Angelus address in front of the chapel in the shrine grounds. The Pontiff is expected to arrive at the shrine at 9:45am, leaving an hour later.
Organisers will also explain at the conference in Holy Cross Diocesan Centre, Clonliffe, how 600,000 pilgrims will be able to book tickets for the WMOF2018 closing Mass in Dublin; the Pope is scheduled to arrive in the Phoenix Park at 2:30pm, with Mass to begin half an hour later.
Although these events are ticketed, they will be free of charge.
These two ticketed events will follow five days of WMOF2018 events, beginning with the meeting’s national opening across Ireland’s 26 dioceses on Tuesday, August 21, running through a packed programme at a three-day pastoral congress in the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin, before a Festival of Families in Dublin’s Croke Park on Saturday, August 25.
The festival will be a celebration of family, with music and cultural acts, within a prayerful and joyful atmosphere, during which personal stories of Faith will be shared by families from throughout the world, and will be addressed by Pope Francis at 7:45pm.
