‘Unpredictable’ Francis will make visit unique, says Martin

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has moved to downplay any comparison between next year’s papal visit to Ireland by Pope Francis and the last one in 1979 when Pope John Paul II became the first pope to set foot on Irish soil, writes Sarah Mac Donald.

Acknowledging that there is interest in a large high-profile Mass as part of the World Meeting of Families gathering in August 2018, he referred to the turnout of more than a million people in Dublin’s Phoenix Park almost 40 years ago, and said he was aware comparisons would be made between the two papal visits.

But the archbishop, who is president of the event, said Pope Francis doesn’t want to “repeat what others have done” and so it wouldn’t be a matter of getting out the plans for 1979 and executing them.

He told RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke programme: “There will be a qualitative difference” and that Francis would also address the changes that have taken place in the Irish Church since then.

“This is a very different pope; this pope knows what he wants to do himself and he doesn’t want to repeat what others have done.” He added that the Argentinian was “very unpredictable” and would “do his own things when he comes”.

He sounded a positive note on the Irish Church today, despite the decline in Mass attendance. “The majority of the parishes in Dublin were never as vibrant in the past as they are today,” he said, adding that there were “too many Masses” in parishes across his diocese and that they instead should be “concentrating on having a principal Sunday Mass in which all the elements of the believing community come together and share and worship”.