Visit of Pope Francis heralds the end of the Church as we know it

There is no blame as articulate as the accusations of the implicated, writes Gerard Howlin

Pope Francis will land at Dublin Airport at 10.30am on August 25. If the scale of public exuberance will be entirely different from 1979, I predict it will, within limits, be a modest success. There will certainly be sharp criticism, and perhaps some confrontation.

On the whole, I think there will be a welcome. And then things will go on largely as they were before. It is a healthier thing and a more mature understanding of religion that it is no longer to be defined by, apparently, epoch-making events, only for disappointment to rapidly arrive afterwards.