Francis will visit a very different Ireland

THE Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, confirmed yesterday that Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to attend the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in 2018. Pope Francis will visit an Ireland very different to the one his predecessor Pope John Paul II so beguiled in 1979.

The Polish pontiff could not have contemplated the idea of same-sex marriages yet there have been 412 since 62% of the electorate voted, a year ago tomorrow, to endorse the amendment to the Constitution that facilitated such an advance.

It is unlikely too that John Paul could have anticipated the loss of credibility the Irish Catholic Church inflicted on itself because of its reluctance to face the truth about the sexual abuse of children by clerics moved from posting to posting to protect the reputation of that church.