The last time a pope visited Ireland was 1979.
Evana Boyle from the group Catholic Comment, which is based in Ireland, has been taking part in festivities this week with The World Meeting of Families.
The event, which aims to strengthen the bonds between families, held an opening ceremony on Tuesday with 39,000 people in attendance leading up to the pope’s visit.
Boyle told Premier News Hour there is a lot of excitement.
“It is just full of enthusiasm and excitement and celebration of faith which is really lovely to see,” she said.
There will be many speakers and seminars at events across the capital and the highlight will be the Pope taking part in a session.
As part of it, the Festival of Families is choreographed as a celebration of family life in music, dance, and spoken word.
Pope Francis will join an audience of 82,500 in the Croke Park sports stadium where he will hear testimonies from families and see performers like Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Boyle said the visit comes at a very important time as allegations of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic institutions and clerics have begun to emerge from the late 1980s.
“This is a real boost for Catholics in Ireland because this is a difficult time as we all know,” she said.
“I hope this will be a shot in the arm for the Church to renew a hurting Church, and to just help us solider on in a very secular society…
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