Pope Francis has arrived in Ireland on Saturday with an official two-day visit, which is the first visit of the leader of the Catholic Church to the country in over four decades, local media reported.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2018) Pope Francis has arrived in Ireland on Saturday with an official two-day visit, which is the first visit of the leader of the Catholic Church to the country in over four decades, local media reported.
According to the RTE broadcaster, the pope will meet with Irish President Michael D. Higgins in the latters residence on Sunday. The ceremony of oak tree planting will take place in the residence. Pope John Paul II, the last catholic leader who has visited Ireland prior to Pope Francis, also took part in such ceremony in 1979.
During his visit, the pope is set to have a largely anticipated meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse, as well as with a number of state officials, and attend the World Meeting of Families Congress in Dublin. Before departing for Vatican, he will also deliver a mass in Phoenix Park in the country's capital on Sunday.
Pope Francis visits Ireland just over week after another massive cover-up of sexual abuse and rape of minors by catholic priests was revealed, with a grand jury report showing that more than 1,000 children had been molested by at least 301 Roman Catholic priests in the US state of Pennsylvania since the 1940s.
