BREAKING: 2018 World Meeting of Families Will Be Held in Dublin, Ireland

There he goes! Pope Francis boards his plane for the long return flight to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport. Safe travels, Papa Francisco!

But before he left, we heard a Very Big Announcement:  At the end of the Closing Mass, it was announced that the 9th World Meeting of Families will be held in 2018 in Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland is still a strongly Catholic country, with Catholics comprising about 85% of the population. Most of Ireland’s schools and hospitals are faith-based, run by religious orders or church authorities. The bells of the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, toll on state-operated television stations twice daily, calling people to prayer at noon and 6:00 p.m. And abortion is still illegal in that country.

But the Church in Ireland has been deeply affected by the clergy sexual abuse cover-ups. And Ireland has not been visited by a Pope since 1979, when Pope John Paul II spent three days in that country. So perhaps it’s time for a major initiative, with an evangelistic fervor that matches what we’ve just seen here in America!

Archbishop Eamon Martin, archbishop of Armagh and the Catholic primate for Ireland, said in a statement,

“I am delighted to hear that Pope Francis has announced that the 9th World Meeting of Families will take place in Dublin, and that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is in Philadelphia with our delegates to hear the news directly from the Holy Father. Three years ago the 50th International Eucharistic Congress was a great celebration of faith for Ireland, and it attracted pilgrims from  all around the world. I am confident that the World Meeting of Families in 2018 will also be an uplifting event for all of us.”