IRISH REPUBLIC

Pilgrims to crowd Dublin for World Meeting of Families and papal visit

August 21, 2018

The World Meeting of Families will bring Pope Francis and Catholics from around the world to Dublin to focus on the importance of marriage, an institution on which the pope has taken a controversial stand.

It will be the first papal trip to Ireland in nearly 40 years. His presence and the massive crowd in the final days of the event present a monumental security challenge for the authorities: Islamic State militants have issued death threats against both the pope and Catholics.

The reform-minded pontiff’s 2016 document Amoris Laetitia has upset Catholic traditionalists. In a widely circulated letter in Aug 2017, several dozen conservative Catholic theologians charged the pope with promoting "heresies," most notably through his openness to allowing some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the church’s sacraments. The letter accuses the pope of imposing "strange doctrines on the faithful," and asks him to publicly correct his teachings.

The Lumen Fidei Institute plans to convene its Conference of Catholic Families on Aug 22-23, in Dublin, as an alternative to the main event. The Catholic publication LifeSite reports that the organizers "felt compelled to coordinate the conference, which will feature speakers who are uncompromising on Catholic doctrine, after witnessing the flagrant LGBT push associated with the Vatican’s meeting."

The event begins with a three-day congress in Dublin with the theme, The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World. Visitor numbers will surge for the weekend finale of the event – the Festival of Families on Saturday and for the Mass on Sunday. Pope Francis will arrive for the last two days of the conference and will preside at the Mass that wraps up the event.

The security challenge of ensuring the safety of both the pope and pilgrims, which usually number in the millions for papal visits, will keep the authorities wakeful ahead of and during the event.

Reuters reported in Apr 2017 that a New Jersey teen pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to terrorists in what was believed to be an ISIS-inspired effort to assassinate the pope in during a public Mass at the 2015 World Meeting of Families.

#22323 Published: October 1, 2017