Chai Brady
Joyous pilgrims from across Ireland are hopping on planes trains and automobiles in their hoards this week to celebrate the importance of family and marriage in their lives.
In a moment that will go down in history, Pope Francis will step off his plane at approximately 10.30am on Saturday to be greeted by clergy and politicians.
It’s believed 750,000 people in total will be attending all the WMOF events, from the opening ceremonies in each diocese on Tuesday evening, to the Pope’s final Mass in the Phoenix Park.
All 45,000 tickets for Knock, which the Pope will visit on Sunday morning, were booked out in just four hours by excited pilgrims.
Biggest event
For the biggest and most anticipated event, the Pope’s Mass in the Phoenix Park on Sunday, there were 500,000 tickets booked. Within the first 24 hours 300,000 were secured.
About 37,000 people will descend on the RDS from Wednesday-Friday for the Pastoral Congress. A huge amount of these, 15,000, are coming from 116 countries, with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin saying it’s a moment to “showcase” Ireland and the Church to the world.
In total 6,000 young people under 18 will attend the Pastoral Congress, with all areas of the event being family friendly. A further 2,000 performers will keep all entertained.
Of the 292 announced speakers, 91 are lay women, 65 are lay men and 44 are clergy/religious, with the largest group being couples.
It is an international programme, with speakers from five continents.
With the 7,000 volunteers from all over Ireland, who agreed to give their time to make the event a success, the WMOF has been made possible.
The Festival of Families, held on Saturday in Croke Park, has also been booked out with over 80,000 expected to attend.
With such huge numbers and interest from across the country, there’s no doubt all who attend will be making history this week.