Pope Francis will make a flying trip to Knock Shrine as part of his visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families in August. His itinerary will also include visits to the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless People, a prison, and a private meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse.

His two main public events will be a Festival of Families in Croke Park on Saturday evening, Aug 25th, and a mass in the Phoenix Park on Sunday afternoon at 3pm.

Meanwhile, the numbers of those booked to attend the events prior to the Pope’s arrival looks set to sell out. WMoF2018 spokesperson Brenda Drumm said, to date, 30,000 people had registered for the three-day pastoral congress at the RDS on Wednesday August 22nd through to Friday August 24th. “It looks like we are going to sell out the RDS,” she said. A third of the people registered are from a total of 103 countries abroad. “It has been really, really encouraging,” she said.