Galway City to send formal invitation to Pope Francis

Galway City Council is to extend a formal invitation to Pope Francis to visit the city during his papal tour of Ireland next year.

A motion was passed at a local authority meeting that the invite be sent to the Pope, who will be in Ireland in August 2018.

Cllr Pearce Flannery proposed that the Council executive “write to Dr Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and request that he formally invite His Holiness Pope Francis to visit Galway during his proposed visit to Ireland in 2018”.

On the advice of Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, he agreed to omit “and celebrate Mass in a similar fashion to his predecessor John Paul II in 1979”, as he said the invite was more likely to be acceptable without conditions attached.

Cllr Flannery said he is not a religious person, but believed it would be a positive thing for the city.

The motion was passed.

Pope Francis will travel to Ireland to attend the World Meeting of Families, which takes place every three years.

The last papal visit to Ireland was in September 1979, when a quarter of a million people attended mass with John Paul II at Ballybrit racecourse.