Pope won't be coming to Clonmacnois says local priest

Pope Francis would be warmly welcomed if he paid a visit to Clonmacnois in 2018, but the parish priest in Shannonbridge believes that it is unlikely that he will follow in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent, Fr Tom Cox said that since the announcement was made earlier this week that the Pope would be attending the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August of 2018, there has been much speculation locally about whether he will pay a visit to the world famous monastic site as the now St John Paul did in 1979.

However, Fr Cox said that while he would be “warmly welcomed” if he came to Offaly, the fact that Pope Francis will be spending only 48 hours in the country means that he won't have the time.

The Pope's first day in the country will be spent attending the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, while it's been predicted that he will visit Armagh on his second day.

“He would be extremely welcome and there has been a lot of local reaction. People understand that it is an extremely short visit. Pope John Paul was here for three days and this is a Pastoral visit not a full visit.”

Fr Cox was 14 when Pope John Paul visited Ireland in 1979 and was one of the 300,000 who travelled to her him say Mass in Ballybritt in Galway. The Mass in Galway was delayed as Pope John Paul spent longer in Clonmacnois than anticipated.

'I will never forget that place, in which we stopped for a short time, in the early morning hours, on Sunday September 30: Clonmacnois.  The ruins of the monastery and of the churches speak of the life that once pulsated there...It is difficult to look on these ruins merely as a monument of the past:  whole generations of Europe owe to them the light of the Gospel and the structural framework of their culture.”