Aug. 24, 2018
When Pope John Paul II came to Ireland in 1979, half the population turned out to see him, the BBC World Service presenter Nuala McGovern was amongst them. When Pope Francis arrives for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, he will find a changed country and a Catholic Church rocked by the scandal of clerical sexual abuse.
Nuala returns to her home city of Dublin, to find out if the “Francis Factor” can turn the tide of a Catholic Church whose once mighty hold on this country is has been undermined
Pope Francis will certainly fine a more secular Ireland with the role of the church greatly diminished and changes to the constitution including the vote to legalise same sex marriage, reform to strict abortion laws and divorce. But not everyone has turned their back on the Church and there remains a core of faithful Catholics in this country of Saints and Scholars.
Many will still come to see him, half a million tickets have been taken for the papal mass in Dublin's Phoenix Park and another visit to the shrine at Knock in the west of Ireland, was booked out within hours.
Nuala discovers ash returns home that its more than just the waning influence of the Catholic Church that has caused this most radical shift in culture and country.
Photo: Pope Francis Credit: Vatican Pool/Getty Images
