The Galway County Council has agreed to invite Pope Francis to the county at Monday’s monthly meeting.
The motion proposed by Cllr Michael Fahy was unanimously backed by the chamber, coming just hours after it was confirmed that the Catholic pontiff was visiting Ireland in August 2018.
Cllr Fahy said: “This Pope is a man of the poor and downtrodden.”
Cllr Fahy also highlighted that it would be important that Pope Francis and Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown’s visit would Kilmacduagh.
“Kilmacduagh is the oldest diocese in Ireland. The grandparents of the Papal Nuncio rest in peace in this cemetery. Kilmacduagh Monastic Site in Gort is where Christianity was born in south Galway in the fifth century and is where St Coleman built a monastery and tower.”
The news of the Pope’s visit to Ireland was revealed on Monday morning by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, following a 23 minute meeting with the pontiff in the Vatican.
The meeting was requested following the invitation to the pope by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ conference to visit Ireland for the church’s World Meeting of Families in two years.
It will be the first time the head of the Catholic Church will visit these shores since Pope John Paul II did so in 1979.
