Papal mass in Phoenix Park likely to be a damp squib

[Pat Mustard]

Everybody surely knows by now that Jose Maria Bergoglio is coming to Dublin the weekend to repeat the "Yung people of Irelann I luff yuu" schtick of 1979.

That quote has a somewhat different connotation these days.

The rcc gave out 500,000 tickets for the mass on Sunday in order to boost numbers for the mass.

Bonfires need kindling.

But from anecdotes I'm both getting and hearing this is not working.  First a number of people (not just atheists) booked tickets to not go (one lad got 650), second with the logistical nightmare (bus park is 6.5km from the Park) more people are falling out.  And finally from speaking with a work colleague who's organising her parish's trip there are multiple copies of tickets going to each participant.  The parish have c25 going, they got 75 tickets and most of those going also booked their own tickets.  So if this is replicated across the country the crowd will be very sparse, barely getting out of five figures.

They can do nothing right. A lot are pissed off that for World Meeting of Families, same sex parent families are banned. A lot are pissed off that homeless families currently housed in hotels/B&Bs are being ejected to make room for papal tourists. Catherine Corless, the tireless researcher into the Tuam babies scandal has refused to meet Jonathan Price the pope. And on and on and on.

I believe that the whole lot of them are stuck in a past where they were venerated themselves.

Only one of the whole hierarchy of any worth is Diarmuid Martin.