Irish Catholic Church leaders are increasingly confident that Pope Benedict XVI will come to Ireland next year. This second papal visit to Ireland would mark the 30th anniversary of the historic visit in 1979 of his predecessor, the late John Paul II.
Before his illness and death in 2005, the Polish Pontiff was planning a return to Ireland that would have included a visit to the North.
High-placed sources in the Vatican have confirmed that John Paul's successor is keen to fulfil his ambition, and that there is a suitable gap in the German Pontiff's travel diary from late spring to June 2009.
This would enable Pope Benedict to schedule a short visit into his timetable.
A second papal visit would aim to consolidate the peace process and democratic stability in the North, as well as warning against a secularist trend feared by Rome to be a growing threat to traditional Christian values in both the Republic and the North.
Objective
A third objective of the trip would be for Pope Benedict to complete John Paul's wish to celebrate Mass in Armagh, something he was unable to do three decades ago because of the IRA's terrorist campaign.
Diplomatic sources in Rome intimate that Britain's ambassador to the Holy See, Francis Campbell, a Catholic from Co Down, has been presenting the possible papal visit as one to the north.
Ambassador Campbell has suggested that in parallel to the Pope's visit to the North, Queen Elizabeth should make her first visit to the Republic.
But officials on the papal staff inside the Catholic Church's powerful central civil service, the Curia, stress that Pope Benedict, has not yet initiated formal preparations for a visit to Ireland, North or South.
This means that previous speculation of a visit being made this year by Benedict has receded.
The Irish Independent has learned that serious consideration is being given by the Pontiff to visiting the Holy Land this year to support renewed efforts to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Far from being disappointed that a papal visit to Ireland in 2008 is no longer on the cards, there is a mood of quiet confidence among the Irish Catholic bishops that Pope Benedict will agree on a date for the first half of 2009.
An official invitation for a visit to Ireland was handed to the Pope in October 2006 by the then Archbishop Brady.
As the Irish Hierarchy is an all-Ireland body, the bishops are keen for the Pope to visit both the Republic and the North.
Last March, President Mary McAleese assured Pope Benedict that if he decided to accept the invitation from the Irish bishops, the Government would do everything to make the visit a success.
Three months ago, when he created the Irish Primate, Sean Brady, a Cardinal, the Pope told him that he would like to come to Ireland.
The Pope also told Cardinal Brady that he saw the installation of the power-sharing Executive in Belfast as a model for conflict resolution in other world trouble spots.
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