A PAPAL visit to Ireland is expected in June next year, although no confirmation has yet been announced by the Vatican.
The Pope is expected to be the chief celebrant at an open air Mass in Dublin's Croke Park on June 17, 2012, marking the end of a week-long International Eucharistic Congress.
Church leaders hope Pope Benedict XVI will also visit Northern Ireland.
This would be only the second visit by a pontiff to the Republic and the first to Northern Ireland.
During the historic visit of the late Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979, plans for the Polish pontiff to go North were called off on account of Provisional IRA violence.
Protests
Last September, Pope Benedict
did not include Northern Ireland on his visit to Scotland and England,
which was acclaimed a success in spite of protests from abuse victims
and gay rights groups.
After the public and media outrage over the
Vatican's refusal to cooperate with the commission of inquiry into the
archdiocese of Dublin, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, a visit to Ireland
by Pope Benedict would almost certainly provoke protests, and would not
attract the enthusiastic crowds who flocked to see Pope John Paul.
Speculation
of a papal visit to Ireland has been rife since Pope Benedict selected
Dublin as the venue for the world congress to foster spiritual renewal,
in the wake of the clerical child abuse scandals and cover-ups which
damaged the standing of the Irish church.
Invitations to visit Ireland are in Pope Benedict's in-tray from President Mary McAleese, the Government, and Cardinal Sean Brady on behalf of the Irish Conference of Bishops.
But
under Vatican protocol, it is the Pope's prerogative to announce his
travel plans, and as Pope Benedict would be 85 by June 2011, a
confirmation of his intention of leading the Congress in Ireland would
not be expected until early next year.
The more immediate focus of
the German pontiff is the report and recommendations that he will
receive later this month from a team of international investigators he
appointed to conduct a confidential probe in Ireland.