Pope begins historic visit to Ireland
Francis will meet a number of clerical abuse victims in private during the visit.
Last updated 25th Aug 2018
He took off on an Alitalia flight from Rome just before 8.30am and landed in the Irish capital at around 10.26am.
Senior Irish clerics and other dignitaries gathered on the apron of the runway to greet the Pope clapped as the Alitalia flight landed.
Irish and Vatican flags were flown from the cockpit window as the aircraft taxied toward its stand.
After walking down the steps from the plane, the Pope was greeted by Irish Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney, his wife Ruth and their three daughters Jessica, Beth and Annalise.
Mr Coveney's youngest daughter, five-year-old Annalise, presented Francis with a bouquet of flowers.
The bouquet included thistles, yellow and white roses and green foliage.
The Boland family, who attended the World Meeting of Families, presented him with a vestment they designed.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to welcome Francis during his whistle-stop tour of the capital city and Co Mayo over the weekend.
The Pontiff will witness a country that has undergone seismic social changes in the four decades since the last papal visit in 1979, when John Paul II was lauded by a nation shaped by its relationship with an all-powerful Catholic Church.
While the Pope will receive a warm reception from the thousands of pilgrims who have travelled to be part of the occasion, he will also be met by protesters angry at how the church dealt with multiple clerical sex abuse scandals that have damaged trust in the religious institution and seriously weakened its influence on Irish society.
Francis will meet a number of abuse victims in a private meeting amid expectation he will use his public utterances elsewhere to confront the emotive issue.
Earlier this week, the Pope wrote a 2,000-word letter to Catholics in which he condemned the crime of sexual abuse by priests and subsequent cover-ups.
The Pope demanded accountability in response to fresh revelations in Pennsylvania in the United States of decades of misconduct by clerics.
Francis is ostensibly in Ireland to attend the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) - a major global church event focused on promoting family values.
However, he will also fulfil a number of other engagements, including meetings with President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
With Ireland in the midst of a high-profile homelessness problem, the Pope will also meet a number of impacted families at a centre run by a religious order.
Around 100,000 people are expected to line the streets of Dublin city centre on Saturday afternoon as the Pope passes through in his famous Pope Mobile.
In the evening he will join 80,000 pilgrims at a musical festival in the landmark Croke Park Gaelic Athletic Association stadium.
On Sunday the Pope will fly west to Co Mayo where he will follow in the footsteps of John Paul II and take part in a religious service at a Holy shrine in Knock.
He will then return to Dublin for the closing centrepiece of the WMOF event - an outdoor Mass in front of an expected congregation of half a million people.
The streets of Dublin remained quiet early on Saturday morning, with little tangible sense of the high-profile events due to follow later in the day.
Mass traffic restrictions added to the quiet atmosphere along the roads where tens of thousands are expected to gather later.
Some tourists on early-morning walks were not even aware the Pope was due.
On Dame Street, where the Pope Mobile will pass around 4.20pm, workers in high-visibility jackets were busy erecting railings and barriers to manage the anticipated crowds.
Yellow and white flags of the Vatican were flying along the River Liffey on Saturday morning to mark the Papal visit.
Dublin City Council workers were out in force from before dawn preparing the streets.
One predicted a long day ahead.
"We started putting the barriers and railings out at 4am this morning and we weren't told what time the work would be done,'' he said.
"It's a big job, so I'm not even sure how many of us they have in the city centre at the minute, but it couldn't be far off 100.''
The Rainbow Choir is made up of LGBT singers and is protesting in Dublin against the exclusion of gay people and their families from the World Meeting Of Families (WMOF).
Among its supporters are Maria Angalika Fromm, from Germany, who has worked for 50 years for a changed church and said the Pope needed to persist with reforms.
She said: "He needs to break down the patriarchal structures and be open to women's ordination without celibacy and caring for all people including gay and lesbian.
"He has to go on and not be stopped by the old conservative men in the Vatican.''
Soline Humbert, from Versailles near Paris and aged 62, was a steward at the last papal visit in 1979 looking after lost children.
She works with Women's Ordination Worldwide and said Vatican files on abuse should be opened.
"Unless the truth comes out, and we know that as Christians, and we know that as Catholics, there is no movement forward, there is no resurrection, there is no transformation and trust cannot be re-established until the truth is acknowledged.
"It is very painful and it will be very disturbing but the truth is buried in the bottom, in the secret archives, of a lot of dioceses and especially in the Vatican.
"The Pope does need to acknowledge that it was the policy of the Vatican to prevent scandal, and by scandal I mean that the abuse would come to the surface."