Pope Francis will visit the homeless in Dublin during his stay in Ireland this summer.
The Pope is heading to Ireland in August to coincide with the World Meeting of Families. He will say mass at Phoenix Park in front of hundreds of thousands of people.
He will also take a tour through Dublin in the Popemobile which will give people another chance to see him.
Now Brother Kevin Crowle of Dublin’s Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless people has revealed that the Pope will also take time out to visit some of the city’s less fortunate people.
Pope Francis will pay a special visit to the centre while he is in Dublin. The planning has been ongoing for months but had been a closely guarded secret until now.
Brother Kevin, who has been the Capuchin friar for over 40 years revealed the news on Newstalk Breakfast.
He said: “We have a very, very special guest coming to see us … I am so delighted and I think its absolutely fantastic, non other than Pope Francis himself.
“I think that this is a huge, huge honour for the people in need and for the homeless people.
“It is going to be really exciting for them and that is why I am so delighted that these people are being recognised by the Pope.
“We had a number of people from Rome here making preparations already.”
Brother Kevin also thanked Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who has been instrumental in organising the visit to the Capuchin Centre – which will take place on August 25.
He said: “Archbishop Martin is really responsible for that [the visit] and I’m so thankful to him to organise the Pope to come to the Day Centre.
“It is fabulous that he (Pope Francis) is giving such precious time to the homeless people and, of course, I am not surprised by that because everywhere he went he made a special effort to be involved with the poor.
“He is the man for the poor and a man of great concern for the under-privileged.”
The Capuchin Centre provides on average of 1,000 hot meals every day and also provides clothing and a range of medical and social services.
It costs over €3 million per year to run.
Click here for more information about the Capuchin Day Centre
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling