PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has said the Pope's visit to Ireland in 2018 would inspire and strengthen but also challenge many Irish people.
President Higgins has met with Pope Francis during an audience with His Holiness on May 22, in Vatican City.
Their meeting comes ahead of the six-day World Meeting of Families in Dublin from August 21 to 26 next year.
President Higgins said: "I look forward, dear friends, to joining with others in welcoming Pope Francis to Ireland next year.
"As you all know, it is his hope and intention to attend the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August 2018. For him as well, it will be a return visit.
"I know that for a great many people in Ireland, Pope Francis’s visit will be a moment when they will be inspired, and strengthened, and indeed challenged.
"It will be another important moment in the global dialogue we so pressingly need about the kind of society we want to build for this and for future generations."
During their meeting, President Higgins and Pope Francis also discussed a wide range of issues, including migration; climate change; sustainable development; the failure to prevent ever increasing threats of conflict; global poverty; and the need to achieve social cohesion.
The President and Pope Francis spoke of their shared conviction that new connections between ethics, economy and ecology must be at the core of all work of social and intellectual reconstruction in this new century.
Speaking after the meeting, President Higgins said Pope Francis has been "a compelling voice tirelessly awakening us to the web of interdependencies that weaves humanity together."
"Indeed from the first moments of his Papacy, Pope Francis has been an indispensable voice of humanity and clarity. He has journeyed to places of discord, where he has sought to sow the seeds of peace.
"He has been a voice for those most vulnerable – calling for housing for the homeless, land for the landless and the native peoples, dignified employment for those excluded from the labour market, and the fundamental right that all of them have to question “macro-relations” of power and inequality."
The World Meeting of Families is hosted in a different location every three years - the most recent being Philadelphia in September 2015, which was attended by Pope Francis.
The religious festival will include exhibitions, cultural events and musical performances, events around the city, and gestures of solidarity, all on the theme of “The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World."
As part of the preparation for the event, the organisers of the World Meeting of Families are now inviting thousands of volunteers to participate in this once-in-a-generation event.
The volunteers will be part of the operational team which will organise and run what will be the largest gathering of families in the world.
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the World Meeting of Families at Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia in 2015. (Picture: CJ Gunther-Pool/Getty Images)Volunteers must be resident in Ireland, over 18 years of age and respectful of the Catholic ethos of the event, and will also assist at related preparatory events which will take place around the country.
In addition to the volunteer recruitment drive, a Host a Pilgrim or Family programme has also been launched with the aim of hosting pilgrims in family-homes based in and around Dublin.
WMOF’s Secretary General Father Timothy Bartlett said: “On behalf of the World Meeting of Families 2018 I encourage any individual or group who has an interest in supporting this joyful and faith-filled event to become involved and join as a volunteer.
"I have no doubt that it will be a rewarding and memorable experience for anyone who takes part, as well as a unique opportunity to contribute to one of the biggest events to take place in Ireland next year.
He added: “We are inviting women and men with a variety of gifts, skills and talents to help us.
"Volunteers will be needed in a variety of roles such as acting as event ambassadors, stewards, ushers, meeting and greeting guests, offering hospitality, supporting media communications and providing information, music, liturgy, medical services, pastoral support, language translation, administration, transport, photographic services, and in logistics.
“Most importantly of all we are looking for people with a welcoming, positive and flexible attitude, who can work as part of a team to assist the thousands of pilgrims who will come to participate in the World Meeting of Families in 2018.”
