Hospes

During his two days in Ireland for the World Meeting of Families in August of 2018, Pope Francis made three public appearances, culminating in a mass in Phoenix Park on Sunday the 26th. In stark contrast to the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II, which attracted an estimated 2.5 million spectators (75% of the country’s population at the time), Pope Francis was met with less than 300,000 total attendees during his entire visit. This book examines the uniquely personal experience of some of the 152,000 people in attendance at the Phoenix Park mass, each with their own hopes for the visit and the future of the Catholic church as a fixture in Ireland’s national identity.

Hospes has been published by The Library Project and is available for purchase here.