Pope Francis's work for peace must be remembered by those attending his funeral, says Higgins
Mr Higgins and his wife Sabina paid their respects at the lying in state of Francis in St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican yesterday. They were pictured stopping for a few moments at the open coffin
President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina pay their respects to Pope Francis in St Peter's Basilica. Photo: Vatican/Maxwells
Pope Francis's work on peace and sustainability must be remembered by those attending his funeral today, President Michael D Higgins has said.
Mr Higgins and his wife Sabina paid their respects at the lying in state of Francis in St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican yesterday. They were pictured stopping for a few moments at the open coffin.
Today they will return to St Peter's Square for the funeral, which will be attended by world leaders including US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin and Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell are also due to attend.
Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill has also confirmed she will travel to Rome. The Sinn Féin vice-president has cut short a family holiday to attend.
In a statement ahead of the funeral, Mr Higgins said: 'As President of Ireland, I am pleased to communicate the appreciation of all of the people of Ireland for the life, the documents and the contacts to the most vulnerable all over the world made by Pope Francis, who I was honoured to meet with on five occasions.
He was a strong spokesperson for how global poverty could be eliminated and he gave leadership in relation to the rights of migrants
'The world was struck by the generosity given by Pope Francis, right until the very last moments of his life, in terms of seeking to embrace, as he put it, all of humanity.
'Through his life and his work, Pope Francis... was a strong advocate for the fulfilling of obligations in relation to nature and the indigenous peoples who are paying the highest price for the consequences of climate change.
'He was a strong spokesperson for how global poverty could be eliminated and he gave leadership in relation to the rights of migrants.
'In attending the funeral and celebrating the life of Pope Francis, it is important to stress his work on our shared humanity and on the importance of peace, sustainability and of rights.'
This is the third papal funeral that Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, a Dubliner who works at the Vatican, will attend.
He is the secretary for discipline at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for religious discipline in the Catholic Church.
He said Francis's funeral will be more humble than previous ones, but it will have typical elements such as world leaders being present.
'These world leaders are going to have a unique opportunity to meet each other... and I'm sure they're going to exchange words,' he told RTÉ radio, adding that the word 'pontifex' means 'bridge builder'.
The Pope's funeral begin at 9am Irish time today.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Who is the American who left €535,000 to Sinn Féin's US fundraising group in her trust?
Buried in two half-year filings that Friends of Sinn Féin , the political party's US fundraising arm, submitted were large donations from a previously unknown woman. The group is obliged to lodge the regular reports disclosing its activities and fundraising every six months to the US Department of Justice under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of Sinn Féin , and has been doing so for two decades. Friends of Sinn Féin raises annual donations from long-time supporters, mainly from wealthy Irish-American building contractors and their contacts working in the New York and New Jersey area. But on the lists of smaller donors on two occasions in the regular Friends of Sinn Féin filings over the past three years was the name Lauren Harvey. The sums involved stood out from the usual $10 and $25 donations mostly made online. READ MORE In 2022, the group benefited from a windfall of $394,010 (€345,000) by way of a 'distribution' from an entity called the Lauren Harvey Living Trust. Then last month, the latest Friends of Sinn Féin filing for the six months to the end of April shows, a second sum – $216,521 (€191,861) – landed from the same trust linked to the late Lauren Harvey, bringing its donations to $610,531 (€535,000). 'It is still the largest donation we have received. Bequests happen, but that donation was incredibly generous,' said Mark Guilfoyle, president of Friends of Sinn Féin. 'We were very surprised – and are eternally grateful – that Harvey would think of us in her living trust ... she was surely a generous and caring individual.' The late billionaire US philanthropist Chuck Feeney donated $780,000 to the group to assist in its establishment in the mid-1990s, though those donations came from Feeney personally ($380,000) and two entities he was connected with totalling $400,000. She was a quiet adventurer. She cared deeply about people, and she just gave so much of herself in every situation she was in. She had a lot of loss in her life, and out of that loss she brought forth a lot of beauty and a lot of enjoyment for herself and for anyone around her — Kathleen Erickson Harvey has been described as a 'quiet adventurer' who lived in a rural area outside of the desert city of Tucson, Arizona. She may have lived 8,000km from Ireland, but she had a deep love for Irish culture. Harvey was hit by a car on November 12th, 2020, while cycling near her home. She died instantly. But her generosity lives on through the Lauren Harvey Living Trust. Friends of Sinn Féin has been one of her biggest beneficiaries. Guilfoyle, the group's president, said the money is used 'to 'build and maintain support' for the 1998 Good Friday agreement – the landmark agreement underpinning the Northern Ireland peace process – and to 'promote Irish unity through peaceful and democratic means'. 'We do that by providing platforms for Sinn Féin representatives on these issues in the US,' he said. Harvey, who was 60 when she died, created the trust with her now-deceased long-time partner Kathleen Digan, who was Irish and 'completely immersed in Irish stuff', said Kathleen Erickson, Harvey's partner of 16 years at the time of her death. [ Sinn Féin's US fundraising arm raises further €233,000 in donations Opens in new window ] 'They spent a lot of time in Ireland. They travelled to Ireland quite a few times. Kathy was literally born on St Paddy's Day, so she really pursued her Irish heritage,' said Erickson, who is trustee of the fund. 'She was becoming fluent in the language and music and all of that, but they also spent quite a bit of time in Ireland, mostly in Connemara.' The pair stayed at a 'kind of farm' in the Connemara area for weeks at a time every year, Erickson said. 'Ireland was just very important to both of them, so it was very clear that they wanted to leave money to Sinn Féin,' she said. Born in Ohio, Harvey moved to Tucson and earned a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Arizona. She worked for the Pima County Department of Parks and Recreation. She later moved to San Jose in California with Digan, but the pair found their way back to Tucson in 2000 and developed their dream home on a patch of desert. 'In fact, the house that Lauren and Kathy designed and built, which is where I live now and where I lived with Lauren for 15 years before she died, is called Conamara Ranch. That's how important the Connemara region was for Kathy and Lauren,' said Erickson. Harvey took a leave of absence from her work with the parks department when Digan was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2002. Digan died two years later, with Harvey by her side. Eventually Harvey found love again with Erickson, and the pair had a commitment ceremony in 2006. Harvey was an avid hiker and cyclist – 'she died doing what she loved', Erickson said. After retiring early in 2011, she learned how to swim and began practising t'ai chi. After Erickson and Harvey went on a 550-mile walking pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, Harvey set about learning Spanish. 'Whenever she did anything, she just threw herself into it. She really gave herself to it. But she never did just one thing at a time,' she said. Harvey also became a sought-after abstract artist. When she died, two shows of her works were planned; since it was during the Covid pandemic, the shows ended up going up online. [ People Before Profit activists quit party over possibility of Sinn Féin-led government Opens in new window ] 'The most significant thing of the last years of her life was that she took a drawing class and one thing led to another, and she just became a wonderful abstract artist, and all of this just flowed out of her in those relatively few years. She had never done anything like that before,' said Erickson. Harvey devoted time and money to many humanitarian causes, including a Tucson-area food bank and the nonprofit Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, which helps immigrants in Arizona. Gabriela Corrales, the group's director of philanthropy, said, 'She came to our virtual events, always wanting to understand what our clients were facing while detained in Arizona. She was thoughtful and asked great questions. Lauren supported the Florence Project with heart. 'I meet many donors, [but] the ones that stand out to me are those that care beyond the gift. Lauren did that.' Harvey lived her life fully, Erickson said, and touched many lives, as evidenced by the number of messages posted on her memorial page. 'She was a quiet adventurer. She cared deeply about people, and she just gave so much of herself in every situation she was in,' she said. 'She had a lot of loss in her life, and out of that loss she brought forth a lot of beauty and a lot of enjoyment for herself and for anyone around her. 'But she would be shocked to think that very many people remembered her.'
Irish Independent
4 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Three killed and maternity hospital hit as Russia launches further airstrikes on Kyiv and Odesa
Anastasiia Malenko and Pavel Polityuk Today at 21:30 Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa in attacks that killed at least three people, officials said yesterday. The overnight strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault of the war on Ukraine on Monday and were part of intensified bombardments in what Moscow says is retaliation for attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russia.
Irish Independent
4 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Fears new rent controls will lead to landlords hoarding properties
There are concerns that the Government's plans for a new system of rent controls will create a 'very big financial incentive' for landlords not to put properties on the market if they become vacant between now and next March. This would enable many landlords to set rents at market rates in March, instead of being tied into 2pc increases under the current Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) rules. A government-commissioned review warned it could take four years before the new rules have any dampening effect on rising rents. A review of RPZs by the Housing Agency also warned that any hoped-for boost to housing construction arising from a reformed system, could be wiped out by global factors including a trade war. The agency recommended reform of the rent pressure zone system, saying this should 'incentivise a return to investment' after a sharp decline in the number of rental apartments being built. 'It will take at least three to four years for this investment to result in more homes being built, but in the longer term any increased supply of rental properties should have a dampening effect on rising rents,' it said. The review further warned that the reforms will not be enough to attract desired investment in investment, and further measures will be needed. Factors including a potential rise in interest rates mean that institutional investment 'might not return at the scale desired, or for the duration of time necessary, to reach housing targets'. It said: 'Externally driven inflation could be triggered by an escalation of geopolitical tensions or renewed stress in global supply chains. At the time of writing, the US had just announced a worldwide imposition of tariffs. 'As a result, the international macro framework is in a state of flux and there's high levels of uncertainty regarding the trajectory of interest rates in the near to medium-term.' I think the only way we can get rents down is by increasing supply As the opposition claimed that the proposed measures will increase rents, the Housing Minister James Browne, was unable to say when the changes would result in falling rents. 'I think the only way we can get rents down is by increasing supply,' he said. 'I expect rents to fall over time. What the particular length of time is, I wouldn't be able to predict.' Sinn Féin's housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said there is now a 'big financial incentive' for landlords not to bring properties on to the market if they become available between now and next March. 'Any new tenancy agreement created from the first of March next year will come in at the top market rent,' he said. 'If a new tenant moves into a rental property tomorrow, the RPZ rules will apply. So there is an economic incentive to wait and given the level of churn in the rental market, that will have an immediate impact.' Under the new plans, the RPZ system, which was due to expire at the end of the year, will in effect be extended nationwide. All existing tenancies will come under a 2pc cap or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Rent increases in new apartment developments will be capped at the level of inflation – in an effort to encourage new developments. New tenancies, created from next March onwards, will be set at market value and offer a six-year rolling tenancy, after which the rent can be reset and put back to the market rate. Large landlords, defined as those with four or more tenancies, will be banned from carrying out no-fault evictions. Smaller landlords can end tenancies via no-fault evictions in limited circumstances such as economic hardship or to move a family member in. But if they do so, they cannot reset the rent. The Government is looking at increasing fines for landlords who break eviction rules and is consulting the Attorney General on the matter. Mr Browne said the fines they should be 'higher' and 'substantial' but there are limits in increasing fines before it crosses into the jurisdiction of the courts. He said he would also 'like to see' a rents register that would bring transparency to what a property had charged in rent previously. Asked who would police the ban on resetting rents except in the case of no-fault evictions, Mr Browne said it would be the Residential Tenancies Board. Renters will pay for government policy failures The Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne warned the changes would lead to increased rental costs and incentivise evictions, adding: 'Renters will pay for government policy failures.' He said the no-fault eviction ban will not apply to at least half of all tenancies. 'There are huge loopholes here. It appears that tenants of large landlords will have no-fault protections, but tenants of smaller landlords – at least half the market – will not be covered,' he said. 'In these cases, we will see thousands and thousands of renting families exposed to higher rents and it will, as Focus Ireland said, be incentivising evictions.'
