Updated 20:55
Pope Francis has said he's excited to be travelling to Ireland this weekend.
It comes as the World Meeting of Families, the event that will bring the pontiff to Ireland, got underway this evening.
Bells rang this evening in Catholic cathedrals across the country's 26 dioceses to mark the start of the gathering.
Pope Francis will join the event on Saturday, and will celebrate its closing mass in the Phoenix Park in Dublin on Sunday.
In a video message to mark the beginning of the event, Pope Francis said: "As I prepare to visit Ireland in a few days for the World Meeting of Families, I send a warm word of greeting to all the Irish people."
"I know that many people are working hard to prepare for my visit, and I think all of them from my heart."
The preparations for the event have been overshadowed by revelations about the church's handling of clerical sex abuse.
It has been revealed that the pontiff will meet survivors of clerical sexual abuse during his Irish trip.
'Suffering being ignored'
Maeve Lewis from campaign group One in Four says the celebration will ring hollow for many abuse victims.
“I’m sure people who are attending the mass in the park or the other events do not mean, in any way, to add to the suffering of the survivors,” she said.
“But in many ways that is what is happening; because people feel that their suffering is just being ignored in the middle of this big international celebration.”
Yesterday, Pope Francis issued an apology for the church's failure to deal with clerical sex abuse.
In the letter, he said the heart-wrenching pain of these victims was "long ignored, kept quiet or silenced."
“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realising the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives,” he said.
"We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them."
Victims groups have labelled the response 'disappointing' and noted that it makes no attempt to introduce mandatory reporting of crimes.
Ms Lewis said the statement lacks practical details.
“At the weekend, our own Arch Bishop Diarmuid Martin called on the Pope to speak rigorously about what had happened,” she said.
“Rigorously but kindly I think were the words he used.
“I had really hoped that in this letter and in what he might say when he comes to Ireland; Pope Francis would give us a road map of exactly what he intends to do.”
Preparations underway at Phoenix Park in Dublin where Pope Francis will perform the closing mass of the World Meeting of Families this Sunday. Image: Laura Hutton/PA Wire/PA Images
The Pope’s statement came following a report detailing sexual abuse by hundreds of priests in the US state of Pennsylvania.
A grand jury investigation there alleged that 301 Catholic priests sexually abused children while serving in active ministry.
The abuse is alleged to have occurred over 70 years in six dioceses.
