President McAleese will attend the canonisation by Pope Benedict of Passionist priest Blessed Charles of Mount Argus in St Peter's Square, Rome, tomorrow morning. She will meet the pope after the ceremony. The Minister for Education Mary Hanafin will represent the Government.
Dublin will be represented by Lord Mayor Vincent Jackson. Also present will be Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and Fr Joe Kennedy, a Passionist priest who is chaplain to the Garda.
The Catholic primate, Archbishop Seán Brady, and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, will also attend. The Passionist congregation will be represented by Fr Martin Coffey, provincial of the Province of St Patrick. It has houses in Ireland, Scotland and Paris and missions in Africa.
About 1,000 people will attend the ceremony, which will be broadcast live on RTÉ One television from 8.55am tomorrow.
Born John Andrew Houben, at Munstergeleen, Holland, in December 1821, Blessed Charles, came to Ireland 150 years ago and served at Mount Argus in Harold's Cross for most of the remainder of his life.
He became very popular all over Ireland, with as many as 300 people a day coming to be blessed by him. He died on January 5th, 1893. Thousands attended his funeral and he was buried beside Mount Argus church. In 1949 his remains were moved inside the church.
Fr Charles was beatified in October 1988 after the cure of a Dutch woman, Octavia Spaetgens Verheggen, was approved as a miracle attributed to his intercession. The approval of a second miracle, the cure of Dolf Dormans, also from the Netherlands, allowed his canonisation.
Today President McAleese will visit St Isidore's College in Rome, which was built by Irish Franciscans.
She will later give an address at the Irish College and on Monday will attend a special Mass to mark the inauguration of a chapel at Villa Spada, residence of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See.
There will be celebrations in Rome this weekend also at the Irish Dominican congregation's Basilica of San Clemente, to mark the 150th anniversary of excavations there by Fr Joseph Mullooly. Home to Irish Dominicans since 1677, he uncovered buildings on the site going back to the first century.
At 6.30 this evening a Mass of Thanksgiving will be concelebrated there by Cardinal Adrian Simonis. San Clemente is his titular church. Concelebrants will include the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Dr Colm O'Reilly, Irish Dominican Provincial Fr Pat Lucey, and Fr John Cunningham, prior at San Clemente.
Tomorrow there will be a concert to honour Fr Mullooly in the basilica with the Lassus Scholars.
