Pontiff in blessing for relative of fire family

Last week Pope Francis sent a letter of condolence to read at the funerals of the 10 fire victims in Bray and Dublin. He thinks he’s a bit of a celebrity now.

And the Pope held up the example of the Blessed Zeffirino Giménez Malla as a model of life and religiosity.

“He’s delighted. I’d say the best way to describe him is he’s chuffed”.

They are relatives of Thomas and Sylvia Connors and their children Jim, Christy and six-month-old Mary who died in the blaze.

Bill, Dan and Dan’s mother Biddy were in the front seats for the audience at the Paul VI Hall in the Holy City.

Monday’s audience with Pope Francis was organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Papal visit to an worldwide gypsy camp which took place when Paul VI visited the camp near Pomezia, on the outskirts of Rome in 1965.

“Time has come, he said, to uproot secular prejudice, preconceived ideas and the reciprocal diffidence that are often at the base of discrimination, racism and xenophobia” he said.

Ms O’Leary Connors works with the Southside Travellers Action Group, and her mother was part of the extended Connors family that was left devastated by the fire in the halting site in Carrickmines more than two weeks ago. In his address to the thousands of pilgrims the Pope said: “We no longer want to attend family tragedies where children die of cold or in the flames, or become objects in the hands of depraved people”.