The former bishop of Galway, Dr Eamonn Casey, has said he will not be attending a Mass in Galway next Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Pope's visit.
The Catholic Press Office said last night that the Bishop of Galway, Dr James McLoughlin, had contacted Bishop Casey about the celebrations.
Bishop Casey (78) has lived abroad since he resigned from the Galway diocese in 1992 after it emerged he had fathered a child with Ms Annie Murphy.
According to the statement from the press office last night: "Bishop Casey said that he knows that he is always welcome in Galway but that unfortunately he has prearranged commitments for this Sunday October 3rd, 2004. Bishop Casey said that he will be with us in his prayers on Sunday."
Speaking to The Irish Times from his parish in the south of England earlier yesterday, Bishop Casey said: "For the foreseeable future I will be continuing my work in England. We will see what will happen after that."
The deputy mayor of Galway, Cllr Pádraig Conneely, said this week that Bishop Casey should be invited to take part in a Mass to commemorate the papal visit at Ballybrit racecourse.
"I believe he should be there next Sunday, or at the very least the Catholic Church should invite him," he said.
A spokesman for the Irish bishops said yesterday it was a matter for Bishop Casey himself whether he attended the Mass in Galway and pointed out that no invitations as such were being extended to anyone.
Three days of celebrations to mark the actual dates of the papal visit - September 29th and 30th and October 1st, 1979 - will take place all over Ireland from today. Masses will be celebrated in diocesan cathedrals this evening.
There will be sung evening prayer in Maynooth College tomorrow, at which the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, will preside, and on Friday there will be parish Masses around the island, with themes focusing on the sick and/or the missions.
The celebrations end in Cork on Sunday with Mass in the city's Holy Trinity Church. It will initiate Mission Alive week, and the celebrant will be Archbishop Pius Ncube of the archdiocese of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, who also visited Ireland during the summer.
