During the final Mass at the 9th World Meeting of Families in Phoenix Park, Pope Francis gave a missionary mandate to families, bearers of the "joy of the Gospel". He cited the example of Saint Columban who "brought the light of the Gospel to the lands of Europe in an age of darkness and cultural dissolution.” However, the service began unexpectedly with a long penitential moment, with requests for forgiveness for the abuses by the members of the Church, for the ineptitude of pastors who failed to see what was happening; for the children torn from their single mothers. The next World Meeting of Families is set for Rome in 2021.

In Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, Pope Francis travelled to Knock Shrine where he entrusted the families of the world to Mary, that they “may be a bulwark of faith and goodness" resisting “all that would diminish our dignity as men and women created in God’s image and called to the sublime destiny of eternal life.” The pontiff called for prayers for the victims of sexual abuse. He greeted the people of Northern Ireland and the prison inmates who wrote to him.