A “family-like” environment, one of “communion”. No “podiums”, no prepared remarks. Rather a two-hour “conversation” made up of “questions, answers, considerations, and exchanges of views”. This is the Ad Limina visit in Pope Francis’ times as the Irish Bishops described it this morning. Indeed, they returned to Rome after 10 years for a series of meetings with the Vatican Dicasteries. And this morning, they met with the Pope. “It was really a friendly meeting – said Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin – in which the Bishops sat on the same level as Pope Francis who wanted to hear what we had to say. Like in a football match, the ball was continuously put back into play”. Using another football metaphor, the Archbishop of Dublin said: “The Pope told us to play as goalkeepers, to be ready to catch the ball from wherever it comes; it is not us who decide in which direction the ball has to go”. The reality presented by the Bishops to the Pope, concerning the Church in Ireland, “is certainly not a successful one”. Even in Ireland, as in other parts of Western Europe, there is a decrease in the number of vocations and churchgoers. “However, there are also other signs of growth and renewal”, Archbishop Martin said. And the Pope “encouraged us to advance on this path”.