The President, Mrs McAleese, will this morning be received by Pope John Paul II in a private audience in the Vatican.
The President, who is in Rome on a three-day visit to mark the 375th anniversary of the Pontifical Irish College, will be having her second Vatican audience, following a February 1999 meeting with the Pope.
While Irish topics, including the Northern Ireland peace process, may feature in the President's brief meeting with the Pope, it is unlikely that she will have an exhaustive discussion with the ailing 83-year-old pontiff who yesterday evening received Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After her audience with the Pope, Mrs McAleese will meet with the Vatican Secretariat of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, for an encounter that is likely to include greater detail on a wide variety of issues including Irish affairs, North-South concerns, and the rich-poor divide, as well as a number of other topics.
Later today, the President will visit the Pontifical Irish College to attend a symposium entitled "Faith and Culture, Ireland and Europe, Yesterday and Today". During her visit, the President will unveil a sculpture recalling the work of Irish Colleges in Europe while later she will be guest of honour at a dinner due to be attended by Cardinal Sodano, the Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, and the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Brady, himself a former rector of the college.
Yesterday, again by way of marking the Irish College's 375th anniversary, seminarians and staff attended the Pope's weekly public audience on a brilliantly sunny day in St Peter's Square. After being formally greeted by the Pope during the audience, the Irish College delegation then met with the Pope at the end of the audience to present him with a translation of a 17th century history of the college.
Although looking his now customary frail self, the Pope sounded strong, reading greetings in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Croat, Hungarian and Polish to the estimated 8,000 pilgrims. Unlike on other recent occasions, the Pope's delivery, in nearly all the above languages, was clear and intelligible.
President McAleese's visit continues tomorrow when she is due to meet the Italian state President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
The President returns to Dublin on Saturday.