Pope Francis Announces a Special Year Dedicated to the Family to be Inaugurated on the Solemnity of St. Joseph March 19, 2021



On Twitter Pope Francis wrote "I have decided to declare a special year dedicated to the Family #Amorislaetitia, which will be inaugurated on the next Solemnity of Saint Joseph. Let us entrust this journey with families all over the world to the Holy Family of Nazareth. which will be inaugurated on the next Solemnity of Saint Joseph. 

Vatican News reported that on 19 March 2021, the fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia, on the joy and beauty of familial love, Pope Francis will inaugurate the Year “Amoris Laetitia Family,” which will conclude on 26 June 2022 on the occasion of the X World Meeting of Families in Rome. 
The Holy Father will be present for the Meeting. 
Family, the domestic Church
“The pandemic experience has highlighted the central role of the family as the domestic Church, and has shown the importance of community ties between families,” the Dicastery said in a statement announcing the Year. “Through the spiritual, pastoral, and cultural initiatives planned in the Year ‘Amoris Laetitia Family,’ Pope Francis intends to address all ecclesial communities throughout the world, exhorting each person to be a witness of family love.”

FULL TEXT Announcement by Vatican Dicastery for Laity and Family Life:


Year "Amoris Laetitia Family" 
19 March 2021- 26 June 2022
«The Christian proclamation on the family
is good news indeed»  
 
On March 19, 2021, the Church will celebrate five years since the publication of the
Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia on the beauty and joy of love in the family.
On the same day, Pope Francis will launch the Year “Amoris Laetitia Family”, which will conclude on June 26, 2022,
on the occasion of the X World Meeting of Families in Rome with the Holy Father.
 
 
Project
 
The Year “Amoris Laetitia Family” is an initiative of Pope Francis, which aims to reach every family around the world through several spiritual, pastoral and cultural proposals that can be implemented within Parishes, Dioceses, universities, ecclesial movements and family associations. 
The pandemic experience has highlighted the central role of the family as the domestic Church and the importance of community ties between families.Such ties make the Church an authentic “family of families” (AL 87).
The family deserves a year of celebrations, so that it can be placed at the center of commitment and care from every pastoral and ecclesial reality.

 
Goals 
 
1.     Share the content of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia more widely, to let “people experience the Gospel of the family as a joy that fills hearts and lives” (AL 200). A family that discovers and experiences both the joy of having a gift, and of being a gift for the Church and society, “can become a light in the darkness of the world” (AL 66). And the world today certainly needs this light!
2.     Proclaim that the sacrament of marriage is a gift and contains in itself a transforming power of human love. For this purpose, pastors and families must journey together with a sense of co-responsibility and pastoral complementarity between the different vocations in the Church (cf. AL 203).
3.     Enable families to become active agents of the family apostolate. To this end, “an effort at evangelization and catechesis inside the family” (AL 200) is required, since a family of disciples turns into a missionary family.
4.     Make young people aware of the importance of formation in the truth of love and in the gift of self,   with initiatives dedicated to them.
5.     Broaden the vision and scope of the family apostolate to embrace a cross-cutting approach, including married couples, children, young people, the elderly and situations of family fragility.

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