Vatican Releases Details about the World Meeting of Families, Including the Patrons, for the Rome Event from June 22-26 in Rome with the Pope
The Vatican released details of the 10th World Meeting of Families, which will take place in Rome from 22 to 26 June 2022.
The patrons of the Meeting are Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, who were the first married couple to be beatified together by the Catholic Church and in the presence of their children. The couple was married in Rome in 1905 and beatified by John Paul II in 2001. Noteworthy, is that all of their four children joined the consecrated life.
Speakers at the Meeting are from Burundi, Lebanon, South Africa, the United States, Taiwan, Spain, Indonesia, France, and Australia.
Musically, there will be a performance by the Italian musical trio Il Volo.
The Official Song for the Meeting of Families is called "We Believe in Love." (Listen Below)
Official Prayer: Heavenly Father,
We come before You to praise You
and to thank You for the great gift of the family.
We pray to You for all families
consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
May they rediscover each day the grace they have received,
and as small domestic Churches,
may they know how to witness to your Presence
and to the love with which Christ loves the Church.
We pray to You for all families faced with difficulty and suffering
caused by illness or circumstances of which only You know.
Sustain them and make them aware
of the path to holiness upon which You call them,
so that they might experience your infinite Mercy
and find new ways to grow in love.
We pray to You for children and young people:
may they encounter You and respond joyfully
to the vocation You have in mind for them;
We pray for parents and grandparents: may they be aware
that they are signs of the fatherhood and motherhood of God
in caring for the children who, in body and spirit, You entrust to them;
for the experience of fraternity that the family can give to the world.
Lord, grant that each family
might live their specific vocation to holiness in the Church
as a call to become missionary disciples, in the service of life and peace,
in communion with our priests,
religious, and all vocations in the Church.
Bless the World Meeting of Families.
Amen.
Official prayer for the X World Meeting of Families
22-26 June 2022
We come before You to praise You
and to thank You for the great gift of the family.
We pray to You for all families
consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
May they rediscover each day the grace they have received,
and as small domestic Churches,
may they know how to witness to your Presence
and to the love with which Christ loves the Church.
We pray to You for all families faced with difficulty and suffering
caused by illness or circumstances of which only You know.
Sustain them and make them aware
of the path to holiness upon which You call them,
so that they might experience your infinite Mercy
and find new ways to grow in love.
We pray to You for children and young people:
may they encounter You and respond joyfully
to the vocation You have in mind for them;
We pray for parents and grandparents: may they be aware
that they are signs of the fatherhood and motherhood of God
in caring for the children who, in body and spirit, You entrust to them;
for the experience of fraternity that the family can give to the world.
Lord, grant that each family
might live their specific vocation to holiness in the Church
as a call to become missionary disciples, in the service of life and peace,
in communion with our priests,
religious, and all vocations in the Church.
Bless the World Meeting of Families.
Amen.
Official prayer for the X World Meeting of Families
22-26 June 2022
Source of Preceding Texts: https://www.romefamily2022.com/en/
The Press Conference for the Meeting of Families was held at the Vatican. (FULL Video below)
It was screened a video with a greeting from Il Volo, a musical group formed by Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble.
Prof. Gabriella Gambino, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life took part; Dr. Leonardo Nepi, Official of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Mons. Walter Insero, Director of the Social Communications Office of the Diocese of Rome; Amadeus Sebastiani (in remote connection) who together with his wife Giovanna Civitillo will conduct Åil Festival delle Famiglie; and Gigi De Palo and Anna Chiara Gambini, spouses, representatives of the pastoral care of the family of the Diocese of Rome.
FULL TEXT :
Speech by Prof. Gabriella Gambino
Towards the World Meeting of Families
We have finally reached the culmination of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year announced by the Holy Father Francis on March 19, 2021. Many pastoral initiatives were developed during the year, which also involved the Pope himself: the 10 videos Amoris laetitia, the letter he wrote to the Spouses, the numerous messages and speeches to families delivered in support of many pastoral initiatives that have developed in every corner of the world.
To prepare for this new multicentre and widespread edition of the World Meeting, we had to face many events, starting with the pandemic, which delayed and made the organization complex, but we did it. In the world, many dioceses are organizing to bring families together around their bishop or parish priest: they are using the same scheme of the meeting to be held in Rome and in many cases even the same themes of the pastoral congress, which we published a few months ago in the pastoral kit for dioceses. I am thinking of the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala, which at national, regional and even parish level has issued a program with specific proposals to accompany and experience the World Meeting with the bishops, with moments of opening, a triduum of pastoral meetings and virtual connections with Rome. .
I would also like to take advantage of this moment to urge, once again, pastors and those responsible for local family ministry to announce the Meeting of Families in their communities and to involve them in organizing a moment dedicated to them at the end of June. Families are waiting for a signal, they want to be called to party together!
In Rome, the Holy Father will welcome delegates from episcopal conferences, international movements and family associations. As already announced, the meeting will open on Wednesday 22 June with the Festival of families in the presence of Pope Francis in the Paul VI Hall. From Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 June there will be the Pastoral Congress, again in the Paul VI Hall. On Saturday afternoon, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the Holy Father and on Sunday the Angelus. Today's novelty is precisely the publication of the definitive program of the pastoral congress.
The congress, unlike those of previous editions (I am thinking of Philadelphia, Milan or Dublin) will not have academically structured conferences with theological-doctrinal contents, but will be a moment of meeting, listening and comparison between operators in the pastoral care of the family and marriage.
The purpose is to develop the theme chosen by the pope: Family love: vocation and way of holiness, taking into account some strong indications that emerge from Amoris laetitia, a text that presents itself with very clear programmatic lines for possible developments. of the pastoral care of the family in the coming years.
For this reason we concentrated on some themes that emerged from our continuous meetings with bishops from all over the world, especially in the ad limina visits, and which constantly re-emerged: in particular, the co-responsibility of spouses and priests in the pastoral care of particular Churches; some concrete difficulties of families in today's societies; preparation for married life for couples; some situations of "existential periphery" within families; the formation of formators in a family pastoral full of challenges and difficult questions. Current and complex issues, which we wanted to address having as our compass the constant invitation of Pope Francis to renewal and pastoral conversion: the first step that we all still have to take, in fact, is to make families aware that theirs is a vocation, that in their daily lives can discover incredible ways of holiness, which can transform their ecclesial and social life environment.
FULL TEXT :
Speech by Prof. Gabriella Gambino
Towards the World Meeting of Families
We have finally reached the culmination of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year announced by the Holy Father Francis on March 19, 2021. Many pastoral initiatives were developed during the year, which also involved the Pope himself: the 10 videos Amoris laetitia, the letter he wrote to the Spouses, the numerous messages and speeches to families delivered in support of many pastoral initiatives that have developed in every corner of the world.
To prepare for this new multicentre and widespread edition of the World Meeting, we had to face many events, starting with the pandemic, which delayed and made the organization complex, but we did it. In the world, many dioceses are organizing to bring families together around their bishop or parish priest: they are using the same scheme of the meeting to be held in Rome and in many cases even the same themes of the pastoral congress, which we published a few months ago in the pastoral kit for dioceses. I am thinking of the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala, which at national, regional and even parish level has issued a program with specific proposals to accompany and experience the World Meeting with the bishops, with moments of opening, a triduum of pastoral meetings and virtual connections with Rome. .
I would also like to take advantage of this moment to urge, once again, pastors and those responsible for local family ministry to announce the Meeting of Families in their communities and to involve them in organizing a moment dedicated to them at the end of June. Families are waiting for a signal, they want to be called to party together!
In Rome, the Holy Father will welcome delegates from episcopal conferences, international movements and family associations. As already announced, the meeting will open on Wednesday 22 June with the Festival of families in the presence of Pope Francis in the Paul VI Hall. From Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 June there will be the Pastoral Congress, again in the Paul VI Hall. On Saturday afternoon, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the Holy Father and on Sunday the Angelus. Today's novelty is precisely the publication of the definitive program of the pastoral congress.
The congress, unlike those of previous editions (I am thinking of Philadelphia, Milan or Dublin) will not have academically structured conferences with theological-doctrinal contents, but will be a moment of meeting, listening and comparison between operators in the pastoral care of the family and marriage.
The purpose is to develop the theme chosen by the pope: Family love: vocation and way of holiness, taking into account some strong indications that emerge from Amoris laetitia, a text that presents itself with very clear programmatic lines for possible developments. of the pastoral care of the family in the coming years.
For this reason we concentrated on some themes that emerged from our continuous meetings with bishops from all over the world, especially in the ad limina visits, and which constantly re-emerged: in particular, the co-responsibility of spouses and priests in the pastoral care of particular Churches; some concrete difficulties of families in today's societies; preparation for married life for couples; some situations of "existential periphery" within families; the formation of formators in a family pastoral full of challenges and difficult questions. Current and complex issues, which we wanted to address having as our compass the constant invitation of Pope Francis to renewal and pastoral conversion: the first step that we all still have to take, in fact, is to make families aware that theirs is a vocation, that in their daily lives can discover incredible ways of holiness, which can transform their ecclesial and social life environment.
The congress is built around 5 main conferences on some fundamental themes. The theme of each conference is then divided into three or four sub-themes, within the framework of panels, or round tables, which develop further priority pastoral issues for the particular Churches.
In all 30 speeches, for a total of 62 speakers, as well as 13 moderators of the sessions: the latter, all Roman, sign and symbol of a city that hosts and presents speakers from other countries.
The speakers will almost all be married couples, only 3 priests; they come from 17 different countries, chosen for their competence and pastoral experience in the various themes presented. Families engaged in family ministry who collaborate with dioceses, episcopal conferences or some international movements.
Two particular elements in the context of the Congress will be the evening in the Roman parishes on Friday 2 June, dedicated to the theme "Family communion, as a style of communion in the Church", which with the Diocese of Rome we have decided to set in the parishes, so the delegates will travel to various parts of the city for an evening with Roman families; a second special moment, Saturday morning, with an hour of Eucharistic adoration and moments of guided meditation for the spouses and the families of the delegates before the Blessed Sacrament. The other mornings, Thursdays and Fridays, the day will begin with Holy Mass, celebrated by Cardinals Farrell and de Donatis, inside St. Peter's Basilica.
Speech by Dr. Leonardo Nepi
About two thousand delegates are invited to the theological-pastoral congress of this edition of the World Meeting of Families, chosen by the Episcopal Conferences, the Synods of the Eastern Churches and the international ecclesial realities that operate significantly in the family apostolate. The number of delegates was assigned in proportion to the size of each Episcopal Conference or ecclesial reality.
The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, through a solidarity fund, has undertaken to financially support the Bishops' Conferences that have asked for financial help to send a delegation to Rome, as there are many countries where it is difficult face the expenses of an international travel at this time. In addition to the Dicastery, various Episcopal Conferences have contributed to the solidarity fund according to their availability, as well as the Diocese of Rome, to which a heartfelt thanks goes for this commitment, implemented with generosity and a spirit of ecclesial communion. Thanks to this contribution, the Churches of many areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central Europe will be adequately represented, including Ukraine (both with delegates from the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and with delegates from the Bishops' Conference of the Latin rite), who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to intervene.
The delegations are over 170 from 120 countries and are made up largely of families, representing ¾ of the delegates, together with priests and bishops responsible for family pastoral care in episcopal conferences, as well as spiritual companions of international ecclesial realities. The role of men and women religious as delegates to the Congress was also highlighted in various delegations.
The families participating in the Congress have in many cases roles of great responsibility in the family apostolate within their local Churches and ecclesial realities. This means that an approach of shared responsibility between laity, priests and religious in the animation of family ministry is being consolidated. Once the meeting in Rome is concluded, we hope that the two thousand delegates will be able to return enriched in their own reality and in their own community, to put their pastoral mission to good use with renewed enthusiasm.
However, even families who will not come to Rome are invited to celebrate this “multicentre and widespread” World Meeting in Dioceses and parishes. For this reason, we have made available to the particular Churches a pastoral kit with guidelines and suggestions for organizing meetings at the local level. It contains the themes that will be treated during the Congress, as well as ideas for liturgical celebrations and insights into the contents of the meeting. The pastoral kit is available to all and can be found on the website of the World Meeting, within the section "WMOF in the Dioceses".
Speech by Mons. Walter Insero
THE FESTIVAL OF FAMILIES
The Festival of Families will be held in Rome on Wednesday 22 June 2022. This is the first public event of the World Meeting of Families. Unlike the previous editions, in which the Festival of Families took place on Saturday evening, as a moment of celebration at the end of the Congress, this tenth edition of the World Meeting of Families will open with the Festival on Wednesday, presenting to the general public the topics that will then be explored in the conference. The event, which will be entitled "The beauty of the family", will take place in the Paul VI Hall from 6.15 pm to 7.50 pm.
The theme of the meeting is "Family love: vocation and way of holiness", therefore the Festival will be able to develop according to the guidelines of family love as a call to live daily family life in Christ, to fulfill one's vocation, making visible how the family is a fundamental subject for the Church and society. Holiness is a path to which everyone is called, such as father, mother, brother, sister, children or grandparents. In the family, a path is revealed to which we are all called by virtue of Baptism and the fact of being loved and desired by God the Father.
More than making speeches and theories about families, we will give voice to the story of their testimonies. The choice of conductors, artists and those who will intervene is designed to enhance their experience as a Christian family. For this reason, the management is entrusted to Amadeus and his wife Giovanna Civitillo.
As for the artistic presence, the young artists of "ll Volo" (Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto), together with some of their family members, will participate by telling their family experience and proposing some musical pieces.
Before the arrival of the Holy Father, after an initial musical intervention and some connections with families gathered in other parts of the world, we will listen to some testimonies on the spiritual heritage and the actuality of the testimony of the spouses Beati Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, beatified in 2001 by St. John Paul II, patrons of the World Meeting.
Five families will offer their witness in the presence of the Holy Father. The themes will be:
1. Called to Marriage
Testimony of a couple whose decision to get married in the Church is maturing following a process of rapprochement thanks to a group of families.
2. Called to Holiness
The experience of a family that passed on the faith to their children, the context in which a daughter of theirs grew up, who died very young in the odor of holiness and today is a servant of God.
3. Called to forgiveness
The testimony of a family, which after experiencing a severe crisis, lives the experience of forgiveness and profound reconciliation.
4. Called to welcome
The testimony of a Roman family who welcomed a Ukrainian family fleeing the war.
5. Called to brotherhood
The testimony of a multi-religious family, an example of daily interreligious dialogue, very committed at a social level for the poor populations.
This will be followed by the address that the Holy Father will address to families. It will all end with the singing of the official hymn of the Encounter which was composed by Monsignor Marco Frisina, entitled "We Believe in love" and sung by the Choir of the Diocese of Rome.
A FAMILY-FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION
The X World Meeting of Families will be a "multicentric and widespread" event, it will also be experienced in the dioceses of the world in the same days as the Roman appointment. Rome, however, will remain the heart of this meeting, because the delegates of the various Bishops' Conferences will arrive here to live this experience with the Holy Father, together with the families of Rome.
Yet all the communities and families who want, from every part of the planet, will be able to feel involved and participate in this important spiritual event thanks to the prepared media coverage. The main objective of the communication is to encourage the participation and involvement of all those who, unfortunately, due to the pandemic and its consequences, we were unable to invite to Rome for this world meeting.
We wanted to create a "family-friendly" communication, designed to help families and communities prepare spiritually for the meeting and to be able to participate even at a distance in the ecclesial event that will take place in our city. With this proposal, we intend to put families at the center of the media scene, recognizing them as protagonists of communication with their stories and testimonies, helping them to tell about themselves.
For this reason, everything will be broadcast in live streaming, with social coverage of all the events that will be broadcast - through the official website of the event, romefamily2022.com -, on the YouTube page of the Diocese of Rome and thanks to the collaboration with the Dicastery. for Communication, also on VaticanNews.
In this perspective, on the site dedicated to the romefamily2022.com event, through which it is also possible to reach the Facebook and Instagram pages, all the preparatory materials are available, in five different languages, which accompanied the families during the months that have just passed, and again will be useful in this last phase of approach to the World Meeting: the prayer, the hymn and the official image, the seven catecheses with a downloadable written text accompanied by short films with testimonies of Roman families, useful food for thought and debate .
Journalists, photographers and media operators will be able to take part in all the meetings, including in all the sessions of the Pastoral Theological Congress which will take place in the Paul VI Hall and will be able to interview the speakers and participants at stand-up stations located in special spaces provided.
Not only the internet, but also television will help reach families around the world. Thanks to Vatican Media we are implementing a system with which we will be able to provide the signal to TVs that request it freely and free of charge, with a stream of images available in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, plus LIS in Italian and English). The filming of the three events that include the presence of the Holy Father: the Festival of families on June 22, the Mass on Saturday 25 June at 5.15 pm and the Angelus at the end of the Meeting with the mandate for families on Sunday 26 at 12, will be edited by Vatican Media and broadcast worldwide. These three appointments with Pope Francis will be broadcast live on RaiUno. The Family Festival entitled "The beauty of Family" will be the result of a valuable collaboration between the Vatican Communication Department with Vatican Media, Rai with the TG1 newspaper and the Diocese of Rome with the Social Communications Office.
We have already collected the availability of some important international Catholic broadcasters, with which we have started a special collaboration to broadcast the various events of the X World Meeting in their full version on their channels, in order to facilitate their use in different languages by users who they frequent the net less.
It will also be possible to download the official webapp of the X World Meeting of Families from the website. Digital participants will receive a certificate of participation after completing the entire path proposed by the webapp, also available in several languages. All references to Amoris Laetitia, catecheses, information on diocesan appointments and virtual tours of the 4 major basilicas and the Lateran Palace are part of this particular “journey”.
The desire is to recognize families, thanks to a communication capable of attentive listening, the centrality they play, not only at the ecclesial level, but in society.
Speech by Gigi De Palo and Anna Chiara Gambini
Rome and the Romans are already preparing to welcome this 10th World Meeting of Families. The pandemic has complicated plans a bit, but families are used to seeing that things never go as they expected ... Many times, in fact, they go differently and it is not necessarily a bad thing ...
A team of twenty couples who gave their availability for free, toured many parishes in Rome, we were unable to tour them all because the calendar was changed due to the fourth wave between January and March.
In all the parishes the families met were enthusiastic because the World Youth Day of 2000 still echoes in the memory and if you think about it, the invitation to this World Day of Families is in a certain sense also addressed to all those young people of Tor Vergata who are they grew up, started a family, got married, have children ...
We found very nice testimonials. Stories of ordinary extraordinary. Many of these can be seen in the short films produced by the Social Communications Office of the Diocese of Rome, made by director Antonio Antonelli to accompany the seven catecheses, available on the official website of the Encounter.
Families are truly the inexhaustible resource of our city and our country because they silently solve problems, create bonds, act as social safety nets, generate wealth and a future.
The Holy Father has said it many times: Amoris Laetitia is indeed an apostolic exhortation, but in fact it is all the families of the world with their imperfections, with their perfume, with their chaotic beauty.
This is why it is an honor to experience the World Day of Families in Italy and in the city of Rome, a World Day which will take place from 22 to 26 June next.
Roman families will be able to participate in the following events: Wednesday 22, the opening of the Encounter, the Festival of Families at 6pm in the Paul VI Hall; Thursday 23, the concert at Palazzo Lateranense, the Bishop's House in Rome; on Friday 24 the meetings organized in the parishes, for a moment of sharing and celebration between the delegated families and the Roman families; Saturday 25, the Great Mass in St. Peter's Square, presided over by the Holy Father at 5 pm; Sunday 26th the Angelus in St. Peter's Square, with the Mandate to Families. To request tickets for these meetings, you can write to info@romefamily2022.com and they will be distributed through the parishes.
It is very nice that two spouses who are very close to our city have been elected patrons of the X World Meeting of Families: Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame and Quattrocchi.
Two newlyweds who are innovative in their own way.
Not only because they are the first married couple to be beatified by the Catholic Church on 21 October 2011 by Saint John Paul II.
But also because their commitment did not simply end in welcoming and educating their children. They were dedicated to service and the Common Good from the very beginning of their marriage. In fact, they began the family ministry in Rome, proposing meetings and accompaniment for engaged couples and spouses.
Their example is a call to that normal holiness.
To the middle class of holiness, Pope Francis would say.
That of families. That of those who try to do their father and mother well by accompanying their children to school or to basketball training. That of those who try to make the best dinner in the world with what you have in the refrigerator. In the awareness that for a Christian example does not mean a replica of a perfect model, but the opportunity to be amazed by a continuous gift.
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