World Meeting of Families

The World Meeting of Families is a gathering of the Roman Catholic Church that has occurred every three years since 1994.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} It is organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which "promotes the pastoral care of families, protects their rights and dignity in the Church and in civil society, so that they may ever be more able to fulfill their duties."^[6][7] It is the biggest gathering of Catholic families in the world.^[1] The most recent meeting took place in Rome, Italy in 2022 (it was supposed to be held in 2021, but was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).^{[1][2][3][8][9]}

Events

World Meeting of Families events^[1]^[10]

Date	City	Country	Theme	Notes
1994	Rome[11]	Italy	The Family, the Heart of the Civilization of Love
1997	Rio de Janeiro[11]	Brazil	The Family: Gift and Commitment, the hope of humanity
2000	Rome[11]	Italy	Children: Springtime of the Family and of the Church	Part of the Great Jubilee
2003	Manila[11]	Philippines	The Christian Family: Good News for the Third Millennium.	Scheduled to be the first papal visit to the Philippines in the 21st century and 3rd millennium and the fourth visit overall, but it did not happen and instead the first in the said century and millennium is Pope Francis' visit to the country 12 years later in 2015 because Pope John Paul II was unable to attend due to the progression of his Parkinson's disease.
2006	Valencia[11]	Spain	Handing on the Faith in the Family
2009	Mexico City[11]	Mexico	The Family: Teacher of Human and Christian Values
2012	Milan[11]	Italy	Family, Work & Celebration
2015	Philadelphia[11]	United States	Love is our mission: The family fully alive
2018	Dublin[11]	Ireland	The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World	Pope Francis's visit to Ireland was centred on the meeting.
2022	Rome[11]	Italy	Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness[12]	Was originally scheduled to be held on the 5th Anniversary of the post-Synod of Youth Apostolic Exhortation of Amoris laetitia and three years after the promulgation of the Apostolic Exhortation of Gaudete et Exsultate[12] However, the 2021 World Meeting of Families was later postponed to June 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9][13][14]

See also

• World Youth Day

References

1. O'Halloran, Marie. "Pope Francis may visit Ireland for world meeting in Dublin". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
2. "Speculation Pope Francis may visit Ireland in 2018". RTÉ News. 27 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
3. "Contest Winners Announcement". World Meeting of Families. 2015. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2018 – via Wayback Machine.
4. "Viaggio Apostolico del Santo Padre a Cuba, negli Stati Uniti d'America e Visita alla Sede dell'Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite (19–28 settembre 2015) | Francesco" [Apostolic Visit of the Holy Father to Cuba, and the United States and the United Nations (19-28 September)]. w2.vatican.va (in Italian). Retrieved 28 September 2015.
5. "A guide to seeing the pope in Philadelphia on the last weekend in September". Fox News. Associated Press. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
6. "Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus". Holy See. art. 139. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
7. "About the Event". World Meeting Of Families. 2015. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
8. "Next World Meeting of Families to be held in Rome in 2021 - Vatican News". 26 August 2018.
9. "Declaration of the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni".
10. "World meetings of families". Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. 2017. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017.
11. "Next World Meeting of Families will be in Rome in 2021". Aleteia. 27 August 2018. Archived from the original on 27 August 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2018. The next event will be the 10th WMOF, after the first was also held in Rome in 1994... This will be the third time that the Eternal City hosts the World Meeting; it did as well in 1994 (the first WMOF) and during the Great Jubilee of 2000. The others have been held in: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 1997), Rome (2000), Manila (Philippines, 2003), Valencia (Spain, 2006), Mexico City (Mexico, 2009 ), Milan (Italy, 2012), Philadelphia (USA, 2015) and finally Dublin.
12. "Pope Francis announces theme of next World Meeting of Families - Vatican News". 17 May 2019.
13. "Pope postpones two mega-events by a year because of coronavirus". Reuters. 20 April 2020.
14. "Pope postpones World Meeting of Families, World Youth Day". 20 April 2020.

External links

• 2018 meeting website