VATICAN: Vatican unveils Full Program for the Tenth World Meeting of Families
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Vatican through the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has unveiled the full program for the tenth World Meeting of Families (WMOF) scheduled for five days in June from 22-26 in Rome.
The international meeting for Catholic families was initially scheduled for June 2021 but postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic, was to fall on the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia on love in family.
According to the program, the 10th WMOF themed “Family Love: A Vocation and a Path to Holiness” will commence on Wednesday, June 22, with the festival of families with Pope Francis in the Paul VI Hall after reception of delegates expected from Episcopal Conferences around the world and other representatives from international movements in pastoral care for families.
Thursday, June 23, will be a full day for speakers and panelists. There will be two conferences: the domestic Church and synodality and accompanying the early years of marriage. There will be four panels before the closer of the day including; spouses and priests together to build up the church, young and old together for the Church of tomorrow, family love when in difficulty and accompanying fatherhood and motherhood.
On the second day that will also have two conferences and three panels on Friday, June 24, the discussions will delve on identity and mission of Christian families, being Christian in the digital age, vocation and mission in the existential periphery, marriage catechumenate, and the formation of caregivers and formators: Laity, presbyters and seminarians.
On the third day Saturday, June 25, the conference will focus on family as a path of holiness, and holiness in everyday life for families and married couples.
The last day Sunday, June 26, delegates from various Episcopal Conferences will then receive mandate from the Holy Father at St. Peter’s square as the tenth WMOF closes.
According to organizers, each diocese is invited to plan for a similar event in their own local communities.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life last year unveiled the official image for the WMOF entitled “This Mystery is Great,” which the designer artist Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, a Slovenian Jesuit who is a theologian and director of Centro Aletti Center in Rome said is an inspiration from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to Ephesians.
