Pope announces 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia

(June 04, 2012) The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, United States, will host the Catholic Church’s next World Meeting of Families in 2015, an event attended by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. It will be the first time the event, established by Blessed John Paul II in 1994, will be held in the United States. Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement on at the end of a Mass on Sunday before reciting the noonday ‘Angelus’ prayer with about 1 million people gathered at Milan's Bresso Park. The Holy Father was in Italy’s financial and fashion capital for the last three days of the 7^th World Meeting of Families, May 30 – June 3rd. He sent his greetings to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia and the Catholics “of that great city” and said he was looking forward to meeting them there along with numerous families from all around the world. Archbishop Chaput went on stage to greet the pope, and there they embraced and chatted briefly. The pope, who chooses the venue for each world families' meeting, thanked the archbishop for his willingness to host. The international gathering, which celebrates and aims to help families live their Christian vocation, is held every three years and is organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family.
The Pope would be 88 in 2015 and it would mark his second trip to the United States, his first to Philadelphia, as pope. Pope Benedict did not attend the sixth world meeting in Mexico City in 2009 and spoke to families after the concluding Mass via live satellite link-up. Blessed John Paul did a similar satellite broadcast message at the concluding Mass when he could not attend the event in Manila in 2003 due to his limited physical mobility at 82. The first world meeting was held in Rome in 1994. Since then it has taken place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1997; Rome in 2000; Manila in 2003; Valencia, Spain, in 2006, and Mexico City in 2009. Almost every meeting has drawn more than a million people.