Countdown underway to World Meeting of Families 2018

(Vatican Radio) The countdown has begun to next year’s World Meeting of Families to be held in Dublin, Ireland.

Earlier this week the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin along with the event’s Secretary General, Fr Timothy Bartlett launched the one year programme of preparation at the Our Lady of Knock shrine in the West of Ireland.

The World Meeting of Families was established by Saint John Paul II in 1994 and next year’s event will include a three day congress on the  “The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World”.

Fr Bartlett spoke to Linda Bordoni about preparations for the meeting and the challenges facing families in today’s world.

Listen: 

Speaking about the countdown to the event Fr Bartlett said that, “all the preparations are going very well,” adding that, “both the preparations during the coming year here in Ireland and in due course internationally will be focused, at the request of Pope Francis on helping families to reflect more deeply on many of the themes in Amoris Laetitia, the Joy of love.”

Family challenges

When asked about the challenges facing the family today, not least in Ireland, the Secretary General said that “the theme of the family touches so deeply on all of our lives and here in Ireland the preparation for the event and the awareness of the event is growing and the response to the event has been very very positive because everybody knows that family is so fundamental to their lives.”

He goes on to say that the kinds of issues that will be dominant here in the lives of Irish families will be shared by many families across the world, things like social need, poverty…”

The World Meeting of Families takes place from August 21st to 26th 2018.