World Meeting of Families to be held in Rome

The 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.

The Vatican is preparing for the World Meeting of Families 2022, which will bring 2,000 Catholic families to Rome next week to visit Pope Francis and listen to presentations on marriage and religion.

CNA answers your questions on the event’s tenth edition:

What will be the theme of the World Meeting of Families in 2022?

From Wednesday, June 22 through Sunday, June 26, 2022, the World Meeting of Families will be held in Rome.

The international Catholic meeting, which commemorates the completion of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, will focus on the subject “Family love: a vocation and a road to holiness.”

Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, speeches by lay Catholic couples, family activities, and a live performance by the Italian operatic pop duo Il Volo are all on the itinerary.

Pope Francis will attend three events, starting with the inaugural gathering, the Festival of Families, on June 22 in the afternoon.

On Saturday evening, June 25, the Pope will conduct Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Francis will speak to families at the Angelus on Sunday, June 26 and commission them to share what they have learned with others when they return home.

How did it all begin?

On Pope John Paul II’s initiative, the inaugural World Meeting of Families was held in Rome in 1994. In the year 2000, the event was again hosted in the Eternal City.

The meetings are held every three years on average, with the most recent one taking place in Dublin, Ireland, in 2018.

Pope Francis’ Mass at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in 2015 drew over a million attendees.

However, because to the COVID-19 epidemic, organizers decided to limit in-person attendance to roughly 2,000 families in 2022.

How can I become involved?

The Vatican is pushing Catholic families to join in the World Meeting of Families through the media, despite the fact that in-person participation will be lower than in previous years.

Catholics may participate from wherever they are by joining local meetings or watching live feeds of the festivities in Rome.

Beginning with a preview on Tuesday, June 21, and finishing with the Angelus on Sunday, June 26, EWTN will broadcast live coverage of the World Meeting of Families from Rome.