Big Steps Towards Ireland

The preparations for the IX World Meeting of Families in Dublin are speeding up. The members of the organizing committee met a few days ago in Ireland’s capital to prepare the Festival of Families. This meeting was attended by Fr. Tim Bartlett, Secretary General of the Meeting; Anne Griffin, General Manager; Marco Brusati, delegate of the Dicastery for the event; Father Colin Rothery and representatives of Tyrone Production, the company in charge of the creative work of the Festival.

The meeting aimed to select some meaningful and representative experiences to be included in the Festival, together with a possible list of artists to invite. The next meeting of the creative group will take place on 13 February, in Dublin’s Croke Park, Europe’s third-largest stadium and the site of the Festival.

In the meantime, the families in Ireland and around the world can prepare themselves by praying with the Meeting’s Icon the and keeping up to date by listening to the podcasts of the series “Let's Talk Family.”

The Icon of the Holy Family, copies of which were widely distributed on Christmas by Ireland’s 1386 parishes, is now traveling through the 26 dioceses of the country, as the faithful are invited to prepare for the WMOF 2018 with a path of reflection and prayer. The icon, written by the Romanian iconographer Mihai Cucu with the assistance of the Redemptoristine Sisters in Dublin, was blessed on 21 August 2017 in the Knock Basilica, where the Holy Family with St. John the Evangelist and a multitude of angels appeared in 1879.

This icon takes the form of a triptych which looks, from the outside, somewhat like a house with front doors. On these outside doors, we are presented with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, who carry with them the desire of God to protect. Their heads are bowed in adoration and service of God, the Holy One. On the base is the inscription Amoris Laetitia—“The Joy of Love”—the title of Pope Francis’ post-Synodal exhortation on love in the family, the source of our reflections during the Dublin World Meeting.

As for podcast number 7, the guest is Sean Farrell, Head of Trocaire, the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

For more information.