May 26, 2011. (Romereports.com) Take note of these dates: May 30 to June 3, 2012, Milan will host the seventh World Meeting of Families. This year the motto is, “Family, work and celebration.” The theme highlights how to lead a life of balance between one's work and family.


Card. Ennio Antonelli
President, Pontifical Council for the Family
“It's precisely about the impact work has on  families. It includes the pressures of family life in a world of work. It's a fundamental issue. Today, there's much talk of reconciling family and work. It's not just a political problem, but also an economic one. It affects labor organization which in turn affects companies."

To prepare for the meeting in Milan, the Pontifical Council for the Family published a book, which has a series of catechesis. It also includes different writings the entire family can reflect on.

Card. Dionigi Tettamanzi
Archbishop of Milan
"We are preparing for the meeting with these reflections on family, work and celebration, which are illustrated in ten catechesis. They also show  the itinerary for the coming months until the meeting from May 30 to June 3, 2012."

This international meeting is divided in two parts. The first is a three-day conference, where the role of the family in the world, society, the church or marriage will be discussed.

The last days will be chaired by pope Benedict XVI.

Card. Ennio Antonelli
President Pontifical Council for the Family
"We're using the World  Family Meeting held in Valencia as a point of reference. We estimate that between 500,000 to 700,000 people will attend the last two days with the pope, which will also be the most solemn days. We estimated that 6,000 or 7,000 people will participate in the congress of pastoral theology."

John Paul II began these family meetings in 1992.  The goal is to analyze issued faced by families. They're held every three years. The largest gathering was in Manila, Philippines in 2003  which brought 4 million people.

BR/KLH
FF
HC
PN