World Meeting of Families: Testimonies

My wife Elizabeth (aka Lisa) and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel with the Archdiocese of Birmingham to the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August, which consisted of a three-day pastoral congress jam-packed full of talks and events, followed by a wonderful weekend where we were joined by Pope Francis himself. The event was started in 1994 by Pope John Paul II and takes place every three years. It is the single largest gathering of families anywhere in the world.

We are extremely grateful to Fr. John Hancock, the people of Littlemore parish and the deanery of North Oxford for sponsoring our trip, as we would very likely not have gone without the financial support. We can’t continue without expressing our thanks to our group coordinators Lianne Pap, Natalie Orefice and Faye Fawcett, who did a sterling job organising a crowd of well over a hundred.

We are truly indebted to them. It was a hugely rewarding and nourishing trip for us, and as a young, fairly newly married Catholic couple, it was great to be in the presence of so many families from all over the world, with whom we felt a great sense of community.

The focus of the meeting was “Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World” and was based on Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation titled ‘Amoris Laetitia’, meaning “The Joy of Love”, which reflects on the role of family in the Church and how family life reflects God’s teachings.

There was a great emphasis on the fact that the Church is a ‘family of families’, and Jesus Christ, who is the head of the Church, was brought into this world into the family of Nazareth.

The Archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Gracias, said in his homily during Mass on the first day of the congress, that the model of family we should all look to is the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He said the Holy Family is a bright light in the dark times, in the midst of great assaults on family values, and on the institution of the family itself.

He reminded us that we belong to two families: our own family, but also the spiritual family of the Church, and that we should work hard for the growth and development of both. 

Throughout the congress, there was the opportunity to meet a multitude of people, priests, nuns and brothers from all holy orders including some we’d never even heard of before, from all over the world and across Ireland. We even met Fran who was from Marriage Care Oxford, who coincidentally we had done our own marriage preparation with just three years ago.

We have even signed up to give our own testimonies at future marriage preparation sessions, so for us there has been a tangible outcome from the meeting. I also got a chance to play the organ that would later be played at the Papal Mass, which was a great honour for me!

Throughout the meeting, there were some very moving testimonies from families at different stages of their lives, each giving an account of their own journeys.

These were often filled with hardship and they shared how their faith in God and the love and support of their own families helped them through the tough times.

There were young people describing their hopes and dreams for marriage and the family, as well as long-married couples including a couple who had been married for 74 years and counting!

On the Saturday, we and the rest of the travellers of the Birmingham Archdiocese celebrated Mass with Archbishop Bernard Longley.

The church where we celebrated Mass was significant in that it was Newman University Church, which was founded by Cardinal Newman, and is the Catholic chaplaincy for the Catholic University of Ireland. Of course, Cardinal Newman has an important connection with the archdiocese, and it was great for us to represent Littlemore at that Mass. 

In the evening, we attended the Festival of Families at Croke Park stadium, in which 87,000 people along with Pope Francis enjoyed a feast of wonderful music, dance and theatre. Personal highlights included the River Dance with 500 children lined all across the arena, as well as a moving rendition of Ave Maria by tenor Andrea Bocelli. Again, there were powerful testimonies by families from Ireland, India, Zimbabwe and even Iraq.

Pope Francis gave an extensive speech in which he reinforced the values of the Catholic Church in regard to family life. He spoke about forgiveness and how important the words, “please, sorry and thank you” are within the family.

He touched upon about how social media can connect families spread across the world, which is especially true for our family, but can also detract from valuable family time. He spoke of the importance of extended family, especially grandparents, who bring experience of their own family life and how in God’s house, there is a place at the table for everyone.

This was especially important for us as we were accompanied by Lisa's mother, her brother, his wife and their 10-week-old baby boy. We were truly blessed to have them join us and to share our experiences with them.

The culmination of the meeting was the Papal Mass in which a crowd 500,000 strong descended on Phoenix park to celebrate Mass with the Holy Father.

As the Pope entered on the Pope-mobile and proceeded to drive around the crowd for nearly 30 minutes, everyone was rushing to get as close as possible. There was a palpable sense of joy in the air that was brilliant to see first-hand. That reaction is testament to the faith we all have in Pope Francis to lead the Church here on Earth in this day and age, where often the Church as well as ourselves as Catholics are under attack from the forces of evil.

It was a joyful celebration in which petitions from the Archdiocese, including some from Littlemore parish were presented to the Pope during the offertory procession. Just to be in the presence of the Holy Father was a source of spiritual strength for us, and this has stayed with us as we returned to our daily lives.

By the end of the meeting, we were physically exhausted but spiritually refreshed. You might be able to tell if you saw us on Songs of Praise! As someone said to us, it isn’t a pilgrimage unless you’re knackered by the end of it! We’ve taken away a huge amount of joy and hope from the meeting, and we feel more connected to families all over the world than ever before. It was an experience that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.