In the Church of San Calisto, adjacent to the location of the Pontifical Council for the Family and where the Vatican Foundation has its sede, Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Dicastery, celebrated the Holy Mass for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Msgr. Paglia highlighted the idea that “just in the day in which we remember the humanity of the heart of Jesus, from which flows a concrete and visible love, we find ourselves together to bless a Project that gives us a ‘heart of flesh’, in sustaining, assisting, and being close to the families in the Middle East.” Msgr. Paglia affirmed that the opening is another step forward in the collaboration between Renewal in the Spirit and the Pontifical Council for the Family, finalized in the construction of the International Center for the Family in Nazareth. Notably this was also recalled by Pope Francis in his recent trip to the Holy Land during the prayer of the Regina Coeli in Bethlehem on May 25, 2014.

“It is a project that in our thoughts and concerns is most urgent” Msgr. Paglia continued, “so that ‘the little ones of the earth’, ‘the tired’, ’the weary’, and ‘the oppressed’ of the families of the Holy Land can receive our care, having the experience of the same rest and welcome as Mary and Joseph.” The President of the Pontifical Council for the Family issued thus a call to prayer and to the spiritual assistance that this great challenge requires, as it is a “a great, concrete adventure, found within the general need of ‘restoring’ and ‘caring’ for the families in difficulty at the beginning of the new millennium.”