The Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family with the family movements, under the title "The vocation and the mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world", held from 22 to 24 January in Rome, was an opportunity to get to know each other better and to form, all together, a single family, creating new bonds and strengthening the existing ones.
Over three hundred participants from 26 countries around the world had the joy of living a beautiful experience of friendship and sharing, marked by many gatherings. First of all, of course, there was the morning Mass, which opened each of the three days of work. Holy Mass was celebrated in Latin, and the readings and prayers of the faithful were read in many different languages, to emphasize and manifest the unity in difference. The same principle animated the meetings of the delegates of the various associations, which were characterized, on the one hand, by universality (during plenary sessions) and, on the other, by distinctiveness (this was the case of the work in the language groups).
The meals and coffee breaks between the working sessions were also important moments of socialization, and the dinner on the last evening, for which all the participants gathered in the large dining room of the Church Palace that housed the convention, was especially memorable. This was real festival, where experiences and different views were shared at the tables in many languages, echoing in a special way the joyful glossolalia, the sign of the presence of the Spirit, that filled these three days.
