The event is scheduled for Saturday, 3 October, in St. Peter's Square. This day was chosen by the Italian Episcopal Conference to animate a big vigil of prayer in support of the Synod on the Family, which will open the following day and whose work will last until 25 October.
The invitation was officially announced on 25 June by Msgr. Nunzio Galantino, General Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, in a speech addressed directly to over one hundred representatives of Italian associations and ecclesial movements: "I am convinced that in your associations, movements and new communities many beautiful lights of the family are visible, and I would like them to illuminate St. Peter's Square like a torch on the evening of the Vigil with Pope Francis, on 3 October."
The initiative comes in response to the Holy Father's numerous calls to pray for the family and for the Bishops, who will be assembled in October to protect and promote it. "We have a great need to see the beauty of the family in Italy, in union—insisted Msgr. Galantino—our true strength is to remain anchored to reality, with the knowledge that the reality is greater than the idea: and the reality is the family."
