There will be 150,000 pilgrims at the Pilgrimage of Families to the tomb of St. Peter, promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Family, which will take place in Rome with Pope Francis, on Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th of October. It is the «first official meeting of Pope Bergoglio with the families of the world». The news was announced on Thursday, October 10th, during the press conference at the Press Office of the Holy See for the presentation of this initiative together with other current activities at the Dicastery: the International Conference “New Anthropological Horizons and the Rights of the Family”, to be held on Thursday, October 24th, 2013, in Rome, at the Domus Pacis (Via di Torre Rossa, 94); the special issue of “Familia et Vita”, in Italian and Spanish, containing 35 sermons and speeches on topics related to the Family and Life pronounced by the then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, in the years from 1999 until his election to the papacy in 2013.

The speakers were: the President of the Dicastery, Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia; the Secretary, Msgr. Jean Laffitte; the Under-Secretary, Msgr. Carlos Simón Vázquez; the Office head and Director of Familia et Vita, Father Gianfranco Grieco, OFM
 

The project of the Pilgrimage—Msgr. Simón Vázquez said—was proposed in March 2012 by the Organizing Committee of the Year of Faith. «The central theme, under the title: “Family, Experience the Joy of Faith” is intended to express the dynamism of walking together. The pilgrimage is an image of the Christian life. We are all pilgrims, starting from different places, with different existential and biographical situations, on the journey of faith that makes us meet as families. And this path is marked by Christian joy, mingled with the pain and sorrow of life, as we walk together illuminated by the light of faith ("Lumen Fidei", no. 52) and the witnesses of those who have realized and continue to incarnate in their lives the gift offered by God». The pilgrimage is going to the tomb of Peter, because—the Undersecretary says— «it is placed in the light of the life of faith of the Apostle Peter, in that of his vocation, in the family of Peter, in his work as a fisherman, Peter the first pope and the martyr». Together with Peter, families will follow Jesus’ path, bearing witness to the beauty and joy of faith, in the «mystery of love, which is the root of God’s mystery. What does it means to love in the family today? It can mean union and reconciliation, educating and communicating, choosing and deciding, trust and hope, with joy and gladness».
 

In presenting the Conference “New Anthropological Horizons and the Rights of the Family”, that will be held on Thursday, October 24th, during the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family and on the 30th anniversary of the Charter of the Rights of the Family, Msgr. Laffitte, calling for a large participation, showed how the rights of the family are among the “inviolable rights of the human person,” because «the family somehow belongs to the person, it is an extension, a place of realization, and it is the subject of rights prior to the legal recognition of the State, which indeed constitute its foundation. When the Church reflects on the rights of the family, She contributes to the intelligibility and the consolidation of the common good, the shared concern of all men of good will», the Secretary said.
 

«The face of the new Pope, well-known in his homeland, Argentina, and throughout Latin America, needs to be better known and loved also with the cultural and pastoral passion deployed in the years of his episcopal ministry in Buenos Aires and in the context of the Episcopal Conference Latin America and the Caribbean», said Father Grieco, who thanked the Institute Matrimonio y Familia de la Universidad Católica Argentina for their contribution to the special issue of “Familia et Vita” dedicated to Pope Francis, which helps us to explore his theological, pastoral and cultural thought, «his Sapientia cordis, supported by a knowledge of the existential problems that challenge the Church and the post-modern world today». «Today Pope Francis speaks in the same way Cardinal Bergoglio expressed himself yesterday. His clear, immediate and direct concepts touch the hearts, trouble dozing consciences and provoke the intelligence. This, it seems, is his cultural itinerary: he starts from the heart to change the consciences, provoking the intelligence and reason», Father Grieco said. «A light illuminates all the research and the exposition of Bergoglio’s thought: the document of Aparecida, 2007». Among the themes that characterized the early days of his pontificate was «the family relationship between children and the elderly». «Simply by browsing through the index of the volume the reader can grasp the topicality and scope of the content—adds the Office Head—. There issues of the past that are reappearing today too, in Pope Bergoglio’s daily evangelical and Franciscan preaching: the culture of dialogue and of encounter; caring for others; the school as a place of cordial hospitality; the urgent need to re-orient politics along a creative line; opening and enlarging the hearts; bearing hope. There are also answers to burning issues: euthanasia and abortion, marriage, divorce, and marriage between persons of the same sex. Also included are the famous Marian texts, concerning the Virgin of Lujan—Protectress of the Argentine nation—, to whom her devoted children look with affection and gratitude».

 

The President expressed, on behalf of the Dicastery and the families who will participate in the Pilgrimage, the joy of being together with Pope Francis during this two-day event at St. Peter's as well as during the Plenary, and also spoke as ambassador to the families, of the Pope’s joy to be with them, always, in communion with God. Msgr. Paglia stated: «the family is central to the concerns, attention and interest of the Church and of society, as is shown by the choice of the topic for the Extraordinary Synod that Pope Francis has just convoked. This Synod is an act of love for family from the Pope. The family is the indispensable path for today and for the future that calls us all to shared responsibility».