Bishop Andrew Cozzens, auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, had dinner with pilgrims from the archdiocese Sept. 25 who attended the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and were preparing for Pope Francis’ Sept. 26 arrival into the city for the Festival of Families on Saturday and the World Meeting of Families’ closing Mass Sunday.
The problem, Collett said, is that “dignity” as used by some governing documents — including the constitutions of Italy, Germany and Japan — is divorced from the source of dignity, God, and presented as something that can be granted, rather than something that is inherent to the human person, as the Church believes.
The World Meeting of Families will be held for the first time in the U.S. in Philadelphia Sept. 22-25 with the aim of strengthening families in America and across the globe. Under the theme “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive,” the four-day “congress” intends to deepen the Church’s understanding of the family and its challenges, and provide tools to build up what “Lumen Gentium” — a principal document of the Second Vatican Council — calls “the domestic Church.” Throughout the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Catholic families are making daily efforts to build their own domestic Churches through prayer, charity and intentional living. The Catholic Spirit invited local Catholics to share their efforts to make their homes Catholic homes. The following are in their own words.
The question of the greatest challenge facing families in Minnesota is one Jean Stolpestad regularly mulls, she said. The director of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office for Marriage, Family and Life, Stolpestad oversees initiatives and programs aimed at strengthening Catholic families.
Being created in the image of God is a mission, an adventure and a command that each Catholic is called to carry out into the world and something we need to rediscover as people of faith living in today's secularized culture, said Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron of Los Angeles Sept. 21.
Known as the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia will be "the city of family love" and the "world capital of families" during the four-day World Meeting of Families, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
The group arrived shortly after noon in Philadelphia, four hours before Pope Francis was scheduled to touch down on U.S. soil for the first time near Washington, D.C., following his visit to Cuba.
Pilgrims from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis expect to see the pope on Saturday and Sunday; in the meanwhile, they’ll be attending lectures, workshops and expert panels at the World Meeting of Families.
The president of the National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry, Manancero has been charged with leading pre-conference events for Latin American Catholics Sept. 21, ahead of the World Meeting of Families’ opening event Sept. 22.
In partnership with the publications of all Minnesota dioceses, The Catholic Spirit is launching an 11-part series on families based on the meeting’s
10 themes.
When someone says they see a perfect family, I say look deeper. Families are messy, unpredictable and stressful. That is because human relationships are chaotic and capricious, and a family is the deepest form of being in relationship with others.
Since the dawn of time, people have desired to find meaning and purpose for their lives. In our age of competing and conflicting philosophies, Catholics unabashedly proclaim a deep confidence in knowing the way, the truth and the life. We fully believe that we are created out of love, for love. We are made for joy.
