Philadelphia Convention Center – Venue for 2015 World Meeting of Families

The Vatican announced this morning that Pope Francis will attend the World Meeting of Families to take place in Philadelphia next year.

“I wish to confirm according to the wishes of the Lord, that in September of 2015, I will go to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families,” said Pope Francis, according to Vatican Radio.  “Thank you for your prayers with which you accompany my service to the Church. Bless you from my heart.”

The Holy Father made the announcement this weekend while speaking at a Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man and Woman. During this conference he made a moving statement about marriage and family, saying that the “culture of the temporary” has led many people to forgo marriage.

“This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Evidence is mounting that the decline of the marriage culture is associated with increased poverty and a host of other social ills, disproportionately affecting women, children and the elderly. It is always they who suffer the most in this crisis.”

He likened the crisis in the family to the crisis that affects the natural environment. “Although the human race has come to understand the need to address conditions that menace our natural environments, we have been slower to recognize that our fragile social environments are under threat as well, slower in our culture, and also in our Catholic Church. It is therefore essential that we foster a new human ecology and advance it.”

The World Meeting of Families will take place September 22-27, 2015, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), and has as its theme “Love is Our Mission: The Family fully alive.”

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