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Vatican official lauds Filipino Family
31 January 2006--- A Vatican official has personally acclaimed the Filipino family for standing firm amidst today's rapidly changing world and difficult challenges.
"Filipino family continues to be strong, in spite of the attacks directed against it," Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, Pontificum Consilium Pro Familia (Pontifical Council for the Family) president, said.
Trujillo, who admitted that they are in a "decisive" stage in the promotion and defense of the family, expressed that Filipino family would remain intact with the support and help of the country's religious leaders.
"I am happily aware that this battle in your country is in good hands--those of Your Excellency and of the other bishops in the Philippines, who guide the priests, religious, and lay leaders of the country in being always faithful to the Gospel of the Family and of Life," he said in a letter to the CBCP President.
Meanwhile, Trujillo has invited and asked the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to promote among the faithful the 5th World Meeting of Families 9WMF) which will held in Valencia, Spain, on July 4-9, 2006.
Held triennially, the WMF is a large gathering that the Pope calls to celebrate the divine gift that is the family.
It brings together hundred of thousands of family to pray, talk, listen, learn, share and go into depth on the understanding of the role of the Christian family as a domestic Church and basic unit for evangelization.
The said ecclesial event will consist of an International Theological-Pastoral Congress (July 4-7), Eucharistic Celebrations in different languages, Festive Meeting with Testimonies, and the Mass with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
Starting July 1, until July 7, there will be an International Fair of Families, where various ministries, organizations, parishes, non-profit organizations, businessmen and other groups serving the family and life may share with others their identity, activities, apostolic projects and experiences.
Organized in 1981, the WMF is an initiative of John Paul II when he enacted the Apostolic Exhortation 'Familiaris Consortio' and constituted the Pontifical Council for the Family.
The first World Meetings of the Families took place in Rome in 1994 and since then, by invitation of the Pope, has taken place every three years; in Rio De Janeiro in 1997, again in Rome in 200, because of the holy year, and then in Manila in 2003. (Roy Q. Lagarde)
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