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Report from Dublin: "It's not raining!"

Matteo Ciofi

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Dublin, Ireland

2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin - Day 1

It's not raining! And this is the first report from Dublin, where the 9th World Meeting of Families (WMOF) is about to begin.
This evening at 7 pm local time, all 26 Irish dioceses will organize an opening ceremony with the celebration of Vespers. The theme of the event will be "Le Chéile, Le Críost" (Together in Christ).
Many families have already arrived in the city. The first ones arrived yesterday, late in the evening, with Spanish groups clearly in the majority. And today the Media Center in Dublin Castle officially opened its doors.
From tomorrow, the WMOF will take off with the first of the meetings, taking place at the RDS (Royal Dublin Society). Here, for three days, there will be workshops and debates, as well as prayer activities and entertainment for families, with a special program for children aged 4 to 12 and children aged 13 to 17. Every day there will be a Eucharistic celebration in the Family Arena.
Dublin, and the whole country, await the arrival of Pope Francis on Saturday, August 25. Ireland is a country with a deep history and Catholic tradition, where out of every 100 inhabitants 76 are Catholic, according to estimates from December 2016.
The presence of the Church in Ireland can be seen in other important statistics: 1359 parishes, 40 pastoral centers, 56 bishops, and 2357 catechists.
This morning the Holy Father sent a personal message through his Twitter profile for the beginning of this WMOF with an invitation: “Let us join in prayer with all the families of the world, especially those in difficulty.”
Another event taking place at the same time and in partnership with the WMOF will be a world-wide symposium on women's leadership on Saturday: “Voices of Impact: Women Leaders Shaping Global Change”. The symposium will involve those women who are actively bringing about changes in the world: mothers, girls, and women who will inevitably be the protagonists of this World Meeting of Families just about to begin.
Follow all of Salt + Light's coverage of the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin by visiting our WMOF webpage!
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