On the Recently Completed World Meeting of Families

"Ambling past each other at the World Meeting of Families, in a building reminiscent of a major city airport terminal, 17,000 people conveyed a sense of joy. They were having a collectively good time, even if the only people they knew personally were the ones they came with. It was the sort of gathering where you could walk up to anybody, introduce yourself, and ask them about their deepest thoughts and experiences.

"Talks were central to the event schedule, of course, and the talks were heady. But people didn't come for just an encounter with Jesus the Teacher; it would have been easier to stay home and memorize the Catechism. They came for an encounter with Jesus the Lover. It was a family reunion where everybody had the same Father - God - mother - Mother Mary - and brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins - the saints.

"It's not like there were no dissenters among them. It's that even those people were part of the family, too. They walked up to the microphones at the break-out sessions and aired their grievances against God or the Church. People responded with compassion and sometimes applause. These people were struggling. If one member of the body suffers, the whole body suffers, says St. Paul. Everyone there knew what it was to struggle and to need encouragement in the struggle.

"African Cardinal Sarah embodied that spirit in his talk, 'The Family: A Light in a Dark World.' In one breath, he decried as heresy the changing of Christ's perennial teaching on marriage and family. In another, he urged Christian families to show mercy to those who fall outside of it, so they can find the Church as a place of regeneration."

A recent National Catholic Register article reported on the recently completed World Meeting of Families.

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National Catholic Register: Taking the Joy Beyond Philly (3 OCT 15)