What YOU should know about the family day... Click here to download this article as a pdf-pamphlet. Philadelphia, USA 2015: Pope Benedict XVI invites all the religious leaders of the world to the eight successive World Family Days, which will be held in Philadelphia, USA, in 2015. How will this affect you? The first World Meeting of Families was arranged in 1994. The subsequent meetings took place in Rio de Janeiro (1997), Rome (2000), Manila (2003), Valencia (2006), Mexico (2009) and Milan (2012). The pope has appointed the next FAMILY DAY meeting to be held in Philadelphia, USA in 2015. What is this day all about? The pope desires that all families have a work-free Sunday. Families should be free from work so that, on this day, children could be together with their parents and relatives and go to church as well. The pope suggests that we must maintain the natural weekly cycle so that we have a balance between work and rest. He also suggests that we should discover the true meaning of Sunday observance on this family day. It is interesting that the UN and the Vatican are working together for the family day, which will be each and every Sunday. Families would have rest upon this day, be together with the children and go to church. Do you see the strategy? The pope desires to promote Sunday as the day of rest for all families throughout the world! He doesnt openly say that he desires to have Sunday as the day of rest for all, but he calls Sunday the family day. When the pope met religious leaders and government representatives in Milan, he reminded them of the importance of policies and laws that protect the family. By defending Sunday, one defends human freedom, the pope said during his weekly general audience in St. Peters Square , June 6, just after he had attended the family day gathering in Milan. He continued: Sunday must be a day of rest for everyone, so people can be free to be with their families and with God. The pope clearly stated that he wanted to come to the defence of free time, which is threatened by a kind of bullying through the demands of work. He continued: Sunday is the day of the Lord and of man, a day which everyone must be able to be free -- free for the family and free for God. (Catholic News Service, June 2012).
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 06:28:21 +0000