THE Pastoral Community in Downpatrick begins preparations tomorrow for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August.
St Patrick’s Church will be the focus of attention from tomorrow until Saturday with a series of hourly events.
The church will also be displaying a specially commissioned Icon of the Holy Family which will be in Downpatrick until Saturday before making its way to Belfast.
Tomorrow’s programme starts at 7.30pm with a concelebrated mass and over the next three days parishioners from ten surrounding Catholic parishes which make up the Downpatrick Pastoral Community will be taking part in a series of events to prepare for the event in Dublin which will be attended by Pope Francis.
The World Meeting of Families, which was last held in Philadelphia and is being hosted for the first time in Ireland this August, began in 1994 when Pope John Paul II said he wished to establish an international event of prayer, catechesis and celebration that would draw people from the around the world.
Vivienne McCormick, chairwoman of the Downpatrick Pastoral Community, explained that Pope John Paul’s aim was to help strengthen the bonds between families and bear witness to the importance of marriage and the family to all society.
She explained the event is held every three years in a different part of the world and is attended by the Pope.
This year, Pope Francis has chosen Dublin as the host city with the theme of the event being ‘The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World’ and he will also be at the Festival of the Families at Croke Park on Saturday, August 25.
The following day, he will celebrate open air mass in Phoenix Park — an event to which the Downpatrick Pastoral Community is sending five bus loads of people.
Downpatrick Parish Priest, Fr John Murray, said the Icon of the Holy Family had been specially commissioned for the Dublin event and had been written by iconographer Mihai Cucu, assisted by the Redemptoristine Sisters of the Monastery of St Alphonsus, based at Iona Road in Dublin, as part of their ongoing prayer for families.
He likened the World Meeting of Families to a Catholic Olympics or Catholic World Cup, explaining the two biggest events in the Catholic calendar are World Youth Day, which is held every three years, and the World Meeting of Families, which is held in between.
“The idea is to promote family and encourage families, with the Icon that has been specially commissioned very much an eastern tradition,” said Fr Murray.
“The World Meeting of Families is an event which will focus all our minds and thoughts and we will be sending four buses for the final mass which Pope Francis will be attending during his visit.”
Fr Murray said the Icon is travelling to each diocese in Ireland to encourage reflection and prayer as part of the journey of preparations to the World Meeting of Families and following its appearance in Downpatrick, will make its way to St Patrick’s Church at Donegal Street in Belfast.
A full schedule of events will take place locally over three days of celebration to which all parishioners in the Downpatrick pastoral community are invited to attend.
Following tomorrow evening’s mass, Friday and Saturday’s celebrations begin at 6am and run through until 10pm, with the Icon departing for Belfast following 10am concelebrated mass on Saturday.
Full details of the events in the town can be found on local parish websites and Facebook pages while further information about the World Meeting of Families is available at www.worldmeeting2018.ie.