Holy Father Pope Francis dedicated his General Audience to a reflection on his Apostolic Visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families. “My presence” in Ireland, he said, “was intended above all to confirm Christian families in their vocation and mission.” His Holiness Pope Francis said the thousands of families that took part “were an eloquent sign of the beauty of God’s dream for the whole human family.” That dream, he continued, “is unity, harmony, and peace in families and in the world”; and he said that God is calling on families “to participate in this dream, and to make the world a home where no one is alone, no one is unwanted, no one is excluded.”
As reported by Vatican news, The Pontiff also spoke out against the current “culture of the provisional.” Emphasizing the value of communication between family members of different generations, he lamented that in the “cast-away” culture, grandparents are often “cast-aside.” “Grandparents are the wisdom, the memory of the people, the memory of families,” he said. And he encouraged grandparents to pass on their faith and experience to their grandchildren; and grandchildren in their turn to speak with their grandparents “in order to carry on their story.”
Summing up the experience of his Journey, Pope Francis said “the World Meeting of Families in Dublin was a prophetic, comforting experience of so many families committed in the evangelical path of marriage and of family life; families of disciples and missionaries, leaven of goodness, of sanctity, of justice, and of peace.”
