Next World Meeting of Families to be held in 2028

Vatican City, Jun 25, 2022 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The next World Meeting of Families will be held in 2028, Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square.

The prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, made the announcement at the end of Mass for the 10th World Meeting of Families, which will end on June 26.

He also said a “Jubilee of Families” will take place with Pope Francis in 2025, the Catholic Church’s next Jubilee Year.

The cardinal, whose office helps organize the international event, did not say which city will host the 11th edition of the gathering in six years’ time.

He said: “I am also pleased to announce that the next gathering of families with Pope Francis will be the ‘Jubilee of Families,’ which will be celebrated here in Rome as part of the 2025 Jubilee, while the 11th World Meeting of Families will take place in 2028.”

“Let us pray from now that these will also be great events of grace that touch the hearts of thousands of families,” he said.

The first World Meeting of Families was held in Rome in 1994. The meeting of Catholic families from around the world typically takes place in a different city every three years.

The latest edition of the World Meeting of Families was first scheduled for 2021, but postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Attendance at the June 22-26 gathering was also limited to around 2,000 families because of the pandemic.