VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS UPCOMING APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO IRELAND

[WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES IN DUBLIN, 25 - 26 AUGUST 2018]

Dear Friends,

As I visit Ireland for the World Meeting of Families in a few days’ time, I send a warm greeting to all the Irish people: [speaking in English:] I’m excited to think I’ll come back to Ireland.

As you know, the World Meeting is a celebration of the beauty of God’s plan for the family; it is also an opportunity for families from all over the world to meet and support each other in living out their special vocation. Families today face many challenges in their efforts to incarnate a faithful love, to raise children with healthy values and to be, in the wider community, the leaven of goodness, love and mutual care. You know all this.

I hope that this occasion will be a source of renewed encouragement for families from all over the world, especially those families who will be there in Dublin. May it remind us of the essential place of the family in the life of society and in building a better future for our young people. Young people are the future! It is very important to prepare young people for the future, to prepare them today, in the present, but with the roots of the past: young people and grandparents. This is very important.

Although the specific reason for my visit to Ireland is the World Meeting of Families, I would like to see it embrace all members of the Irish families. I pray, in particular, that it will serve to increase unity and reconciliation among all the faithful of Christ, as a sign of that lasting peace which is God’s dream for the whole human family.

I know that many people are actively engaged in the preparation of my visit. I thank everyone cordially. I ask everyone to pray that this encounter will be a moment of joy and also of serenity, a caress of Jesus’ tender love for all families and, in truth, for every child of God. I assure you of my closeness, prayer, and I invite you to pray for me, I need it. From my heart, I give you my blessing: [in English:] God bless you all. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.