Scottish Catholic Observer

Scottish pilgrims at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, led by the Bishop of Paisley, said they were hugely inspired by the Pope’s message of love to the world’s families in the US last weekend.

It was the first time a Scottish delegation had attended the World Meeting of Families (WMF) event. Its members heard the Holy Father preach that our families are the true ‘domestic churches.’

Pope Francis held up the family as vital to building the Church for the future. He said love must be freely shared for faith to grow.

“That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches,” the Pope said. “They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become Faith.

Bishop Keenan said the WMF2015 had been an ‘amazing’ experience and, before leaving, he said he was ‘very happy’ to be representing Scotland.

“I cannot forget being struck by the words of Pope St John Paul when he said: ‘As the family goes, so goes the world,’” he said. “He reminds us that the renewal of the Church as well as the safety and prospering of the human race depends on a culture of stable and happy marriage and family life.”

Bishop Keenan added that the Pope continued to champion the family for all humanity.

“I have high hopes for this World Meeting of Families, ahead of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, to cast some new light and give fresh energy to the Church’s witness on behalf of the family in our modern world,” he said.

Led by Bishop Keenan, the Scottish delegation included Fr Nicholas Monaghan from the Church’s National Commission for Marriage and the Family and parish priest at St Dominic’s, Bishopbriggs; and Fr John McGinley of Glasgow Archdiocese. John Deighan, director of SPUC Scotland and his wife Angela, were also with the group that met up with Sr Roseann Reddy and Sr Andrea Fraile from the Sisters of the Gospel of Life while in Philadelphia.

Fr Monaghan told the SCO that the whole experience had been incredibly joyful.

“I think that was reflected in the Pope’s message where he talked about caring for the very young and the very old in the family, how important that is, and what a positive thing that is despite the many difficulties faced by the family today,” he said.

Mr Deighan said: “There was a great response to the Pope’s message. It gets to the heart of how the basis of human happiness is the family and that support for the family is the route to a better society.’

In his final homily at the meeting’s closing Mass Pope Francis recalled that Jesus encountered ‘hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did.’

Divorce will not be on the agenda at an upcoming synod on the family, the Holy Father said Monday on the plane home from the WMF in the US, three weeks after he streamlined the process for Catholic couples to obtain annulments devolving decision-making to local bishops in simpler cases.

It has also been announced that the next World Meeting of Families will be held in Dublin in 2018. It has not been revealed whether the Pope will attend the 2018 event, but if he did it would be the first papal trip to Ireland since St John Paul’s 1979 visit.

A spokesman for the Scottish Church said the news on WMF2018 was ‘very exciting.’

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—This story ran in full in the October 2 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.