BY Daniel Harkins | October 1 | 
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Grandparents’ group delighted that Dublin will host next World Meeting of Families
Catholic Grandparents Association Founder Catherine Wiley says members would come out in force to welcome the Holy Father in 2018
The Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) has welcomed news that Dublin is to be the venue for the 2018 World Meeting of Families (WMF) and has expressed the hope that Pope Francis will travel to Ireland for the event.
Catherine Wiley, the association’s founder, said she was very excited and encouraged at the news.
“The Grandparents will be out in force to welcome Our Holy Father, and I feel sure he will not miss this opportunity to meet us,” she said, speaking this week on her return from Philadelphia where she represented the CGA at the WMF 2015.
Having met Pope Francis during his US visit, Mrs Wiley added that ‘the Pontiff clearly recognises the importance of grandparents and constantly affirms them.’
The World Meeting of Families was started by St John Paul in 1994 and takes place every three years. The Pope’s visit to the US coincided with the Philadelphia meeting during which he stressed importance of the family.
Mrs Wiley spoke at the Philadelphia meeting about Loving through the generations: Grandparents and Great Grandparents and received a standing ovation when she said that grandparents are ‘more than ever a source of support in the faith and care of children.’
“Grandparents offer stability for the family, especially as their faith becomes an anchor of strength for others,” she said. “Pope Francis recently insisted himself upon this unique importance of grandparents to help pass on the faith, and creating a Christian atmosphere in family homes. Parents, grandparents; we must rise to the calling which God has given to each family. Our homes must be places where the story of our faith is taught; where prayer and holy images invoke, in word and deed, the love and graces of God.”
Pics: (Above) CGA founder Catherine Wiley (second left) with workers and representatives of the CGA on the association’s stand in Philadelphia. (Below) Mrs Wiley with Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, pictured during the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, US.
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