The 9th World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland has come to shed light in a time of darkness in the Church.

37,000 people have registered for the Pastoral Congress, where the heart of the Catechesis takes place, and 82,500 tickets were sold to celebrate the Festival of Families with Pope Francis, Saturday, Aug. 25 at Phoenix Park.

Held every three years, this international event brings together families from across the world to celebrate, pray and reflect on the importance of marriage and family. Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia (“Joy of Love”) echoes across the overarching theme of “The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World.”

65 workshops in three days are held for adults, teens and kids on the role of technology, the impact of conflict within the family, building sustainability to the economy, work and environment, faith in the daily facets of family life, women’s leadership and the role of education in raising families out of poverty.

Commencing the event were four testimonials giving encouragement and hope to the families coming from 116 countries, as well as in Ireland.

 

Ameera Ahmed, 30

Where are you from?

I am originally from Nigeria and I moved to Ireland in 2003.

Why did you come to the WMOF?

Why not? The Pope’s coming! It’s a beautiful celebration of faith and family. For me it’s more of a beautiful opportunity to meet other people who share the same faith and be in a safe space where I can be comfortable in my faith without having to worry about if I have to hide this or if people can judge me. I’m wearing a cross today, for example, I may not be comfortable wearing that in other places because I’m worried what people may think, she’s a Christian one, stay away from her. It’s just to celebrate and celebrate faith.

How was it living your faith in Nigeria compared to Ireland?

Well it was very easy in Nigeria because I was really young, I was just 15 when I left so it wasn’t a big deal then. Religion is actually a very big thing in Nigeria so it’s uncool if you say you don’t believe in God where it’s the opposite here. Coming here, I suppose I’m usually a transparent person so at the start it was normal for me to go to mass except I realized not everyone does that, especially under the age of 40. I noticed overtime I started to hide aspects about my faith. If I was going to a faith concert I would say I’m going to a concert, not a concert with young people, etc. I think after WYD Krakow and WMOF, I’m gaining more confidence to speak about my faith but not in an in your face manor because I have the strength and encouragement from attending events like this and knowing that there are so many different people to maybe the people I would encounter everyday who have negative views toward the Church. For me that’s a big positive. That’s why I’m here today. That’s why I always attend as many faith events as I can.

 

Isaac Withers, 22

As a young man, what is the message you want to share with the participants of the WMOF?

I’m not married and I come from a great family, but for me I think the culture and relationships is the thing that I can speak to. I was at the priest Synod meeting for the Synod on young people in Rome and Pope Francis spoke about a disoriented generation and need for a counterculture, and for me those were powerful things and I have done a lot of research into it since.

Before I thought my generation was quite normal, but then if you look at the way technology has affected people, the way social media affects self-worth and the brain, same as pornography, the way that people at really young ages learning about sex in a distorted way, which was my experience too in a great Catholic family, a very secret sort of problem. A lot of people experiencing divorce than before as well, so there are all these sort of changes going on and I think we do have a generation of people who haven’t seen great witnesses of love and have been affected by negative parts of the sexual revolution.

So that was the heart of what I wanted to say — that the Christian idea of self-sacrificial love is something people aim for and it’s not something that the culture promotes and it’s not something we witness often in our lives. But now I think this is coming to the forefront because we have a generation that’s grown up with it and people are feeling bold enough to talk about these things. A dialogue has to happen.

 

Méabh Carlin, 26 and Christopher Gallen, 28

What do you hope for Ireland and all the young people here?

Méabh: I’m hopeful or really praying for a real outpouring of the Holy Spirit under the hearts of especially the young people. We just made a small thread in the tapestry of this entire thing and in God’s magnificent plan. At the end of the day to be a voice in the journey that we’re on and that really, Christ is everything and placing him at the center of this journey, living a life for him, a chaste life, and following the Church teachings on how God intended marriage to be, it’s been the most beautiful journey. Even friends of ours who haven’t followed the traditional route have acknowledged and commented on the fruits that they are seeing from the peace and joy from us that they haven’t found themselves. As St. John Chrysostom said, “the love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together.” Wow, what an honor to be that force that God uses. It’s really exciting and hopeful.

Christopher: The Catholic Church in Ireland and how it’s been pulled through the media at the moment, you really need people to step forward and say, yes, the Catholic Church ... there has been so many wrong [things] but there’s so much good things going on and people need to step forward and tell the people of the good of the Catholic Church as well, that not all hope is lost. At the center and core of it all what the Catholic Church stands for is really beautiful and I think something like the WMOF can really renew and ignite that again in the families of Ireland, please God. It’s really a time to know our faith and delve deep into our faith.

 

Pauline and Damien Deraney and Samuel (8 months old)

How does the WMOF affect you?

Damien: We gave our testimony today and we talked about how our marriage led us through life and having Sam and Sam was born three months premature, so I hope and pray that the blessings that come from this event are bestowed upon everyone to be quite honest. I was at WYD in 2000 myself and the blessings that came from that were amazing so I hope the WMOF has the same blessings and graces bestowed upon families throughout the world.

How do you live your faith and grow your family in Ireland?

Damien: It’s difficult to have faith in Ireland at this day in age today. We’ve had some interesting referendums over the last couple of years actually, but I think having been in the hospital with Sam it strengthened our faith because we literally hoped and prayed this little guy would survive and come out of the ICU, which he did, thank God.

Pauline: I think if you think of faith from having faith in this country collectively, yes it’s probably not easy to go out on the street and say that I’m a Catholic. But at home it’s not difficult and that’s what’s important. If we can live it at home, then gently we’d be able to live it out in the masses. I’m personally not afraid to say I’m Catholic and I’m quite proud to, even in the midst of all the scandals, I think you have to keep your eyes on Jesus and that will get you through.