Cardinal López Trujillo informs the Conference of Bishops about the next WMF (22-11-2004)

Valencia - The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal López Trujillo will inform the conference of Bishops next Wednesday about the preparations for the 5th World Meeting of the Families which will take place in Valencia in 2006. Participating in the assembly, which started and will go on till next Friday, was the Archbishop of Valencia Agustin Garcia-Gasco, who also attended the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family in Rome last week.

Cardinal López Trujillo already visited Valencia last May to see all the possible scenarios for the 5th World Meeting of the Families to which about two million are expected to attend. At this the Pontifical Council is considering three possible locations in Valencia for the main event which will be presided over by the Pope.

Each World Meeting of the Families consists of five main manifestations: an International pastoral-theological Congress, a Congress devoted to the children, Eucharistic celebrations for families on pilgrimage, a meeting with testimonies of the families, and a final mass presided over by the Pope or his legacy which is celebrated by Cardinals, Bishops and priests from all over the world.

The prior World Meetings of the Families, that have taken place every three years, have been in Rome twice, in 2000 and in 1994, in Rio de Janeiro in 1997 and in Manila in 2003. All of them were presided over by the Holy Father, except the one in Manila, and each one attracted over one million people. The Plenary Assembly for the Conference of Bishops will be finished next Friday in Santiago de Compestela, where the attending Bishops will go on pilgrimage from Madrid on Friday November 26 to mark the celebration of the Holy Compostelian year.

The works of the Plenary Assembly were initiated this morning with the president's speech made by the Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela. The Apostolic Papal Nuncio in Spain, Monsignor Manuel Monteiro de Castro, attended this opening session, greeting all the attending Bishops.