The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Council for Marriage and the Family is holding its second annual conference in Clonliffe college, Dublin, tomorrow (Saturday).
The conference comes in advance of the Vatican’s Synod on the Family, where the heads of Catholic bishops’ conferences worldwide will meet and discuss the challenges facing families in the world today, and how the church can best address them.
It begins at 9.30am and ends at 4pm. The cost of attendance is €50 and includes lunch. The email to making a booking is [email protected]
Speakers at the conference include Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, Chair of the Council for Marriage and the Family Bishop Liam McDaid; Dr Tony Fahey of University College Dublin; and, Ms Colette Furlong from the Sligo Parishes Cluster.
The conference will discuss “the pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation”, the support offered to families at parish level, and the future role of teh Council for Marriage and the Family.
Commenting ahead of the conference Bishop MacDaid said “The vocation of marriage and family life enriches the whole community and Saturday’s conference will be another opportunity to explore and deepen our sense of marriage and family which is at the heart of the parish and society. It is vitally important for us to explore together how parishes can continue to support families in their calling to live, pass on, and to share their faith, given the pastoral challenges that affect families in contemporary Ireland.”
The conference welcomes “parents, grandparents, teachers, members of Parish Councils” and “others exercising faith and pastoral leadership.”