Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said that while “there is no such thing as the ideal family”, nonetheless “there is an ideal of family,” which is what the Church is seeking to promote through the international gathering of families due to take place in Dublin in August 2018. He was speaking at the launch of the World Meeting of Families in Knock on Monday as families from across Ireland met at the shrine to celebrate the one-year countdown to next year’s event which Pope Francis is expected to attend. The 2018 gathering’s icon of the Holy Family was unveiled and anointed at the Mass and will begin a journey through the 26 Catholic dioceses in Ireland. Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin presided at the basilica’s 3pm Mass where he preached on the theme “When Plates Fly: Pope Francis on the joys and challenges of family life”. There was no family “that is ideal”, he said. “Plates fly in every family. There are, however, great families who struggle, at times heroically. The celebration of a World Meeting of Families would be hypocritical were it to be a celebration that ignored this struggle,” the Archbishop said. “A civilization of love must involve the search for a new politics for families, a politics of care for the marginalised and those who struggle. Where human love fails or is imperfect, our response should not just be that of condemnation or exclusion, but one of allowing the medicine of mercy to lead people towards a more perfect love,” he said.