VATICAN - Grandparents: topic of 18th Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The presence and witness of grandparents in the family is the theme of the 18th plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family being held in the Vatican from 3-5 April. More than 300 the participants. The plenary opens with an introductory address by Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family Famiglia. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State and Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney and a member of the Council's presidency committee will preside the two Eucharistic Celebrations.
The importance of grandparents - emphasised by Benedict XVI during the 5th World Meeting for Families held in a Valencia (July 2006) - will be the theme of various interventions: Archbishop Fernando Filoni, Substitute of the Secretariat of State, will speak on the role of the elderly in the Church and in society; Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will present the most significant figures of grandparents in the Bible; Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna, will speak on the Encyclical Humanae Vitae 40 years since its publication; Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, will illustrate the figures of grandparents in the migrant family.
Various lay men and women will share the experience of “being” grandparents today, keeping in mind the geographical areas of the world. Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico, will report on preparations for the 6th World Meeting for Families, scheduled to take place in January 2009 in Mexico City. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 3/4/2008; righe 18, parole 238)