The World Festival of Families, taking place from 22-26 June, is presented in the Vatican along with three young musicians who have written music they will perform throughout the event.
By Francesca Merlo
The World Festival of Families, taking place in Rome between 22-26 June, was introduced on Tuesday during a press briefing in the Vatican.
The five-day event, surrounding the World Meeting of Families has a full schedule for the following days, involving testimonies heard and music played.
In fact, present during the press briefing were the three young artists of the internationally acclaimed trio “Il Volo”, who arranged and composed music for the events. These songs will be performed for the Pope in between the various testimonies. The three boys, aged 27 and 28 have already performed for Pope Francis, in Panama 2019.
The anthem of the Festival, composed by Fr. Marco Frisina, is called “Great Love”, and will be performed in English, Italian, French and Spanish, with an Italian chorus. During the press briefing, Fr Frisina described the anthem as a slogan, and a way of walking with God.
The testimonies
The testimonies, coming from 5 different families will include those of parents who have lost their children, families who have taken in Ukrainian women fleeing war, and people fleeing poverty in other nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The themes of the testimonies are marriage, holiness within the family, forgiveness, family as a place of welcome and the call to fraternity.
At the end of the event there will be a concert in Rome’s the Palazzo Lateranense with the theme “The Joy of Music”, with Mozart and Schubert as protagonists.
Pride in family
The three artists then spoke, each describing the pride in being able to explore and work in honour of families. They described the importance of their families, especially given they all left theirs at a young age so that they could pursue music. They described the strength their siblings showed in being able to be close to their parents whilst they were away.
The Festival will be presented by an Italian couple and will end with the Festival anthem being sung for the Holy Father.
