Day three of the World Meeting of Families started off with a Daily Mass celebrated by Cardinals, Bishops, and hundreds of priests, including Father John. This set the tone for the day, the Light of the Family. While some were moved to tears with a powerful account of how the Mother Mary has impacted their lives, others heard strong opinions on the structure and essential truth of human dignity, for all members of the human race and at all stages of the human life.
The most powerful moment of the day was supporting the Catholic Relief Services Helping Hands Initiative. We illustrated our faith not just by our prayers and words, but by directly helping those in need by packing MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) for shipment to Africa. We heard from Thomas, a member of CRS who lost his parents when he was a young boy in Africa, and two of his younger brothers died of starvation in front of him. The only thing that saved him was a Catholic school that was built in his village, because they provided snacks to the children that attended school. He hated school, but he wanted those snacks. In fact, because of those snacks saving him physically, and the Catholic faith awakened in his soul, he now has a Masters in Public Administration, and his three children have never felt the pain of going to bed hungry, as he had done for so many years. We were so moved by his story that our group was able to pack over 30,000 MRE’s in one hour.
The youth of our group then took part in one of the largest murals for Pope Francis’ visit, where they are attempting to break the World Record for most painters on a paint-by-numbers mural in history. This community effort brought them together with thousands of others at the Congress.
