Three days to explore the spirituality of the family and the extraordinary energy it gives to the Church: that’s the aim of the forthcoming symposium at Ushaw College, near Durham, in Northern England, on 22 October. Theme of the symposium is “Releasing formidable energy” to prepare “Home is a holy place”, the second phase of the three-year plan of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales dedicated to Catholic families. The plan is the bishops’ response to “Listening 2004”, the survey in which 15,000 Catholic families were interviewed and declared that they felt the ideal of Catholic marriage impossible to achieve and that their voice wasn’t being heard inside the Church. The first phase, which ended in the first months of the year, was entitled “Everybody’s welcome”, and dedicated to strategies of welcome at the parish level. The hundred or so participants at the three-day seminar at Ushaw College will discuss family spirituality and parish strategies to foster the sacredness of the home. “It’s a unique event, the first to be dedicated to family spirituality to mark the 25th anniversary of ‘Familiaris Consortio'”, declares the coordinator of the symposium Elizabeth Davies. After these two phases, it will then be up to parents and grandparents to transmit the faith to the younger members of the family. This will be the last phase of the bishops’ plan, called “Passing on the faith”.
