America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
New Yorkers were among those who gathered from near and far for the VIII World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in late September.
The original purpose of Pope Francis’ trip to the United States three weeks ago was to lead Catholics from around the globe at that celebration, and that he did.
The gathering included an Adult Congress and a Youth Congress Sept. 22-25 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a Festival of Families and prayer vigil led by the pope Sept. 26 and a Papal Mass offered by the Holy Father Sept. 27.
Pope Francis did not attend the World Meeting of Families Congresses—he was in Washington, D.C. and New York on those days. That weekend the Holy Father participated in the Festival of Families and led the prayer vigil Saturday evening and celebrated the late afternoon liturgy on Sunday that marked the close of the World Meeting of Families.
Karen Faeth, 55, a member of St. Patrick’s parish in Yorktown Heights, attended the gathering with her and husband Mark’s 25-year-old twin daughters, Megan Faeth, now of Old St. Joseph’s parish in Philadelphia, and Avery Faeth of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Manhattan. The couple’s son Russell died suddenly at age 12 in 1999.
Mrs. Faeth and daughters were nine rows back from the altar during Saturday’s Festival of Families and prayer vigil and 10 rows back at Sunday’s closing Mass.
Throughout their time there, Mrs. Faeth felt strongly the Church’s belief in and support of families. Among the positive messages delivered was the importance of putting out the Gospel, she said: “Just go forward and show a happy Catholic, show a happy family. Plant the seeds and try to get more people back to the Church, and try to get people to fall back in love with Christ, who is our Savior.”
Pope Francis’ engaging expressions of kindness, happiness and gentleness resonated with the vast assembly and, in a special way, with the young, she said. “He made people smile. These young kids know their Holy Father, they know the Pope of their Church, they know their leader. He brought himself to them.”
Father Jeffrey M. Pomeisl, a parochial vicar at St. Patrick’s parish in Yorktown Heights, attended the World Meeting of Families’ weeklong Congress sessions. Additionally, he was outside the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul for Pope Francis’ Mass Saturday morning and in the vicinity of Independence Hall that same afternoon for the Holy Father’s address. He then headed back to New York for parish duties.
His takeaway from the event is “the Church is on track, that family is the issue of the day,” he said, and, as noted by a number of speakers, “an emphasis on dads and fatherhood is most particularly an emphasis that we should have.”
