Romana

On September 16, Archbishop John Patrick Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, presided at the Twelfth Marian Family Conference, held at the Sanctuary of Torreciudad in Huesca, Spain. Fifteen thousand people attended the ceremony, which could also be followed directly by internet. “The family,” said Archbishop Foley in his homily at Mass, “is the intimate space where one can live in a climate of love and human and Christian values that are capable of transforming the world.”

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, the rector of the shrine, Fr. Javier Mora-Figueroa, read a message from His Holiness John Paul II, in which he invoked “the protection of the Holy Family, an example for all Christian families,” and said that he “would like many people to gain the plenary indulgence of the Holy Year” through this Congress, since Torreciudad is one of the places where the Jubilee indulgence could be gained.

In the evening the families organized a musical festival. Later they prayed the rosary, accompanying Our Lady of Torreciudad, who was carried on a platform around the shrine area. The congress ended with an act of Eucharistic adoration.

The celebration had a special importance in that it coincided with the shrine’s 25 th anniversary. It was inaugurated on July 7, 1975, after years of prayer and alms-seeking at the request of Blessed Josemaria Escriva, who wished to spread devotion to our Lady. “In these 25 years, thousands of people have benefited from the spiritual fruit that the founder of Opus Dei hoped for,” said the rector.