PRESS RELEASE

Upcoming FAFCE 2022 Fall Board Meeting in Paris (18-20 October 2022)

Brussels, 17 October 2022
This week the Confederation of Catholic Family Associations (CNAFC), FAFCE French Member organisation, will host this year’s FAFCE Fall Board Meeting in Paris, on 18-20 October. FAFCE Board gathers twice a year for a 3-days meeting, a key moment of dialogue for Catholic Family Associations in Europe, during which the main guidelines of their action at the European level are decided.
FAFCE’s President, Vincenzo Bassi, underlines that “This will be the first meeting we have since the audience with Pope Francis, last June, when he encouraged us to continue in our work in favour of the creation and consolidation of family networks. This is closely linked with the response that we wish to give with the General Sates of Birth and it’s also our contribution in these time of sinodality for the Catholic Church“.
Meeting FAFCE Board Members, on the 10th of June 2022, Pope Francis underlined the “need for places, gatherings and communities where couples and families feel welcomed, accompanied, and never alone. There is an urgent need for the local Churches – he said -, both in Europe and beyond, to encourage the work of the laity and families who accompany families“.
On their first day of works in Paris, FAFCE Board Members will have an exchange of views with the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UNESCO, Mgr Éric Soviguidi, focusing on the importance of the education and the crucial responsibility that parents have in that regard.
On the 19th of October they will go to the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in order to entrust their work for families in Europe. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio to France, will celebrate the Mass Holy there, with all FAFCE Board Members.

As founding member of the Federation, France holds a precious place in the work of FAFCE, in addition to the FAFCE’s active work in Strasbourg to the Council of Europe, and in Paris to the UNESCO, as part of the International Catholic Center for the Cooperation with the UNESCO (CCIC).

On the 20th of October 2022, FAFCE and CNAFC will hold the first international edition of the General States of Birth (Collège des Bernardins, 14.00-18.30). The event will gather demographers, philosophers, citizens and policy makers from all over Europe to assess the root causes of the demographic deficit, and to offer solutions for the future of Europe.