Enthusiasm and Numbers Grow for Family Meeting

The theme of the 6th World Meeting of Families, is "The Family as Educator in Human and Christian Values." It begins Wednesday in Mexico City and concludes Sunday.

MEXICO CITY (Zenit) - The number of registrations for the theological congress of the World Meeting of Families passed 9,000 and is increasing, surpassing the number of participants at the last congress in Valencia.

The theme of the event, the 6th World Meeting of Families, is "The Family as Educator in Human and Christian Values." It begins Wednesday in Mexico City and concludes Sunday.

Carlos Villa Roiz, a communications official of the Archdiocese of Mexico, told ZENIT that the atmosphere is "full of enthusiasm" and people "keep coming and registering" for the congress.

This morning, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, revised all of the installations for the pastoral-theological congress, which runs through Friday. He was accompanied by Father Gianfranco Grieco, an official from that Vatican dicastery.

Speakers for the congress include a range of specialties and topics, and include experts such as Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec; Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Tanzania; Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus; and Cardinal Oscar RodrĂ­guez Madariaga, president of Caritas.

This afternoon, Bishop Gonzalo de JesĂşs MarĂ­a del Castillo Crespo, military bishop of Bolivia, led the midday Angelus at Mexico's ExpoBancomer, where the theological congress will be held.

Benedict XVI expressed his support for the meeting during last Sunday's Angelus, saying, "I myself will also follow the extraordinary event with lively participation, accompanying it with prayer and through a televised talk."