Preparations for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in 2018 are to be formally launched this month.
The launch on Saturday October 22 will be overseen by the co-chairs of the Council for Marriage and the Family of the Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
It will take place in the context of a day-long conference entitled The Joy of Love, Amoris Laetitia and the World Meeting of Families in Ireland, which will be held in DCU Saint Patrick's Drumcondra Campus in Dublin.
Representatives of dioceses and parishes from around Ireland, as well as various groups whose mission is to support the sacrament of marriage and offer pastoral outreach to families, will also be in attendance.
Pope Francis asked that the 9th World Meeting of Families take place in Dublin from August 22-26 2018. Held every three years, it is the largest gathering of Catholic families in the world and celebrates family life and the Church's commitment to support families.
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Ireland's Catholic bishops have continued their discussion on a national vocations initiative beginning in 2017.
Bishops agreed to establish a National Vocations Office to offer support, networking and training to vocation directors in Ireland, both on a regional and national level. As a shared central resource, the new office will act as a knowledge centre for best practice, as well as providing continuity of memory in relation to all vocations work.
Its mission will be three-fold: to build a culture of vocation: to promote specific vocations; and, to support those who work in the pastoral care of vocations.
It will nurture all vocations but will place a particular emphasis on priesthood, diaconate and religious life. To further inform the establishment of this office, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan will lead a delegation from Ireland, with members of the Council for Vocations of the Bishops' Conference, to the International Congress on Priestly Vocations which will take place in Rome this month.
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Sr Martina Purdy will be the special speaker at Interdenominational Divine Healing Ministries' service in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, on Monday October 17 at 8pm.
Martina will share her journey from a dream job as a BBC News journalist to her life now as an Adoration Sister, which she has described as truly "living the dream".
Worship will be led by the music group from West Church, Bangor. Personal prayer and anointing with oil will be available at this service.
