The official image of the 10th World Meeting of Families, to be held in Rome from June 22 -26, 2022, was unveiled by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life in a press release dated July 28, 2021. This work bears witness to the close ties that unite the family and the Church.
This painting, applied on wood, is inspired by the episode of the wedding feast at Cana. It represents sacramental love between spouses, a reflection of the indissoluble love between Christ and the Church. At the bottom of the work, we can see St. Paul pouring wine into a chalice. His presence refers to one of his comments on marriage:
“’For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife,and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.”
The author of this painting, Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, artist, theologian and director of the Aletti Cultural Center (Rome), hopes that through this image, the families gathered in 2022 may be moved. “For us Christians, the family is the expression of the sacrament” of marriage and “it is inseparable from the Church,” he explains.
Families from dioceses all over the world will take part in this 10th World Meeting of Families, which has as its theme “family love: vocation and path to holiness.” Originally scheduled for June 2021, this event has been postponed for a year due to the pandemic.
