Pope says next world family meeting to be in Mexico City in 2009

Published: 2006-07-10

VALENCIA, Spain (CNS) -- At the end of the Fifth World Meeting of Families, Pope Benedict XVI announced the next world family meeting would be held in Mexico City, thus ushering in the possibility of a papal visit to Mexico. Before praying the noonday Angelus July 9 before hundreds of thousands of families gathered at Valencia's outdoor City of the Arts and Sciences center, the pope said the sixth world family meeting will be held in 2009 in Mexico's capital. The international gathering is held every three years and is organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family. The meeting, which aims to celebrate and help families live their Christian vocations, was established by Pope John Paul II in 1981. The first world meeting was held in Rome in 1994. Since then it has taken place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1997; Rome in 2000; and Manila, Philippines, in 2003. Each meeting has drawn more than a million people.

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