World Festival of Families: promoting unity through music

By Francesca Merlo

Taking place in Rome between 22-26 June, the World Meeting of Families kicks off on Wednesday night with the Festival of Families which was introduced on Tuesday during a press briefing in the Vatican.

The kick-off event includes live testimonies and musical performances by Il Volo. 

In fact, present during the press briefing were the three young artists of the internationally acclaimed trio  who will perform during the World Meeting of Families kick-off event. These songs will be performed with the Pope present along with various testimonies. The three young men in their late twenties have already performed for Pope Francis in Panama 2019.

The anthem of the Festival, composed by Fr. Marco Frisina, is called "We Believe in Love", and will be performed in English, Italian, French and Spanish, with an Italian chorus. During the press briefing, Fr Frisina described the anthem as a slogan, and a way of walking with God. 

The testimonies

The testimonies, coming from 5 different families will include those of parents who have lost their children, families who have taken in Ukrainian women fleeing war, and people fleeing poverty in other nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The themes of the testimonies are marriage, holiness within the family, forgiveness, family as a place of welcome and the call to fraternity. 

On Thursday evening there will be a concert in Rome's Palazzo Lateranense on the theme “The Joy of Music”, with Mozart and Schubert as protagonists.  

Pride in family

The three artists then spoke, each describing their pride in participating in an event surrounding a theme that is very important to them.. They described the importance of their families, especially given they all left theirs at a young age so that they could pursue music. They described the strength their siblings showed in being able to be close to their parents whilst they were away. 

The Festival will be presented by an Italian couple and will end with the Festival anthem being sung for the Holy Father.