Materials for 2019 National Week for Life and the Family
Monday, January 07 2019
The National Week for Life and the Family will be celebrated across Canada 12 to 19 May 2019, with the start of the week coinciding with Mother’s Day. For the seventh consecutive year, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is offering dioceses/eparchies, parishes as well as Catholic organizations and associations groups possible resources and options for planning and organizing local activities. The theme for 2019 is “Listening to the Gospel as a Family“. The resources have been prepared by the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF), working in collaboration and consultation with the CCCB, and are available online, and may be freely downloaded and reproduced by dioceses/eparchies, parishes and other non-profit groups.
The materials include a poster; a prayer card ; a proposed plan for pastors and lay pastoral workers on how they might organize the Week; a message from the CCCB President, the Most Reverend Lionel Gendron, P.S.S., Bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil; proposals for homily notes and Prayers of the Faithful; and suggestions for related events and activities. Each diocese/eparchy decides how to adapt or use the suggested resources, in view of its own specific pastoral priorities, needs, and capacities.
The dates of the National Week are determined primarily by the United Nations 1993 resolution which declared 15 May the International Day of Families. In turn, the International Day is used to establish the dates for Quebec Family Week (Semaine québécoise des familles).