LAHORE (UCAN): Catholics in Pakistan are reeling after the Irish government denied them visas to attend the upcoming August 21 to 26 World Meeting of Families in Dublin.
 
About 10,000 families applied from all over the country. All were refused visas.
 

DUBLIN (CNS): The ninth World Meeting of Families will be held in dublin, Ireland from August 21 to 26, the organisers announced on February 28. A preliminary programme for the Pastoral Congress is scheduled frome August 22 to 24, the festival of families on August 25, followed by the final outdoor Mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on August 26.
 
The Vatican has not confirmed whether Pope Francis will attend.
 

DUBLIN (SE): “The World Meeting of Families 2018 that will be held in Dublin sets out to be not just a passing or even a fleeting celebration of the ideals of the family,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said at the Holy See Press Office on March 30 at a presentation of a letter from Pope Francis to the organisers.