Netherlands: launching the national coordination for planning the Year of the Family in the dioceses

The pastoral workers for marriage and family of the seven dioceses of the Netherlands have set up a nationwide network to cooperate and shape the “Year of the Family” launched by Pope Francis. The exchange is coordinated at a national level by the auxiliary bishop of Den Bosch, Robert Mursaerts. “Strengthening the existing activities and starting new initiatives” is the goal of the national group, composed of “professionals and volunteers, men and women, young and old, experts and beginners, Dutch and non-Dutch”. The group meets every ten weeks on a digital platform to “exchange ideas, encourage one another, try to do something together instead of each diocese for itself”. The dioceses are planning activities for families and couples, depending on what is available locally, aware of the fact that, “at the centre of such activities, there is evangelisation, contact with the families, experiencing together the joy of faith as well as the treasures of other countries and continents”.
Valentina Bombelli