By Patrick Brown | Associate Editor

For a long weekend in August 1993, Denver was the center of the Catholic world. World Youth Day brought hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to central Colorado to visit with now-St. Pope John Paul II, culminating in Mass with a half-million attendees at a state park.

While the United States has hosted multiple papal visits in the intervening two decades, this is the first time since 1993 that a catechetical event close to that scale is being held in conjunction with a visit from the Holy Father - a pope who, of course, happens to be one of the most popular figures on the planet.

World Youth Day in 1993 has been credited with a surge of vocations to the priesthood, helping Denver become a center of Catholic renewal, and for inspiring a generation of young Catholics who welcomed the Bishop of Rome to the Centennial state.

Now, it’s Philadelphia’s turn in the global spotlight.

The “city of brotherly love and sisterly affection” is welcoming over 17,500 pilgrims, from Bordentown to Boise to Buenos Aires, for the 8th World Meeting of Families. And as anyone who has seen the traffic advisories knows, the birthplace of the nation is expected to host more than a million on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for Mass with Pope Francis on Sunday.

The possibilites are endless. But so, seemingly, are the difficulties.

The World Meeting, which officially opened on Tuesday, takes place in a context of challenges to family life that are found a quick perusal of workshop titles: urban decline, infertility and assisted reproduction, the “hook-up culture”, environmental degradation, the redefinition of marriage, technology-driven changes in our relationships, divorce, an increase in out-of-wedlock births, and above all, a growing tide of secularism that is at odds with the fundamental assumptions of many attendees and presenters at the week’s congress.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, who saw the fruits of World Youth Day first-hand as Archbishop of Denver for 14 years, said in an opening press conference that he hopes the World Meeting’s impact on the Philadelphia region is “twofold — to strengthen those who already believe in the Christian understanding of families…the second part is to equip us as believers with the tools to convince other people.”

Certainly many of the 17,500, from more than 100 countries, chose to attend largely because they believe in the centrality of the family in building up a strong society.

People like Kylie Ball, who, with her husband, David, and their four kids, traveled for 24 hours from north of Sydney, Australia, to the mid-Atlantic region for the purpose of attending the World Meeting of Families and seeing Pope Francis.

Her hope for the week was that the meeting would help them “come closer together as a family and to come closer to God.” But as soon as they arrived in Philadelphia, they were struck by the sight of homeless people on many street corners in Philadelphia - a tangible sign of the need for compassion and justice.

In his opening keynote, Bishop Robert Barron, recently-appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and founder of the popular Word on Fire evangelization organization, underscored the connection between the forgotten and abandoned on the streets of Philadelphia and the discussions taking place about the sacramental nature of the family.

“When the family breaks down, the society breaks down right behind it,” Bishop Barron said. While some might compartmentalize the Church’s moral and social teaching, “don’t pretend it’s a zero-sum game…[Advance with] both flags flying: Moral demand? all the way. Mercy? all the way.  That’s the prophetic speech of the Church.

“We’ve been cowed in many ways into prophetic silence. ‘Who are you to tell me what to think? Who are you to tell me what to do, what to believe?’ And so we hide our witness. We silence ourselves. But part of the imago Dei [image of God] is to engage in prophetic speech precisely for the sake of the world.”

Kris van Hees, attending with his wife and two children, also saw the World Meeting as providing an opportunity to experience the truly global nature of the Catholic Church.

“There’s more than the parish, there’s more than the Archdiocese, and they have all come together as one people and one family,” Van Hees, of Willow Grove, Pa., said. “We’re here to lend our voice to the importance of family, to celebrate with others and celebrate our faith.”

In that global connection, the hosts of the World Meeting of Families hope that the meeting leaves behind a stronger sense of solidarity between Christians and an increased willingness to witness on behalf of the importance of marriage and the family.

“God created men and women to love as he loves,” Archbishop Chaput said. “The witness of families in the world is what gives Christianity credibility.”

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, talked to the media before the start of the gathering. He admitted to a more small-scale goal, albeit with a smile: “If one single young person would say at the end of these days that they want to be married, [I] would be thrilled.”

The theme of the conference is “Love Is Our Mission,” and, should they choose to accept it, families might find their marching orders in a passage taken from the guest of honor at 1993 World Youth Day.

Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio says “The family finds in the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is, but also its mission, what it can and should do...Each family finds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored, and that specifies both its dignity and its responsibility: Family, become what you are.”

Become what you are. If the 2015 World Meeting of Families leaves behind no greater legacy than families in the Delaware Valley region taking seriously that four-word phrase, organizers will surely think it a great success.

Patrick Brown is Associate Editor of The Monitor and can be reached at [email protected]