Meeting with the Pope – There is eager expectation all over the world for the meeting of the ecclesial movements and new communities with Pope Benedict XVI on June 3, the vigil of Pentecost 2006, to be held in St. Peter’s Square. The event is a follow-up to the unforgettable experience of May 1998, when hundreds of thousands of people belonging to these new ecclesial realities gathered together for the first time with Pope John Paul II.

The magisterium of Benedict XVI thus unfolds in continuity with that of his predecessor. As then Cardinal Ratzinger, the present Pope immediately recognized the connection between the flourishing of these Movements and Communities and Vatican II, as well as the action of the Holy Spirit who, through these new forms of lay aggregations, was giving to a large number of the faithful the possibility to experience anew the joy of the Church’s perennial youthfulness.

An international Congress – The June 3 event will be preceded, as in 1998, by an international Congress of ecclesial Movements and new Communities, promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. The Congress will have the same title as the meeting with the Pope: “The beauty of being a Christian and the joy of communicating this.” It will be held from May 31 to June 2 at Rocca di Papa (Rome) and will be attended by more than 300 invited participants.

Prayer vigils – In preparation for the meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, prayer vigils will be held on June 2 at various places. The initiative, which aims at somehow rendering “visible” the beauty of the faith, will enable the different charisms to express the essence of their unique gift in a spirit of brotherly communion. The prayer vigils will be open not only to the people of the respective Movements and to the organizing communities, but to all faithful and pilgrims as well. The Focolare Movement will host one such prayer vigil at 8:30 p.m. in the Sacro Cuore Immacolato di Maria (Sacred and Immaculate Heart of Mary) Church in the Parioli district of Rome.

The pathways of communion – The years that followed the Vigil of Pentecost ’98 were characterized by a significant development in relationships of communion among the Movements and new Communities, which resulted in knowing each other more deeply and in a keener awareness of their role in the Church’s task of fostering a new evangelization.

Preparations for Pentecost 2006 – From the time the Pope convoked the June 3 gathering, an intense collaboration has been going on between the leaders of about a hundred movements and communities and the Pontifical Council for the Laity to prepare for this important Church event.

Pilgrimages in large numbers have been announced, with tens of thousands of participants from Italy and abroad, including persons of the Neocatecumenal Way, Communion and Liberation Fraternity, Focolare Movement, the different expressions of Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Regnum Christi Movement, Organismo Mundial de Cursillos de Cristiandad, St Egidio Community, Schoenstatt Movement, Christian Life Movement, Emmanuel Community, Pope John XXIII Community, SERMIG (Servizio Missionario Giovani – Youth Missionary Service), L’Arche Communities, Faith and Light Movement, the Comunità Missionaria Villaregia, Comunidades Laicas Marianistas, Teams of Our Lady, FASTA (Fraternity of St. Thomas Aquinas Associations), Movimento di spiritualità “Vivere In”, Opera di Nazaret, Talleres de Oracion y Vida, ADSIS Community, and many more.