By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Aug 6, 2021 / 08:10 am

The Vatican is launching a research project on the family to be carried out by Catholic universities around the world.

The results of the project, called the Catholic Global Compact on the Family, will be presented at an event held before the World Meeting of Families in Rome in June 2022.

The global compact was launched to create “a shared program of actions for promoting the family throughout the world in light of the social doctrine of the Church,” an Aug. 6 press release said.

The Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences are organizing the Catholic Global Compact on the Family with cooperation from the International Center of Family Studies in Milan, Italy.

According to organizers, “the compact involves the study and research centers on family present in the Catholic universities situated throughout the five continents, by collecting information and research carried out on the cultural and anthropological importance of the family, focusing particularly on family relationships, the social value of the family and good practices of family policies at the international level.”

The project is part of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year which began on March 19 to mark the fifth anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family.

The “year,” which will conclude in June 2022, includes many different initiatives organized by the Vatican’s family office.

One of the initiatives is the production of a video project with Pope Francis on each of the chapters of Amoris laetitia.

“Pope Francis intends to address all ecclesial communities throughout the world, exhorting each person to be a witness of family love,” the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life said last year.

The Vatican office will also share resources with dioceses, parishes, and other Church groups and family associations on themes related to marriage and family life, such as family spirituality, marriage preparation, and holiness for married couples.