“We decided to respond to Pope Francis’s appeal for the August intention of prayer, which is very close to the daily efforts” of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations (Fafce), president Antoine Renard writes in the leading article of his monthly newsletter. The prayer will be that “every decision taken by economists and politicians may protect the family as one of the treasures of mankind”. Fafce will be attending the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, “extremely important” to “announce the beauty of family life”, writes Renard, emphasising Pope Francis’s prophetic decision to hold the meeting “in a country wounded by two epoch-making legal changes, which have distorted the nature of civil marriage in 2015 and last May repealed the protection for babies’ right to life”. Fafce’s schedule includes an event on “family life and finance, a possible alliance?” in Brussels in October and the prefect of the Ministry for Lay People and Family Life, card. Kevin Farrel, going to the European Parliament in November to speak of “family, an ecosystem for cultural life in Europe”. In addition, Fafce will keep monitoring the preparation of the European directive on work/life balance, since “we think the focus of the directive is more on career and income than on the responsibility of parents and companies for the most vulnerable ones in our society”.