The Pontifical Council for the Laity is organizing its third world congress of ecclesial movements and new communities, from November 20 to 22. Titled “The joy of the Gospel: a missionary joy…” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 21) the meeting is to take place at the International Pontifical College Maria Mater Ecclesiae, in Rome.

The Council for the Laity has invited members of large, officially recognized international associations and others involved “in ongoing dialogue” with the Dicastery to participate. The World Apostolate of Fatima, one of the international associations under the Council for the Laity will also be represented by its International President and a member of its International Secretariat.

The Pontifical Council for the Laity hopes that the November Congress “will encourage the joyous adherence of ecclesial movements and new communities to answering the pressing invitation of the Pope to enter into a ‘dynamism of missionary outreach’”.

Delegates from more than eighty ecclesial movements and new communities are expected to attend as well as a number of bishops coming from dioceses and Holy See offices.