Benedict XVI will be in Milan on July 2 and 3, 2012, for the seventh World Family Meeting, beginning on May 30. The theme will be “Family, Work and Celebration”, as was announced in the last gathering in Mexico City in January 2009. Benedict XVI announced the dates for the meeting, in which five hundred thousand followers from the world over will participate, in a letter to cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. “The seventh World Meeting,” the Pope wrote, “will last five days and the culmination will be on Saturday evening with the ‘celebration of testimonies’ and Sunday morning mass.These two celebrations, in which I will preside, will see us all gathered as a ‘Family of families’ “. “The entire event,” the letter explains, “will be run in a manner promoting harmony between various facets: group prayer, theological and pastoral reflections, moments of fraternity and interchange between families both hosts and guests of the territory.”