At AND: Being the Church at church at Home and Everywhere In Between, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from women and men who have helped make fresh expressions of Church a growing worldwide phenomenon. We’re excited that Monsignor Renzo Bonetti is joining as a featured speaker.
Seeing the family as the paradigm of Christ and his Church as well as an impress of the love of God for humanity, Monsignor Renzo Bonetti has devoted his life and ministry to the discipleship of the family and its fundamental role in fresh expressions of missiology.
A Life of Serving Families
Monsignor Renzo Bonetti has served as Director of the Office of Pastoral Care of the Family of the Italian Conference of Bishops and as Consultant of the Pontifical Council for the Family where he created a graduate program on the spirituality of marriage and the family in collaboration with the John Paul II Institute. The inspiration for his current work on marriage, family and evangelism started as a ‘research experiment’ in 2001 when he began identifying new family participation in the life of the local church. This led him back into the local church where he continued to consult on the pastoral care issues facing the family, but this time with all of the duties of a priest in a large parish in Bovolone near Verona. From this parish, he developed Family Community Evangelism—‘little churches’ led by married couples in their homes and neighborhoods. In 2010, he started the Fondazione Famiglia Dono Grande (The Foundation of the Great Gift of the Family) and began dedicating his full attention to the foundation in 2012.
The Fondazione Famiglia Dono Grande has launched hundreds of ‘little churches’ led by married couples called Family Community Evangelism scattered in about 25 dioceses in Italy and now taking shape in the US through The Amore Project. His work was highlighted during Pope Francis’ recent visit to the US.
The Great Mystery Project
Referring to Paul’s words in Galatians about marriage and the church, the Great Mystery Project was born from a desire shared by Christian married couples who felt the need to express their true identity in the beauty of marriage.
The purpose of the project is to grow in all Christian spouses within their own local Church the consciousness of the gift of marriage and to help married couples discover more and more as a gift of grace the sacrament that seals and perfects the natural and wonderful desire to marry. The Great Mystery Project welcomes all who share the aims of the project.
