The Traveling Icon of The Holy Family will be displayed at St. Teresa's on Monday, March 28 through Thursday, March 31. The featured image for this program is an etching of the Holy Family by Giovanni Balestra (1774-1842). The original etching, based on a painting by Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato (1609-1685), is housed in the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome.
The images were blessed by Pope Francis on June 29, 2015, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, through the auspices of the Almoner of His Holiness, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski. Under the guidance of the state deputies, these framed images are currently on pilgrimage from council to council throughout each jurisdiction.
The inauguration ceremony of the Holy Family Prayer Program was conducted August 4, 2015, at the 133rd Supreme Convention in Philadelphia, a few weeks before that city hosted the 8th World Meeting of Families, held for the first time in the United States. The ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia. After a procession of state deputies carrying this Holy Family image, Archbishop Chaput prayed, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph: as we Knights of Columbus carry your image throughout our communities, may your example, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, lead all families who look upon this image of you, to become homes of communion, of prayer and of love.”