The Diocese of St. Cloud will host the third annual Festival of Families on Sunday, Feb. 22, at St. Francis Xavier Church in Sartell. The focus of the daylong celebration is to give families the opportunity to meet other families, pray together and have fun in the process.
Bishop Patrick Neary will celebrate Mass to kick off the event at 9:30 a.m. After Mass, families are invited to peruse vendors, play carnival games and enjoy lunch.
At noon, Bishop Neary will participate in a question/answer session with parents — in English and then in Spanish — while children and teens have their own sessions. There will also be a “Parent Café,” an opportunity for parents to gather in small groups and talk about issues that are important to them.
The children’s session will be based on the vacation bible school model with stories and activities.
The Diocesan Youth Council will plan and lead the teen session, according to Kent Schmitz, diocesan director of ministry with youth and young adults. The session is still in the planning stage, but is expected to include interactive games, Scripture, testimonies and faith sharing.
One of the initial reasons for organizing Festival of Families, said Christine Pinto, director of faith formation for the diocese and the festival’s organizer, was that according to research, two things that have the biggest impact on the faith lives of children are seeing their parents living and celebrating their faith and having child-centered conversations about faith at home.
To help facilitate some of those conversations, during the last part of the day families will have the opportunity to visit a variety of stations based on the pillars of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The idea is to allow them to share faith in a safe environment, Pinto said.
“We’re hoping to set families up for success when they go home,” she added.
Another new addition to the program this year is a Lenten calendar that families will be able to take home and add to. Every day will have a different challenge or activity, some of them based on things that are happening in the parish, for example, attending the Stations of the Cross or participating in eucharistic adoration.
“There will be some diocesan-wide events too, like attending the Chrism Mass,” Pinto said. “Your priest renews their vows at the Chrism Mass, so the activity could be sending a thank-you note to your priest for his vocation.”
Pinto said she hopes the calendar activity is a way to make Festival of Families a longer- term investment for families than just a one-day event.
“I hope that they can create some family habits around faith,” she said. “We know that families who have faith conversations and practice their faith at home are much more likely to have children that continue to be Catholic into adulthood. It’s because they’ve seen these faith practices, they’ve grown up with them, they’ve experienced what it means to really live your faith beyond the Sunday Eucharist.”
Sessions are still being planned, and more information will soon be available at: https://stcdio.org/event/2026-festival-of-families/.
If you go:
What: 2026 Festival of Families
Where: St. Francis Xavier Church, Sartell
When: Feb. 22, 2026 — 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Cost: $25/family, scholarships available
Registration deadline: Feb. 16, 2026