In late May 2012 families from more than 90 countries converged on Milan: the Seventh World Meeting of Families lasted five days and ended on Sunday 3 June, when Benedict XVI joined the participants. The Vatican marked the occasion with this bimetallic 2 euro (KM# 435).

The programme combined a theological congress for 6,900 people, 900 of them children, a Saturday evening of prayer and testimony, and the Sunday gathering with the Pope, for which organisers expected around a million people. Explaining the theme of work and celebration, the Pope argued that working hours should be reconciled with family life and that Sunday should be recovered as the day of the Lord and the day of man.

The designer placed the family in front of the facade of Milan's great cathedral, so the coin brings together both the people the meeting was about and the city that hosted it. It was struck in Italy at the state mint in Rome.

Uncirculated: never in circulation, so the figures and the cathedral detail in the centre are free of wear.