“I wish to have that same joy I see in your eyes,” Daniela of the New Horizon Community said, on the night she overcame her fear and went to the train station. That boy who had tried to commit suicide three times, became the turning point of her life.
Stories like this are embedded deeply in the hearts of the 300 representatives of 100 movements and new communities from 40 countries, gathered in Rome from 20 to 22 November for their Third World Meeting on the theme: “The joy of the Gospel: missionary joy.”
Organised by the Pontifical Council for the Laity (PCPL) in response to Pope Francis’s call to conversion, the appointment aims to be a continuation of the meetings promoted by John Paul II in 1998 and Benedict XVI in 2006.
Due to the sudden and unexpected explosion of new ecclesiastical realities in recent years, Card. Rylko, President of the PCPL, recalled in his opening speech that the Church considers this fact “a timely answer of the Holy Spirit in the difficult challenge of evangelisation in contemporary society.” Also Pope Francis stressed that the new charisms are “gifts of the Spirit embedded in the Church and drawn towards Christ, the centre to where they are channelled to gain momentum in their missionary drive.”
Overwhelming experiences have interwoven with rich and varied in-depth considerations of doctrines that aim to deepen the crucial parts of the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, which is the magna charta of the meeting.
The themes discussed? Topics ranged from ecclesiastical renewal that springs from personal renewal, communion between movements (joining forces so as not to disperse single efforts), enhancing the feminine gift of warmth in evangelisation.
Utmost focus on interpreting the “signs of the times” that call for new answers to new issues. These three days have gapped differences and closed mentalities: in a growing atmosphere of brotherhood among the representatives of movements against a background of more than 50 years and the new communities that have just recently gained international ground. A big group of bishops and priests attended, and mingled with the laity in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Each of them was eager to know about the mutual experiences, and in the words of one of the participants, to “learn to discern the voice of the Spirit today, who incites all to go out and announce God’s love for each person.” The delegation representing the Focolari movement, along with Maria Voce, and newly elected Co-President Jesús Morán and outgoing Co-President Giancarlo Faletti, was composed of Anna Pelli, Severin Schmidt, Gisela Lauber and Marta Chierico.
“A meeting of real, profound communion, where we were all brothers and sisters.” This is how Maria Voce defined it in an interview given to focolare.org “and it is emphasized even more if we think of our beginnings in 1998.” “When we went to the Pope – she continues – we felt his joy of having been able to experience this communion. After all this was the gift we wanted to bring to him.” What new steps are opening up for the Movement? For Maria Voce there are two possible paths to be explored. They are the openness “towards the Movements of other non-Catholic Churches, because they have very strong experiences of people who live the Gospel like us”; and the “much deeper communion between laity and clergy.” “Thus we shouldn’t separate the ecclesial part from the lay part in the various Movements and not even in the Movements as a whole.” A going outwards that would highlight “a more vital unity, between the shepherd and his flock.”
Every moment was a good opportunity to bond: coffee break, lunch or dinnertime. Street missions, communities for drug addicts, evangelisation in the most remote places of the planet, prayer and work, caring for the elderly and disabled, and youth involvement in various scenarios: in Philadelphia, Kansas, Philippines, Ecuador, Korea, Mexico, Rome, and Palermo. The intense and continual dialogue culminated in the meeting with Pope Francis: «You have already brought many fruits to the Church and the entire world, but with the help of the Holy Spirit you can reap more and greater results,” he affirmed in his speech. «To reach ecclesiastical maturity, keep your charism alive, respect the liberty of people and always try to create communion,» he summarized, in entrusting to all the present a new target, and lastly: «Go forward: keep moving … Don’t ever stop! Be always on the move!»
«Since it was the first time that I was participating in a meeting of this kind, for me this experience was truly extraordinary – affirms Jesús Morán. – I enjoyed a special communion with many movements and communities in this kairos or extraordinary opportune moment of God that the Church is living with the gift of Pope Francis. In this regard, I experienced with new force his appeal to missionary conversion, which challenges all the charisms and leads them to reach a maturity worthy of the times (leaving aside every temptation of self-centredness) and a determination anchored in the freshness of the charism.»
«A surplus of ecclesiality and social commitment» is another need perceived by Morán. «In this sense – he concludes – we must strive towards a truly “Trinitarian” thought that may characterize our communion in a deeper way. It’s no longer enough to have any kind of cordial collaboration but to live one in the other, to strengthen and enrich one another in order to go outwards and take up the sufferings of humanity together.»
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Veramente si intuisce che e’ stata una esperienza straordinaria di communione tra i movimenti con il Papa e il Pontificio consiglio per i laici! Grazie a tutti quelli che ci fanno partecipi di questi doni via internet…Prego e m’impegno di vivere di piu’, con la grazia di Dio e l’unita’ con altri membri del Movimento dove sono, affinche’ si realizzi il nostro impegno commune di “uscire, insieme, opportunamente preparati”, per arrivare all’Ut Omnes (“Che tutti siano Uno”). Grazie!