Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
Once the spark of brotherhood is ignited it creates a positive chain reaction, spreading with exponential force in the relationships among classmates and colleagues until it becomes a way of life. It creates a different kind of environment: Everyone was involved and felt responsible for becoming the change they want to see, as Gandhi had once said.
This was the experience of some students and teachers at a secondary grammar school in Sarcelles, a well known Paris suburb. One day at school two foreign girls were engaged in a very violent argument. It was 28 September 2007. What to do? Lower your head and walk away? Pierre Benoit, the Italian teacher, decided to intervene. He proposed a new method, the method of brotherhood. He explained to his students: Each morning you throw a die, the brotherhood cube. Each of its six sides has a different phrase. For example: “Consider every man as a brother, and every woman a sister,” “See the other in a positive way,” “Take the first step toward the other,” “Reach out to your enemy,” “Understand the other” and “The other also sees me as a brother or sister.” Each day that you throw the die, you have a new proposal that you can put in practice. Then at the end of the week, you share how it went.
The teacher’s proposal was inspired by the “Cube of Love”, a game which Chiara Lubich invented for children in order to make gestures of brotherhood more fun. The cube was introduced into this Paris school in a more universal form, in a language that was less religious and within the grasp of anyone. The teens accepted the challenge and really took the lead. There were thrilling results: The school became the scene of a different world, where for the first time stories of reconciliation and friendship were becoming intertwined. One girl comments: “It’s ridiculous to destroy one another just because of a word or a look or a phrase that someone keeps on repeating!”
Soon these experiences were featured in short films that were made by the students themselves. They tell the stories of how a reconciling word was able to destroy a cycle of enmity and violence. That same year, in 2007, a festival was planned. It was entitled “Brotherhood in the School, Brotherhood in the City”. More than 250 people participated, including three Mayors.
A year later an association was founded called “Fratern’Aide” (Fraternity Aid). Its goal is to help build peace, brotherhood and solidarity among people. Many projects had been promoted during these years. Then the youths of Sarcelles won First Prize in the National Competition sponsored by the Human Rights League: “Writings on Fraternity.” The teenagers went out to present their method in other schools of the Paris area and in October 2010 the association was invited by the Network of Citizen Schools (RECIT) to schools in other regions. The experience also captured the attention of the philosopher Bruno Mattei, professor at the University of Lille and author of the book “Is Brotherhood Possible?” The method even reached the attention of UNESCO (which in 1996 had awarded Chiara Lubich with the Education for Peace Award), where it was presented to an audience of UN Ambassadors. Once true brotherhood is put in motion, nothing can stop it!
4 of the 8 planned appointments have already been covered by the project regarding the languages of publicity communication. 
So far in all, 600 youths have participated. After the introductory phase, developed through the analysis of both Italian and foreign spots and publicity campaigns, the project was continued with two investigative workshops: on the use of the female image in publicity (with psychologist Anna Granata and anthropologist Anna Casella) and on the influence of fashion on the behaviour of youths (with ballerina Liliana Cosi and psychologist Ezio Aceti). 
In the fourth round, Raffaele Cardelli, publicist and expert in communication, and member of Net-One, took the youths-400 students of the superior institutes- through a profound analysis of the studies and mechanisms that are “behind the scenes” of a spot, revealing the strategies that are put in action to convince the receivers of the communication. “We have entered the technical phase of the journey-commented one of those present-now we begin to have more elements with which to continue the work that awaits us”. “It is interesting and almost worrying to discover what lies behind a spot- continues another- I am getting to know these mechanisms so that I may have more critical sense, and be able to have an impact on our world!” 
With this appointment, the project “Spot, we are recording!” has reached the halfway stage: from the technical analysis, the youths will go on, in the coming months, to pin pointing a real publicity campaign centred round social issues that are of particular relevance in their city (dependencies; man-woman relations; multiculturalism) that will be analysed, in confrontation with various spokespersons, also with representatives of the institutions and the local media. Then for each of the themes a spot will be made that evokes fraternity and that will constitute the conclusive message of the project offered to the citizens by the Youths for a United World. During the meeting the Genfest 2012 was proposed to the youths, as another occasion in which to be protagonists and contribute to the realisation of a more united world.
When she referred to ecumenical dialogue, Chiara Lubich used to talk of dialogue of life, of the people. Anyway, about something that is not born only from theological reflection, but from rubbing against each other, from visiting each other every day, and that during the trials of life puts into practice the teachings of the Gospel, common to all Christians, regarding the love of our neighbour; a love that knows no ecclesial confines of any type. Referring to the general consent that is born in such a context, Chiara Lubich had said: “We know how in history other ecumenical undertakings have failed, because this consent was missing, it is essential to unity.” When the Focolare Movement began to expand in Germany, the contacts with members other churches were immediate. And later, when it appeared possible to even build a citadel on the model of Loppiano, in Italy, but inhabited by Lutherans and Catholics, the idea seemed the answer to a dream that of living together a life based on Christian love. In 1968 this idea took concrete form at Ottmaring, in the vicinity of Ausburg. The citadel comprises 30 constructions and a centre for spirituality at the service of the many visitors that come to ascertain on the spot this original ecumenical living together. Characteristic of the life in the ecumenical centre is the unity in Christ and the ecclesial diversity of the members living in a spirit of reconciliation. Around 140 inhabitants live at Ottmaring; they belong to the Focolare Movement and the Fraternity of Communitarian Life (Bruderschaft von gemeinsamen Leben) that has its origins in the evangelical world. In both groups there are youths, adults, families and communities. All come from profoundly diverse experiences of faith and ecclesial traditions. There are also numerous nationalities represented, a diversity that is enriching. On Sunday, 22 January, the usual appointment was held at the citadel, for the Week of the unity of Christians. It is called the “ecumenical afternoon”. The Lutheran bishop Johannesdotter presented a report, in the presence of members of the evangelical and catholic communities.
