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Sep 30, 2013 | Non categorizzato
Aldo Stedile (Fons) left us on the night of September 30th at the age of 88. Together with Marco Tecilla and two other young men, he had begun the first men’s focolare in Trent, Italy. Everyone who knew him remembers his big smile, his irrepressible vitality, his passion for the Ideal of unity and his optimism.
“Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn. 7:38): this was the gospel sentence that guided him in life and earned him the name Fons (Latin for “font”).
Fons was the second of ten children. He was born in Valle del Terragnolo in Trentino, Italy, on July 13, 1925. He had noticeable artistic talent as a painter and if the Second World War had not begun, he would have gone to Florence to study Fine Arts.
In 1948 he came into contact with the experience of the Focolare Movement through Valeria Ronchetti (Vale). He said of that day: “Meeting her was a revelation for me, a true encounter with God. Everything changed in that moment.” After hearing Vale speak about Jesus forsaken, he we went on to say: “Now I understood everything; this was the answer, the solution. This is what I was missing. . . ! I knew that difficulties would come, trials, doubts, misunderstandings, failures – but nothing could frighten me anymore. I felt a strong serene force within me.”
In the early 1960s he was a pioneer of the Focolare in Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Germany where he lived for 20 years. Together with Bruna Tomasi who was co-responsible with him for the Movement in central Europe, he helped to begin the ecumenical town of Ottmaring near Augsburg, Germany. In 1963 he was ordained to the priesthood together with Antonio Petrilli.
In the 1980s he assumed responsibility for the branch of the Volunteers of God and in 2000 served several roles on the General Council of the Movement.
In the final years of his life a debilitating illness appeared, but the illness never managed to affect the deep roots of his heart, said Maria Voce as she notified the members of the Movement of his death. In February 2010, when he was undergoing a test of mental cognition, the doctor asked him to quickly write down a complete thought. Fons wrote: “Love everyone, always!”
Fons left us as 200 people were attending a meeting in Rocca di Papa, Italy, from several regions around the world. In the funeral chamber set up for him in the chapel of the International Headquarters of the Movement in Rocca di Papa he is receiving the warm and grateful homage of people from around the world for his joyful and authentic witness to the charism of unity.
The funeral will take place on Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 15:00 in the Castelgandolfo Mariapolis Centre (Via S. Giovanni Battista De La Salle).
![Fons: A Painter of Unity]()
Sep 30, 2013 | Non categorizzato
Aldo Stedile (Fons) passed away last night at his residence in Rocca di Papa, Rome, aged 88 years.
He was originally from Trent and was among the first group of people to follow the way of Chiara Lubich at the beginnings of the Focolare Movement. Together with Marco Tecilla, he started the first men’s focolare house in 1949.
“He who believes in me, as the Scriptures say, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ (Jn 7:38)”: this phrase from the Gospel guided the course of his life. To him was attributed the nickname Fons (“fountain” in Latin) and he was affectionately called by this name by everyone.
He is currently lying in state in the chapel of the Focolare’s International Centre in Rocca di Papa. The funeral will be held on Wednesday, 2 October, at the Mariapolis Centre in Via S. Giovanni Battista De La Salle, Castelgandolfo.
![Fons: A Painter of Unity]()
Sep 30, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
A seminar entitled Dialogue on a Trinitarian Anthropology for our people, organized by CELAM and held at Mariapolis Lia, Argentina. The seminar was attended by twenty experts from Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uraguay and Italy. There were two bishops and Msgr. Piero Coda, president of Sophia University Institute (IUS) in Loppiano, Italy. The seminar was opened by Piero Coda with a very significant lecture on Trinity and Anthropology, notes for a theological phenomenology based on the mystical experience of Chiara Lubich. From the outset, the discussion was marked by the challenge of using a work method based on dialogue and communion. Following the presentation of topics, ample space was given to sharing and reflection among the participants. The workshop was therefore an opportunity for “thinking together.” Mariapolis Lia which tries to be a witness to the life of the Gospel, proved to be the best setting for an experience of this type. One Bolivian expert commented: “The choice of this location was so important for this topic, because here it is a reality.” The participants felt enveloped in the mutual love of the inhabitants of the Mariapolis, which was a concrete expression of “Trinitarian relationships.” 
The seminar was also significant because it was an opportunity for the light of the charism of Chiara Lubich, which is the subject of academic study at Sophia University Institute, to become known in the Latin American Church. The participants also expressed interest in continuing relations with Sophia, by establishing specific agreements. During the final Mass, Fr Scannone, a well-known Jesuit in Latin America, stated: “Let us thank God for this community of thought that has been established among us, for the perichoretical relationships we have lived, in which we died and rose, in which we have thought and lived in a true community.” The seminar ended with a brief homage to Bishop Klaus Hemmerle, a forerunner in the development of Trinitarian Anthropology. CELAM has already scheduled another such event for 2014 and decided to publish some of the results of this year’s seminar.
