Dec 20, 2017 | Non categorizzato
Instituted by the United Nations in 2005, and proclaimed on 20 December 2002, the world Solidarity Fund was created with the aim of promoting human and social development in the developing countries. Solidarity Day calls attention to respect for diversity and the importance of solidarity between people. If united and solid, humankind can more effectively oppose social injustice. Solidarity conceived as an understanding of the fundamental and universal values of human existence has to become the basis of the search for global solutions, and may carry out a decisive role in solving the world’s problems. Solidarity is indicated as the protagonist in the Millennium Declaration signed in September 2000 by all the member states of the UN, to counter economic, social, cultural and humanitarian injustice. The declaration elects such values as the pillar of international relationships in the 21st century.
Dec 19, 2017 | Non categorizzato
It no longer seems paradoxical to have to reinsert Jesus into Christmas. During this season, especially in affluent countries, consumerism and a certain sentimentalism blur or even exclude the centrality of Jesus. It wasn’t very different two thousand years ago: On their way to Bethlehem, they couldn’t find a place to stay. Mary and Joseph had to make do with a makeshift shelter where the Child could be born. All over the world the Gen4 are saying:“They’ve evicted Jesus.” “At least in our homes, let’s celebrate as loud as we can the One who is born!” Chiara Lubich invited them to “let Jesus be born in their midst, through love.” This led to the idea in 1996 of making small statues of the Baby Jesus and giving them away to people rushing by on the streets, perhaps mindless of the fact that Christmas was primarily a celebration of Jesus. “We tell the people: ‘Do you want to take Him home to your house?’ Some say no, some move on without even stopping. But others stop and we give them these small statues, or the mangers we made. In the squares of big cities, in the commercial centres, in the homes for the elderly – our booths draw people’s attention . . . or the parties we organize for children. It’s like a wave of happiness that overcomes everybody and places, Jesus, the One we’re really celebrating, at the centre of Christmas.” Before trying to give Jesus to other people, the children try to know him better. A two-day meeting for Gen4 was held recently in the Focolare town, in Tagaytay, Philippines. At the end everyone wrote a letter to Jesus. Sam wrote: “Jesus is my hero. Whenever I’m afraid, he protects me. When I’m good to other people, I’m like him.” Kenneth: “I pray to you that my family will not separate.” Gioia writes about having learned how to love everyone, “even my enemies, to be the first to love, sharing the joys and sorrows of others.” April: “Thank you for giving me parents and a good sister.” In many parts of the world they are challenging the cold, the problems and indifference with a disarming smile, candour and warmth that is typical of their age. The Gen4 present an unedited view onto Christmas, returning the attention to its real meaning. In Central America Christmas the Gen4 from El Salvador the Dominican Republic celebrated with the Posadas that recall the difficulty Mary and Joseph had in finding a place to stay. Eight-year-old Walter Francisco is an active member of the Gen4: “Offering our Jesus to all the people who came by us, was really very nice!” Adriana and Juan Pablo are nine and six year old brothers. “First we went to a home for orphan children and share a meal with them. Then we went to give away our Baby Jesus, and the money that some people gave to us we gave to the poor.” «Li abbiamo portati anche ai bambini che puliscono i vetri delle macchine ai semafori». The local Focolare community of Santa Tecla held a food and toy drive for the occasion. More than forty children worked on making 270 statues of the Niñito, which they made with much love and care and offered to shoppers on the street, in several parishes and in a kindergarten: “Jesus can be born again today in everyone’s hearts,” they told us. The money donated, was sent to the children of Puerto Rico.
Dec 18, 2017 | Non categorizzato
In the year 2000 the General Assembly of the United Nations declared December 18th International Migrants Day. Ten years before, on the same day, it had approved an international convention on the protection of the rights of migrant workers, following a serious road accident in which twenty eight migrant workers had lost their lives beneath the tunnel of Monte Bianco while they were travelling to France in search of work, hidden in a truck. Migrants Day deals with a topic that is not new to the story of the human race, but in recent years it has taken on a global relevance, especially in the West. Last 30th September, addressing an Association that brings together Italian Communes, Pope Bergoglio remarked: “We need a politics that doesn’t leave the people who arrive in our region to be left on the margins,” but for this to happen “there have to be spaces for personal encounter and mutual understanding.”
Dec 18, 2017 | Non categorizzato
It is quite unique on the academic, international and cultural landscape and against the backdrop of a crisis of the political, social and religious equilibrium in the Near and Middle East, and between the shores of the Mediterranean: the institution of an ecumenical Chair named for Patriarch Athenagoras and for Chiara Lubich that stands as a sign of that Europe which still wants to breathe with “both lung It was inaugurated last December 14th within the context of the international town of Loppiano, not far from Florence and its call to universalism. The nearby city of central Italy boasts of a long tradition of reconciliation between the East and the West that goes back to the middle of the fifteenth century. Instituted jointly by the Catholic Church, represented by Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Betori, and by the Orthodox Church, represented by Orthodox Archbishop of Italy and Malta, Gennadios Zervos, the Chair will examine the cultural significance and social implications of the ecumenical journey towards the full unity of the Christian Churches of the East and of the West in highly qualified environment like Sophia University Institute (IUS) where reflection and the dialogue of life are strictly united and experienced. 
The idea of an ecumenical Chair came up in 2015, when IUS with the approval and applause of Pope Francis, had awarded the first honorary doctorate in the Culture of Unity to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. “On that occasion,” IUS explains, “the desire came out of instituting an Ecumenical Chair named after Patriarch Athenagoras and after Chiara Lubich, which would revisit and actualize that spiritual heritage.” The Chair, of which IUS president, Piero Coda and Metropolitan of Selyvria, Hi Eminence Maximos Vgenopoulos, are co-holders, was inaugurated in the persence of the Metropolitan of Italy and Malta, Gennadios Zervos. “Patriarch Athenagoras and Chiara Lubich are two worthy and blessed personalities that God had illumined,” said the Metropolitan, “to destroy the religious emnities and divisions. With their encounter, they restored the friendship and launched the ‘Dialogue of Charity’.” He went on to say, “I believe that Chiara, with her spirituality, had prepared the two main and most valuable Bridges: the first is Paul VI, the second Athenagoras.” 
Pope Frances sent a message for the occasion: “I rejoice for this praiseworthy initiative, aimed at memorializing the encounter between the Ecumenical Patriarch and the foundress of the Focolare Movement, which fifty years ago marked the beginning of a prolific journey of mutual collaboration and understanding, which boasts of many fruits today, among them, fraternal friendship.” “Such an academic project,” said Focolare president, Maria Voce, “represents an important moment in the ecumenical relations that are in place between the Sister Churches of East and West, and opens fascinating prospectives for the field of study, centered on respectful dialogue, that promises to be even more enriching as a mutual gift on the level of theology and for an anthropology of communion.” The long story of friendship and cooperation with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople reaches back to June 1967 when Chiara Lubich first met Patriarch Athenagoras. “It is a great thing to know each other,” the Patriarch had confided to her. “For many centuries we lived isolated, without having brothers, without having sisters – like orphans! The first ten centuries of Christianity were for the dogmas and for organizing the Church. In the ten centuries that followed we had the schisms – the divisions. The third era – this one – is the era of love.” Conferences, classes and a Summer School for young Catholics, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims are scheduled for this academic year. Next March a series of lessons will be given on The Ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church and the Path of Ecumenical Dialogue with the Catholic Church,” for students who would like to contribute to the promotion of the full unity, in service to the encounter between peoples and cultures. Foto Flickr
