26 Mar 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
I arrived in Baghdad as the Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq and Jordan, two weeks after the terrible 2010 attack in the Syrian-Catholic cathedral that provoked the death of two priests, 44 faithful and five soldiers. Upon visiting the cathedral, one can imagine the desolation and I had the deep impression that I had been sent there to share that pain. The relationships between Christians and Muslims had been compromised for years, up to the point that also in the Nunciature, for any work or purchase only Christians were chosen. I felt I had to go against the current. I started to try learning Arab (unfortunately with little success!) to be able to greet everyone. When I was allowed, I would chat with the guards assigned to protect the Nunciature, at times sharing the dinner they prepared, even if the soldiers were not the best of cooks. The nun who acted as my interpreter did not agree too much with this, but I was convinced that something had to be done. I felt I had to “trust” even if this brought about some surprise. Once a Muslim barber to whom I started to go to have the hair in my ears removed, put a bit of gas from his lighter into my ear to burn the hair. I knew it was ingenuity on my part, but done on purpose in order to see the other person’s viewpoint. The only Muslim who worked in the Nunciature was the gardener. When I left he said to me: “So you are going, and I wish you could leave me a bit of your peace.” He probably had seen that it was an interior peace which only Jesus can give. Once when speaking to the gen (the youth of the Focolare), Chiara Lubich recalled the Emperor Constantine, who had seen a cross in the sky bearing the words: “In this sign you will conquer” – and said that our weapon is Jesus Forsaken and there is no other way for unity other than the cross. There Jesus had taken upon himself every division and separation, and rose from the dead. Also for us the defeat will be transformed into victory. In May 2015 I was transferred to Cuba. The preparations for Pope Francis’s visit were underway. All was proceeding well, but a small diplomatic incident at the last minute shook the preparation activities. And in a second I lost my interior peace, precisely in the presence of the Pope. Upon entering the Havana Revolution square for the solemn Mass, I saw the stylised picture of Che Guevara, with the words: “Hasta la victoria, siempre!” (Towards victory, always!). I immediately thought of the key of our victory: Jesus Forsaken. And I understood that I could not reach victory if not by passing through that defeat. Jesus could not resurrect without dying. Jesus Forsaken is not the instrument to be used in cases of necessity to solve our problems. He is the Spouse with whom we should be “one flesh.” And if I complain about something or someone, I realise that I am complaining about Him. I can’t say that I have chosen Him if I prefer not to have problems. I know that I should be happy when there are some rather than when there are none. So the problems, divisions, wars, poverty etc., no longer frighten me. I don’t live waiting for them to end soon, but in the hope that arises from the certainty that in Him these have already been resolved. So I live serenely and can transmit peace also to those who do not share my faith, like the gardener of the Nunciature in Baghdad.
26 Mar 2017 | Non categorizzato
At the Angelus on March 19, Pope Francis affirmed his “closeness to the dear people of Peru, who have been struck hard by devastating floods. I pray for the victims and the rescue workers.” The Focolare community is praying and is on site bringing relief as well.
25 Mar 2017 | Non categorizzato
Message from Cardinal Francis X. Kriengsak Kovithavanij, Archbishop of Bangkok, for the funeral of Cardinal Miloslav Vlk – Prague, 25 March 2017.« I bring a message on behalf of the bishop friends of the Focolare – Catholic bishops and bishops of various Churches in many parts of the world. For us, Cardinal Miloslav was a friend, a brother and we could say even a father. “His life mirrored Jesus’ life in so many ways”, a Lutheran bishop wrote recently. At our bishops meetings he helped us experience the freshness of Gospel life and the joy of being a family of true brothers, united in Jesus. In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, he worked tirelessly for Christian unity and for communion among bishops and with the Pope. Thank you, Miloslav. Through your heroic witness you showed what it means to have God in the first place and gave us the key to making the Church ever more beautiful, united and alive.»
25 Mar 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
What Europe should be United Europe is another step towards a united world. It is a step forward and an achievement under the pressure of popular requests, natural rights, Christian revelation, moral and spiritual forces, with the addition of economic and political, and scientific and technological pressure. All these propel towards unification, the final evolution of reason and morals, of life in time and in eternity. For Clement of Alexandria – heir of Greek wisdom – unity is the good, and producer of life; division is the evil and generator of death. Civilisation grows proportionately with how much it unifies people. For Huxley, every new progress of civilisation is a progress in charity, which is the sentiment which tends to make everyone one. It is no wonder since it is the soul of Christ whose testament ended in the vow: «so that all may be one.» Charity leads to integration, communion, and solidarity, also in politics and economy. And here, between the essential forces that press toward European integration, we want to illustrate the forces of the spirit, leaving it to illustrate the political, economic, and social aspects, etc. Igino Giordani, «Fides», May 1961, p.130 Christianity and Europe Europe is full of resentment like a storage of explosives, kept alive by philosophies and false patriotisms, mythologies and egoistic interests. In order not to explode, Europe needs to remove all this inflammable material. It needs a universal reconcilement, which could free it from the past so it could look to the future. Whoever will carry out «this ministry of reconciliation?» It is Christianity: this well of sanctity, which Europe still guards and still communicates to other continents. And Christianity implies a unification in freedom and peace, with the elimination of wars and other reasons for friction. Igino Giordani, «Fides», May 1961, p.131 The soul of Europe Europe already has a soul: Christianity, its essence and its genesis. In this common spiritual breath, also the material and human factors blend and arise, vivifying themselves with a universal ideal. And so the peoples of Europe, upon reviving these principles at the base of their history, melting them in the ideal flame of solidarity, the fruit of love – which is divine intelligence – will find in its rationality, coexistence, urgency and need of it, the solution, firstly to their problems. This is the a decisive moment, in which an internal war – which today more than ever before, appears irrational and fratricide – could mark the definitive catastrophe. Love instead, putting the good in circulation, will be able mark the final salvation. Igino Giordani, «Fides», May 1961, p.131
24 Mar 2017 | Non categorizzato
Pope Francis writes to the Bishop of Westminster: “I commend the victims to the loving mercy of God and invoke divine strength and peace upon the grieving families.” Solidarity from all over the world with all those affected by this tragedy.
