Focolare Movement

Australia: Sport as a means to building unity

May 2, 2016

United World Watch is a permanent international Observatory which promotes the culture of universal brotherhood by monitoring actions of solidarity carried out by individuals, groups and peoples. This is the experience of Tom from Melbourne.

20160502-01Melbourne, Australia Latitude: 37° 52’ S Longitude: 145° 08’ E Tom is a tall guy, popular with friends.In 2005 he had to move with his family to a newly built neighbourhood in Melbourne, where recreation activities and venues for recreation were scarce. He could have decided to leave but he tried instead to find a way to do something for his community so that people could have opportunities to come together, share and meet. “There is nothing better than sport to bring people from various generation together? In that neighbourhood there was an empty park. So, I started spreading an idea that had come to my mind: creating a space where people could play soccer. I did not know who would join and there was a risk that I would find myself on my own. But there were many families that shared the same desire and enthusiasm. So, participants soon became so many that we could set up a team and then even a soccer club! Now we have 38 teams with more than 400 children and 40 old people. Every week we meet to play. The park has been renovated and now there are many pitches with their own lighting. But this is not the end of the story, because we also added locker rooms, a kitchen and a canteen. It’s become a real meeting place”. Source: United world project

___

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

Related post

Brotherhood

Brotherhood

Brotherhood, being children of the same Father, can be the root of every kind of pacifism. In this excerpt from the “Catholic Revolt”, Igino Giordani wrote almost an invocation, a poetic appeal that compels us to look up and opens our eyes to who our brother is, that brother who may be labelled as an enemy, as a foreigner, as a migrant, but is always a brother. It is an appeal written back in 1925, that still touches our deepest chords and challenges us to be builders of peace.

Christians protagonists of dialogue

Christians protagonists of dialogue

29th June is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul and is a significant day in the ecumenical sphere. On this date we publish some interviews with Christians from various Churches

This curse of war

This curse of war

Igino Giordani, when writing his memoirs, reflected on the terrible period of the First World War, in which he himself had to enlist, saying, “I saw the absurdity, the stupidity and above all the sin of war…”, as Benedict XV called it, the ‘useless massacre’. His words challenge us to think about how history could teach us to work for peace today, by opposing the new, absurd, useless massacres of our century.