My name is Tony and my wife’s name is Walaa. We live in Bethlehem, in the land where the Child Jesus was born. We have been married for sixteen years. God has blessed us with three children: John (14 years old), Maria (11 years old) and Andros (6 years old).
We met the Focolare Movement about ten years ago, when the Bethlehem Focolare community lived beside us. At the time, we could never have imagined that this physical closeness would become a lifelong journey. Since we began taking part in the Movement’s meetings and Mariapolis gatherings—the annual community events dedicated to building dialogue and fraternity—many things have changed within us. The Gospel has become our daily companion, and the spirituality of unity has transformed our marriage, the way we raise our children and the way we look at the world.
Life in the Holy Land is not easy. We live in a place where more walls are built than bridges, and where fear is sown more often than peace. We are part of this reality, and every day we bear its weight.
The Ballout family
I work at the Municipality of Bethlehem, while Walaa is a teacher at a school in Al-Eizariya (Bethany). To get to work, she has to go through a military checkpoint. Very often, after waiting a long time for permission to cross, road closures mean she risks being stranded for hours, sometimes until late at night. We have lived through many painful experiences. When the dignity of a parent is wounded, the children feel it too, and there is an overwhelming sense of helplessness in being unable to fully protect your family. The wall has become part of our everyday landscape.
Added to this is the severe economic crisis affecting Bethlehem: unemployment is high, salaries are often delayed or only partially paid, while our responsibilities and obligations remain unchanged.
Yet in the midst of all this, we have not lost hope.
In the Gospel we have found an answer to every question our children ask and in the Focolare family we have found a genuine space of love, unity, communion and Gospel life. We have experienced the presence of Jesus Forsaken among us and we have discovered that the Gospel is not just a book to be read, but a life to be lived every day; that unity is a choice that begins with a gesture of love towards another person, even in the most difficult circumstances. This is the legacy we want to leave to our children.
As we deepened our understanding of Focolare spirituality, we were invited to take part in LFE 2026 (Loppiano Family Experience), the summer formation school for leaders of New Families, a branch of the Focolare Movement made up of families committed to living the spirituality of unity and spreading within family life the values that promote universal fraternity.
Highlights from the ‘Loppiano Family Experience 2026’
We saw this as an important step in our journey both as a family and as members of the Focolare Movement in the Holy Land. Last year we were unable to attend because our travel documents were not ready, but we thank God that we were able to participate this year.
From the very first days, we felt that we were part of one large family. We met families from different countries, cultures, and languages. Diversity is a gift and love has a language that everyone understands.
Our children experienced things that may seem ordinary to many people, but for them they were extraordinary: walking among trees and mountains without fear, without seeing weapons; playing freely; making friends with children from different countries; and living out love together. For them, all of this was a new discovery of what childhood truly means.
As for us, the meetings and shared experiences with other families became a true school of life. We listened to testimonies filled with challenges but also with hope, and we experienced firsthand that differences in culture, customs, and traditions do not prevent unity—they make it even more beautiful, fulfilling Jesus’ prayer: “That they may all be one.”
The themes explored during the School touched our lives deeply. We came to understand that family difficulties are not the end of the journey but an opportunity to grow in love when they are lived together with Jesus Forsaken. We have experienced this in our own reality in the Holy Land: even suffering can become a space where hope blossoms when it is lived with God.
We will return to Bethlehem more united than before, more convinced that diversity is a richness and that unity is a mission.
This experience has brought us back to the heart of our vocation: to be a family that lives the Gospel and bears witness to love precisely where it seems impossible. Our mission is to bring the light of unity to the land where Jesus was born.
From 3rd-8th August 2027, Seoul, Korea, will host the World Youth Day (WYD) with the theme “Take courage: I have conquered the world!”(Jn. 16:33). This is only the second WYD to be held in Asia following Manila (Philippines) in 1995 and it will be the first to take place in a country with a non-Christian majority.
On 3rd August, one year before the start of the great event, the official anthem entitled Confidite, ego vici mundum was unveiled. Two versions have been proposed: the first, a more formal orchestral and choral arrangement the second, a contemporary pop version. The song communicates a clear message: even when faced with disappointments or fears, the Lord is always close to young people.
In addition, a Global Tree Planting Campaign, called Breath of life, has been launched, inviting young people to plant shrubs in their own countries. The initiative follows what was happened in Lisbon (Portugal) during the previous WYD in 2023 and is inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si ‘”.
Young people from the Focolare will also participate in the WYD. An international school for young people aged 16 to 20 was recently held in Trento (Italy) where the invitation of the Korean participants to the WYD in Seoul was enthusiastically welcomed. The coming year now marks the beginning of a journey of preparation in many countries, as Focolare youth prepare to live WYD with courage and hope, working for a world of peace and unity.
Foto: Pixabay
Farrell: Preparing together for WYD
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, told the Vatican media, “In its forty-year history, World Youth Day has grown ever richer thanks to the faith, enthusiasm and active participation of young people and local Churches”. To the Bishops and those responsible for youth ministry around the world, Cardinal Farrell renewed his invitation to accompany the young people on their journey towards Seoul 2027, “making the most of these resources in their preparation, helping them experience the pilgrimage as an authentic encounter of faith, ecclesial communion and a personal meeting with Jesus”.
Five patron saints
As is tradition for every WYD, five patron saints whose lives and spirituality offer inspiring examples of Christian witness, have been chosen as models of faith for young people. For 2027, the local organizing committee has chosen five: John Paul II, the founder of World Youth Days; Andrea Kim Taegon, the first Korean Catholic priest and a symbol of faith and courage; Francesca Saverio Cabrini, patron saint of migrants, born in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano (Italy) and who died in 1917 in Chicago, the birthplace of Robert Francis Prevost; Josephine Bakhita, the Sudanese woman who was freed from slavery, became a nun and bore witness to a faith transformed through suffering; Carlo Acutis, the fifteen-year-old Italian canonized on 7th September, 2025, a modern example of evangelization in the digital world.
The Cross, the Marian icon and the volunteers
The two symbols of WYD, the Cross and the Marian icon, arrived in South Korea in December 2025 and the following month began a national pilgrimage, through the dioceses of the country. “We will do everything possible – underlined the Metropolitan Archbishop of Seoul and President of the Organizing Committee, Monsignor Peter Soon-taick Chung – so that WYD 2027 is a celebration of hope and a witness to hospitality and solidarity”.
Meanwhile, in Seoul, many volunteers are already at work. About 400 young people are supporting the local organizing committee. They have been prepared using the texts of Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation “Christus Vivit” and through the method of Conversation in the Spirit. They currently are helping with the organisation of events, logistics, training of other volunteers, and communication.
“My prayer, my hope is that these months ahead of us may truly be months of spiritual growth, of conversion …, personal conversion, but also collective conversion …. May there be mutual love, which makes us free to give everything and to have esteem for one another, respect for one another, knowing that each one of us has different ideas, different perspectives, different concepts about the Movement, different dreams… However, my conviction is that together we can have the light, together we can allow the Holy Spirit to guide this new stage of the Movement.”
These are the words with which, on 7 December, Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, addressed those present at the annual retreat of the men and women focolarini in Castel Gandolfo. She invited everyone to look towards the General Assembly that will take place in March 2026 (2026GA), a milestone in a journey that continues the development of the Focolare Movement.
Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare Movement, included a premise “to every other rule” in the General Statutes, which certainly also applies to the General Assembly, because a governing body can only be rooted in mutual love: “Mutual and constant love, which makes unity possible and brings the presence of Jesus among all, is, for those who are part of the Work of Mary, the basis for their life under every aspect.” As we announced in a previous article, following the various Zonal Assemblies that took place around the world, the consultation phase on proposed topics and amendments to the Statutes and the first phase of consultation on nominations concluded in November 2025. The list of participants and invitees has been finalised and is now definitive.
From 20 December 2025, preparations will continue with a series of meetings known as the pre-assembly process, aimed in particular at those who will be participating as elected members, members by right (ex officio), substitutes and guests at the 2026 General Assembly.
More specifically, there will be five Zoom meetings during which participants can explore various topics in depth:
20 December 2025: “Conversation in the Spirit”
17 January 2026: “How to prepare and how to live at the Assembly”
31 January 2026: “Presentation of the proposals concerning the General Statutes”
7 February 2026: “Main topics that have emerged”, Part 1
21 February 2026: “Main topics that have emerged”, Part 2
The Preparatory Commission for the Assembly (CPA) stated, “This will be a time of preparation, discernment, but above all, of sharing and will involve many people from the most diverse parts of the world. It is exciting. The participants of the Assembly will be meeting for the first time. There are certainly many challenges related to the physical distance, language and culture, but this reflects the intent of the process, which is to build unity. It is a moment in which we will truly begin to live the Assembly, in which this experience will begin to take shape.”
The aim of this pre-assembly process is to help participants to arrive at the Assembly as well prepared as possible, primarily through formation in Conversation in the Spirit, which will be adopted as a methodology in certain moments.
One of these meetings will be dedicated to a practical explanation of how the Assembly works and the legal requirements that must be fulfilled. It will also be dedicated to what should be the spiritual attitude of those who participate, in the awareness that each person represents their own context, their own communities and geographical areas, but at the same time, should keep an open mind to the Movement as a whole. There will then be a focus on the proposed amendments to the General Statutes to be presented to the Assembly. The final two meetings in February, dedicated to the main topics that have emerged from the consultations, will subsequently be made available to all those belonging to the Movement.
Ángel Bartol, coordinator with Cecilia Gatti of the CPA, said, “This pre-assembly process that is about to begin is not an isolated phase leading up to the 2026 General Assembly, but rather a new phase, an instrument to accompany us and help us continue walking together. It is like the image of a zoom lens that gradually focuses on the experience we want to live. In this process of coming together, in addition to learning what is important to the entire Movement throughout the world, it is also important to ‘get to know each other,’ to get to know the people who can fill the elected positions, to get to know their perspective and to enter into a dimension of listening and openness. It is a process in which it is important to allow ourselves to be converted and purified in order to discover what God is asking of us today.”
Preparing for the Assembly is therefore a journey that we want to undertake by committing ourselves daily to living mutual love, to the point of being worthy of the presence of Jesus in our midst. It is a process of gathering the fruit of months of work, drawing together a plurality of voices, ideas and souls and becoming a real expression not of individuals but of a body, of an entire family throughout the world, which together is taking steps towards the future.
On behalf of the Focolare Movement throughout the world, I express my great joy for the election of Pope Leo XIV as the new Pontiff of the Catholic Church. We thank God for having listened to the prayers of so many people and having, with His Spirit, guided the work of the Cardinals in identifying the successor of Peter at the present time that is posing serious challenges for humanity.
Right From now, we want to assure the Holy Father of our filial closeness, our prayers and our commitment to be peacemakers, as he repeatedly emphasised in his first blessing.
Today the world is in urgent need of peace, light and hope. That is why we promise that we will continue to commit ourselves, together with the ecclesial communities in which we are inserted, to bring God’s love to all; to be open to dialogue, to be ‘one people always at peace’, bearing witness to the fact that the unity asked for by Jesus in his Testament is stronger than any division.
Moreover, we want to commit ourselves to embodying the synodal path ever more faithfully, to be able to apply it also in the various areas of society; to give our contribution so that the Church may be an open and welcoming home for every man and woman and for the new generations, especially for those who are most fragile, those who suffer most and those who are marginalised, so as to offer to all the ever new message of Christ.
Best wishes Pope Leo XIV, with all our love!
Margaret Karram – President of the Focolare Movement
