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19 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
Cielo Lee, Young-Hee is a visiting nurse for a hospital in Seoul (Korea). The percentage of suicides among people over 80 is the highest in the world. “After reading some statistics, I began working in prevention, since 80% of my patients are over 80.” Following one negative experience with a deeply depressed patient, Cielo Lee decided to organise a course on the prevention of suicide, for 100 geriatric workers and 30 parish volunteers. “While visiting 40 patients each week with one of my colleagues we evaluated their mood and state of mind according to national health standards. Based on those results we decided to make twice-a-week visits to the 10 patients who were most at risk.” The Gatekeeper Project is a public service promoted by the government in Seoul. It operates in all the quarters of the capital for the prevention of suicides, and in close collaboration with local health services. “In this project,” Cielo Lee explains, “we also train the elderly as gate-keepers. These same-age men and women accompany the nurses visiting patients and offer helpful health advice.” Because of my desire to protect the life of even just one person, at work I shared my intentions with a religious sister, the head nurse. Then sixty of my nurse colleagues decided to attend the suicide prevention training.” One patient has suffered with a serious illness for 10 years: “When I went to his home,” she says “before going in I would pray, and I tried to listen deeply to everything he had to say. For a while now, this patient has returned to prayer and is becoming more stable.” A friend was suffering from insomnia after the death of her eldest son. She was only able to sleep with the help of sedatives. But after attending the course she has begun to care for an elderly neighbour with no family. Now she is able to sleep without the help of medication, and she is grateful that she can do something for other people. “One day the phone rang,” Cielo Lee recounts. “It was the mental health centre that I work with. The person from the centre told me that the Mayor of Seoul would be giving a prize to one person from each quarter and that I had been unanimously chosen! The next day I received a additional prize from the director of the hospital.” Members from the Focolare Movement in Seoul who attended the course wrote that it was “a precious opportunity for deepening our awareness of the mystery of life, and for going towards the existential peripheries.”
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18 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
«First of all I thank His Eminence, Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, for having invited me to take part in this press conference. I take this opportunity to publicly thank the Pontifical Council for the Laity for having promoted this 3rd International Meeting. With this I think that I am also expressing the feeling of many Ecclesial Movement and New Communities that enrich the Church and today’s society.
What does the Focolare Movement – and perhaps also the other Movements – expect from this Meeting?
First of all, I believe that this Meeting has been convoked at a suitable time and for many reasons: We are in the midst of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. We find the whole Church, therefore all of us, faced with its great intuitions and teaching. Vatican II, especially for us laypeople, continues to be, and today more than ever, an encouragement and example of our role, vocation and responsibility towards the Church and the contemporary world.
Another reason for encouragement is the person of Pope Paul VI, who came to the fore on the occasion of his beatification, with his clear and often prophetical teaching, as the Pope of dialogue and the Pope of the laity.
Another great reason are the challenges that Pope Francis constantly presents to the whole Church, as an institution and the people of God. This is why us too, who belong to the Focolare Movement, feel the duty to be interrogated by his words and his choices. It’s not enough to appreciate, but we are working so that they may challenge us deeply, when it comes to strong convictions, openness and practicality.
The programme of the forthcoming 3rd Meeting, for what we know at the moment, will go over the important demands of the Evangelii gaudium. With these Pope Francis encourages and accompanies the Church towards the widest diffusion: he makes us penetrate all the “outskirts,” for which we live, with the duty of offering – with our being and our work – the light that comes from the certainty that “God loves us immensely”.
I would like to briefly mention our General Assembly, which took place two months ago. The participants included about 500 representatives of 137 countries, of all the branches, generations and dialogues that constitute the Movement. It practically concluded last September 26th with the private audience with Pope Francis.
On that occasion, going through the journey of the Church called to a new evangelization 50 years from the Second Vatican Council, Pope Bergoglio wanted to give three “verbs” to the Movement. I noted a perspective in these words that – I think – can inspire, spur and interest also other associations of the Church.
First: to contemplate. To contemplate God and live in the company of men and women; to persevere in mutual love, said the Pope citing a writing of our foundress Chiara Lubich, who «inspired by God in response to the signs of the times» – he said – wrote: “The great attraction of modern times: to penetrate the highest contemplation while mingling with everyone, one person alongside others.”
Second: to go out. I quote: «To go out … to generously communicate God’s love to all» with respect, gratuitousness and creativity. «In order to do this, we must become experts in that art which is called ‘dialogue’ and which is not learned cheaply. We cannot be content with half measures,» but «with God’s help we can aim high and broaden our gaze.» To go out with courage where there are «the moans of our brothers, the hurts of society and the questions of the culture of our time.»
Third: to teach. Pope Francis remembered the expression of Pope John Paul II in the Novo millennio ineunte, with which he invited the whole Church to become “the home and the school of communion” (cfr n. 43). And he added: «You have taken this instruction seriously. It is important to form, as the Gospel requires, new men and women and to that end a human school according to the measure of Jesus’ humanity, is necessary. … Without an appropriate formation of the new generations, it is illusory to think that a serious and lasting plan in service of a new humanity can be brought about.» We must form “global persons,” he said citing an expression «that Chiara Lubich coined … which is especially relevant today … men and women with the soul, the heart, the mind of Jesus and therefore capable of recognizing and interpreting the needs, the concerns and the hopes which are harboured in the heart of every person.»
These three verbs blend with the three words that emerged from the General Assembly of the Focolare. We were trying to gather the essence from the 3,650 proposals that arrived during the preparatory months from the communities of the Focolare throughout the world and to offer guidelines for the future. They are three words that synthetically indicate the commitment and perspectives of the Movement in the next years: “going outwards, together, suitably prepared.”
This upcoming 3rd Meeting of the Ecclesial Movements and New Communities is part of a common and fruitful history, which has witnessed Movements be born, develop and give their own contribution to the Church and humanity, according to the specific charism each one possessed. Not only this. Very often, especially after the founding moment of Pentecost 1998, it has also seen various Movements and/or Communities collaborating together in various projects and on different moments.
The Pontifical Council for the Laity has always been alongside us in this working together. In this way it gave us the guarantee that what each Movement brought was needed for the fulfilment of a project for the good of the whole ecclesial body. It always watched over us with love and discernment appreciating the good and knocking down all the secondary things there could have been. Many times the Focolare Movement, with its charism of unity, felt sustained in promoting all kinds of meetings that at times were complex, as for example the youth day meetings or the Laity Meetings, like the one held in Korea…
Following this history, we hope that the upcoming Meeting may mark a step of maturity. May the reflections, exchanging of views, the sharing of successes and failures, the experiences and projects create the conditions for God, Lord of history, to draw from this not only fruits of communion and mutual enrichment, but the fruit of making everyone, all together, focus better, to look and always live with renewed joy for the only great goal of the Church of Christ: “That they may all be one … Father” (Jn 17:21). This is “God’s dream.” We hope to be able to respond to the deepest longings of men and women today and help make humanity one big family. In this way we prepare ourselves to meet all the participants at the Meeting.»
From the speech of Maria Voce at the press conference presenting the 3rd Meeting of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities
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18 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
Stanislaw Rylko, Department President of the department together with the secretary, Bishop Josef Clemens, presented the Third World Meeting in a press conference in the Vatican. The statement on the expectations on the part of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities will be relayed by Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement and Jean-Luc Moens, International PR Director of Emmanuel Community
This will be the third step towards “growth toward ecclesiastical maturity.” The first meeting was held in 1998 and again in 2006, in conjunction with the two big meetings of the Movements with John Paul I – who defined the phenomenon of the movements as “a stream of grace,” affirming that from these movements the Church expects “mature fruits of communion and commitment” – and with Benedict XVI, who regarded this itinerary a “healthy provocation for the Church, a creative minority that is decisive for the future of humanity.”
Pope Francis met the Movements and New Communities on 18 May 2013, and now the 3rd World Meeting will draw inspiration from his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, in which he calls the movements the “true protagonists of a new step of the Church’s evangelical mission as a manifestation of joy, reaching out towards the geographic and existential peripheries of our world, side by side with all the poor, abandoned and isolated people – the bitter product of the culture of marginalisation prevalent today.”
Before the journalists, Cardinal Stanisłau Ryłko expressed what many are wondering about today. How come, “in a world that radically rejects God, there are still so many men and women, youth and adults who discover the joy of being Christians” and “choose Christ and his Gospel as the unwavering compass of their existence?” The variety and richness of the new charisms “offer pedagogical paths” of Christian life that are so “amazingly effective, as to be able to change the life of people and arouse an extraordinary evangelical fervour.” And with “their missionary creativity, they are capable of finding new ways of testifying to and announcing the Gospel.”
Bishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, commented on the theme of the three-day meeting: context and various aspects of evangelisation, purification from obstacles and impediments, dynamism and collaboration between charisms, role of the women and the implementation of the inclusion process of the poor.
Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, stressed how much the Second Vatican Council today is for the laity, an “incentive and mirror” of their own vocation and responsibility towards the Church and contemporary society.” In expressing the expectations of the laity, she hoped that the Congress would “mark a forward step towards maturity,” that “reflections and confrontation, communion of success and failures, experiences and project set the conditions for God, Lord of history, and may draw not only fruits of communion and mutual enrichment,” but orient all to “look to and live always with renewed joy, for the only great objective of Christ’s Church: Father, that all may be one… since this is “God’s dream.” We hope to be able to respond to the deepest expectations of men and women today and contribute to making humanity one great family.”
“We want to progress along the path of pastoral conversion” the Pope is asking of us, and above all to “make an experience of communion,” remarked Jean-Luc Moens of Emmanuel Community who underlined that “we are eager to discover how the Holy Spirit works in the others. The meeting will be a unique occasion for mutual discovery.”
More details: www.laici.va
See press conference
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15 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
The preferential option for the poor, the painful journey of liberation theology, the current religious crisis, “do-it-yourself” faith and the lack of meaning. But also inequality is a lack of relationship. These were only a few of the topics discussed by a group of university professors and graduate students in search of a new cultural perspective for Latin America during the three-day meeting in Brazil at Mariapolis Ginetta (October 31-November 2, 2014). Examples joined with questions of witnesses and spiritual thirst, the promotion of native cultures and African descendents. Days during which the typically pluralistic and social calling of the country continued to surface.
Among the presenters, Dr Piero Coda, theologian and president of Sophia University Institute, Loppiano, Italy, who has seen many Latin American students, including Brazilians, studying at Sophia. He affirmed: “During this monumental turning point of epochal change, of the vision of man and of the world, there is an historic urgency to present the contribution of the charism that has matured over decades, the charism of unity that was given to Chiara Lubich.”
During the 50 years that the Focolare Movement has been in Brazil and Latin America, many projects have begun at several universities. Fraternity was often proposed as a category that brings renewal to the different disciplines, from politics to economy to pedagogy.
Through the intense exchange of experiences, proposals and reflections that characterized the three-day meeting, a new perspective was opened, a step to be taken: that a university centre under the same inspiration as Sophia should begin in Latin America. It would begin small, with specifically Latin American qualities.
Also participating was Maria Clara Bingemer, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC), and Argentinian political scientist Juan Esteban Belderrain who put his finger on some of the deep wounds of the continent and their causes, such as the lack of social cohesian.
The cultural proposal offered by Sophia has a specific feature, which is in harmony with the leanings of the Latin American Church and with its roots in the original inspiration and methodology presented by Chiara Lubich in 2001. In recent years Sophia has been an experimental laboratory, as ex-students testify: “here students and teachers strive to link theory and life, focusing on relationships at every level and aiming for transdisciplinarity in answer to the fragmentation among the disciplines.” “For Chiara thought and life were never in opposition to one another,” remarked Focolare co-president Jesus Moran during a recent interview. Chiara was “devoted to the mind of Jesus” as the founder of the Abba School and Sophia University Institute. Like all the great founders, she was fully aware that a charism that didn’t become culture had no future. Culture is always life.”
Currently the students body at Sophia University Institute is comprised of people from 30 countries. Such an international community provides a further opportunity to be formed into world citizens, where the specific culture of each opens itself to more universal dimensions. This project has turned out to be in tune with the recent trio of Pope Francis which he presented in his videomessaggio on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Loppiano Mariapolis. He recalled Sophia precisely as a place in which new men and new women can be formed “who, aside from being opportunely prepared in the academic disciplines, are at the same time steeped in the wisdom which flows from the love of God.”
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8 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
Photo: Jorge Mejia Peralta / Flickr
“We are living on top of a cemetery, and we demand justice, ” says the slogan of the protest which led thousands of students to take the streets. In fact, from 5 November in Mexico, all the schools have started to strike. A student revolt which in these three days have asked the government to make a greater effort to search for 43 of their peers, who disappeared in the state of Guerrero last 26 September.
The mayor of Iguala (the municipality where the students disappeared) José Luis Abarca and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda were arrested, accused of being the persons responsible for the students’ disappearance. While they were being interrogated on the mysterious disappearance, also the Focolare Movementin Mexico asked the government to further clarify the facts.
“The violence and injustice committed against the disappeared students and against the thousands who have disappeared over the last years in our country are things we cannot accept and we strongly denounce this with indignation, while we demand that similar events no longer be perpetrated. We are deeply moved and involved as persons and as a society,” they said in the press release.
They moreover invited all to take a stronger commitment to build a reconciled country: “Peace is not built through violence. To regenerate ourselves as a more humane society we have to respond with charity and forgiveness. Not with gestures of indifference and tolerance, but with the commitment to work concretely for the common good.” The declaration targets therefore, to transform the hearts of people first of all, and especially those who govern: “A legally constituted state cannot suffice, we need to transform the hearts of those who make up the institutions.”
The appeal addressed “all the people who profess a faith, whatever it may be, and all the people of good will, so that, united, we maintain and nurture the commitment to be builders of peace wherever we live and work.”
In brief, they suggested a “Time-Out for peace,” to the Mexican people and to call attention to the tragic situation in Mexico and in all the countries suffering from violence: “…A minute of silence and prayer for peace, every day at 12 noon, as a visible and concrete sign of fraternal solidarity towards every person in suffering.”
The Focolare Movement spread throughout the world adheres to the “minute for peace,” in support of the Mexican people with the hope that respect for life, search for truth and justice prevail over all forms of the abuse of power.
