Watercolour by Klaus Hemmerle (1980 – Matterhorn mit Zermatt, Schweiz. http://www.klaus-hemmerle.de)
“During these walks, I took a road that was 2,250 metres high and wound around a peak. You could see the whole valley and the tops of the mountains. It was beautiful! I wanted to paint it all when I got back to the house. I stopped every ten metres to fix the scene in my soul. And in another five metres there would be a completely different perspective. Never in my life had I observed how quickly the perspective changes. I wouldn’t be able to say which view was more beautiful than the other. Each combination, each constellation was an entirely different event and a new surprise. And so I looked at the world in a completely different way. I saw a piece of heaven and realized that these relationships, this relating of each thing with the other, these stretches wherein the lines divide and then intersect again – all of this represents an infinite abundance of possible encounters of a single whole: this mountain, that mountain and that valley . . . but always new perspectives, so that I can’t say: this is the right perspective and that one isn’t: I have to move on letting all these perspectives and diverse lines encounter one another. So also should I see in the one God that we all believe in, the whole of creation, all the people in creation, all the things you find there for an always new intersecting, different beauties that don’t exclude but mutually include one another in a singular charm and common song to Beauty. The same thing happens among us: I need to be prepared to leave a perspective in order to have another. In God, I leave a perspective behind and it remains. Thus there is a simultaneousness that doesn’t crush me in his universality. It is a dance, a unique encounter, a different move, a new song. And I thought to myself: although there are obstacles and barriers between Churches, things that are opposed and that need to be suffered and gone through so that they can be resolved – there is also this ever-new encounter of charisms, light and grace. […] We should allow one another to touch a piece of this infinity of heaven and this heavenly and Trinitarian play of mutual relationships. The more we encounter one another in this beauty – each in the other and in appreciation of the other – the more we will draw a piece of Heaven to earth. A piece of the heavenly Jerusalem here among us is a first breath of what is still to be developed. Obviously, I also wondered where you could actually find a point in which all these different lines can meet, also where the reality of suffering and the contradictions intersect, where a meeting point could be found for all that can never be resolved with some sort of Hegelian synthesis, or also those things that remain like a cry but still must be lived and put up with. I discovered that this point of intersection is Jesus in his abandonment: He renders himself contemporaneous with what is not contemporaneous. He is acceptance and agreement with what is not accepted and does not agree. He is death of one for the other. Precisely: he is not a mere speculative idea, but a possibility of living and accepting the tensions and sufferings and all that is not resolvable.” Klaus Hemmerle From the book Klaus Hemmerle, innamorato della Parola di Dio by Wilfried Hagermann, (Rome: Città Nuova Ed, 2013), p 297-298.
Thenine traditional leaders (Fon) represented people from Nwametaw, Nwangong, Essoh Attah, Akum, Lewoh, Nkar and personalities of Bamenda and Douala. They were accompanied by Mafua Queens, two Mayors and other dignitaries from their kingdoms. The purpose of their journey – besides celebrating the Year of Mercy with Pope Francis – was to thank God for the 50th anniversary of the first encounter between the Focolare Movement and the Bangwa people in Fontem. They especially wanted to thank Mafua Ndem Chiara Lubich (Queen Sent by God) as the Bangwa call her, for all that she did for their people. She and the Focolare were actually the answer to a prayer of the early 1960s that the Bangwa raised to God when sleeping sickness threatened to wipe out the tribe with a 90% infant mortality rate. Now a permanent Mariapolis has arisen inFontem which bears the name of the Focolare foundress, and sleeping sickness has been nearly wiped out thanks to the intervention of doctors and nurses from the Movement.
The pilgrimage began at a general audience with Pope Francis on St Peter’s Square and a visit to St Peter’s tomb and those of other popes. Then there was a tour of St Peter’s Basilica. “It is my precise duty to continue to teach this spirit that has changed my people,” said the Fon of Akum and vice-president of Fon Friends of the Focolare Movement, during a visit to the Focolare town of Loppiano which was the second stop on their pilgrimage. On that occasion the Regional Minister for International Cooperation, Peace and Reconciliation, Massimo Toschi, recalled the first time he visited Fontem, ten years ago: “In December we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary in Fontem, and we’ll see the shining face of a ‘field hospital’ Church as Pope Francis described it.” The third stop was on September 24th in the birthplace of Chiara in Trent. They visited the places she lived in and where the Focolare Movement began during the Second World War. They met some of the local citizens, representatives from different institutions, the Mayor and the Archbishop.
Photo Credit: SIF Loppiano
The last stop was a visit to the international centre of the Movement in Rocca di Papa where Chiara Lubich had lived for many years and is now buried. The Fon of Fonjumentaw recalled Chiara’s last visit to Fontem in 2000 when she proposed a pact: a promise to love one another as Jesus would love. “This was Chiara’s testament,” he explained, “her legacy that is not only for our peoples. After that pact we were not the same anymore. Now, I invite you today to make the same pact with each other in the name of all humanity.” During the send-off meal, there were greetings, words of gratitude and gifts that several Fons and Mafuas offered to the Focolare. One was from Essoh Attah. It recalled a proverb from his tribe that says that no Bangwa will ever drown so long as there is someone from the valley (the other tribe). He paraphrased it and applied it to Chiara: “So long as she and her people are there, none of us will drown.” A journalist from Bamenda, who had accompanied the group, concluded: “In these days my eyes have been filled with the light of Mamma Chiara, and I would like to go back to my people and take it to each one of them.” See also: Story of FontemThirty years after her last visit to Fontem (Cameroon)
Alberto Michelotti was born in Genoa on August 1958. He was an engineering student, head of a group of youths of the Focolare Movement, and loved to put himself in the last place to serve others. A mountain climbing enthusiast, on 20 August 1980 he fell during an ascent, and died in an iced gorge in the Maritime Alps. The day after his death, Carlo Grisolia, another boy in his group, was diagnosed with one of the most malignant tumours, and so started his 40-day stint of passing on the baton “to meet Jesus,” during which he often affirmed that as always, Alberto was there with him to give him support. Both were real troopers of the spirituality of communion, and still today continue to touch the hearts of the people who knew them.
In the mountains
The Church thus introduced their cause for beatification (see website Beatified Saints). What was the secret to their lives? It was the discovery and practice of the spirituality of Chiara Lubich, a collective path that leads to the reaching of sanctity together. Here are some spontaneous impressions found in their website: Sara. “For me they were models of people I could look up to since they became saints by helping and loving one another, without being “different” from many others. Carlo and Alberto give me the hope of being always capable of starting anew and living like them, focusing my life on sanctity. Donatello. “I feel the need not to lose contact with them and their extraordinary experience. I also wish to communicate to as many people as possible, the story of these youths who opened themselves to their neighbours with enthusiasm, and without hesitation.” Ornella. “I learned about them by chance, and got to know their story in depth on the internet where I read their profiles. Their life was an extraordinary story of normal people. They are like luminous trails that lead to God… I hope many will be able to read their story; there is need today of strong testimonials like theirs!” E. “Like two strikes of lightning out of the blue, Carlo and Alberto suddenly and rapidly shone. They burst into my life to strike me, and I think, also other people who knew them.” A.A. “In just a few years Carlo and Alberto accomplished deeds which many of us are unable to do in their lives. They were determined, dynamic, and had the drive to sacrifice their lives for the project God had in store for them, like white canvases to be painted on. God did so and they embraced the faith even in the moment of death. I as a youth admire these two boys a lot. They are models for all of us.” To know more see: Alberto e CarloCarlo Grisolia – Alberto Michelotti Documentary (Italian) Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI4jmG-pwsk The website dedicated to Alberto and Carlo, http://www.albertoecarlo.it, inlcudes photos and other archival material.
Members of the Focolare community in Milan welcomes Maria Voce.
On the morning of 28 September, Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement underwent heart surgery. The operation, which was scheduled a few months ago, was successful. Her post-operative recovery is as good as can be expected. The Focolare Movement thanks all those who prayed and were concerned about Maria Voce’s health. Focolare members worldwide continue to pray for her while in hospital, wishing her a speedy and complete recovery.
