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Course on Synodality: part of a single people

Course on Synodality: part of a single people

14 Dec 2022 | Non categorizzato

The Evangelii Gaudium Centre (CEG) has opened the inscriptions for the Training Course for Synodality, a concrete contribution to respond to the Church’s call to walk together. The Evangelii Gaudium Centre (CEG) which is linked to the Sophia University Institute, is offering a Synodal Training Course which will begin in 2023. It is a course which has been developed in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the Synod and with other training centres and academic institutes in Italy and beyond. But why talk about synodality? Prof. Vincenzo di Pilato, Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Pugliese Theological Faculty in Italy and coordinator of the CEG, explains:

Prof. Vincenzo di Pilato

On 16th October, Pope Francis announced his decision to hold the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in two sessions. The press release states, “This decision stems from the desire that because of the breadth and importance of the theme of the Synodal Church, it should be the subject of prolonged discernment not only by the members of the Synodal Assembly, but by the whole Church”. This is the challenge to which the course endeavours to respond: to combine walking ‘together’ with ‘all’ walking, as best as possible. We are experiencing this at the level of dioceses, parishes, movements, congregations, everywhere: synodality without life in the Spirit is reduced to outmoded and inconclusive assemblyism. We need ‘houses and schools of communion’, but also ‘gyms of synodality’ in which to learn to listen to and follow the Holy Spirit. Easier said than done! The course would like to be at the service of this other challenge: to bring spiritual experience and theological and human sciences together. This is the desire of the Pontifical Dicasteries, in particular those engaged in formation. On various occasions they have proposed courses of this kind, open to all vocations. The General Secretariat of the Synod itself was particularly involved in the initiative. In fact, we have the honour that Cardinal Secretary Mario Grech will open the Course on 17th January, 2023. Professor, how will this course take place and to whom is it addressed? The course will take place over three years. There will be 4 sessions each year (3 academic modules and a residential meeting). They will deal with issues linked to the ongoing synodal process. You can sign up for the whole year or for a single module. The official language will be Italian, but there will be simultaneous translations into Spanish, Portuguese and English. It is a course for all members of the People of God, from bishops to pastoral workers, from priests to nuns, from seminarians to lay people. For this year, we will keep the course online. Where possible, we recommend participating in groups from the same community, parish or diocese so as to make the course a real “gym of synodality”. Two or more participants, who will be able to dialogue with each other in a synodal style, will become “multipliers” of the course, or of its main themes, in the community to which they belong. During a meeting with the various ecclesial realities linked to the Focolare Movement, the Co-President, Jesús Morán, spoke about the spirituality of communion (citing the Novo Millennium Ineunte of Saint John Paul II) and synodality as two distinct moments which are however linked to each other,. Can you elaborate on this concept? We are preparing for the next Jubilee in 2025, with a prolonged synodal journey unprecedented in the history of the Church. In the aftermath of the last Jubilee of the Year 2000, St. John Paul II recognized that “much has been done since the Second Vatican Council, also with regard to the reform of the Roman Curia, the organization of Synods, and the functioning of Episcopal Conferences. But certainly much remains to be done” (NMI, 44). What did he mean by that “much remains to be done”? I think it was not a rhetorical expression for him, but a prophetic one. In 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis said: “The path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium”. This is the mutual convergence between these two Jubilees: on one hand, the “spirituality” of communion which allows us to penetrate into the highest contemplation of the mystery of God the Trinity, preserved within and among all creatures; on the other hand, synodality as a “path” on which to remain, following the example of Jesus and Mary, mingled together, participating “in this somewhat chaotic tide that can be transformed into a true experience of fraternity, into a caravan of solidarity, into a holy pilgrimage” (Evangelii Gaudium 87). It is clear, therefore, that there is no spirituality of communion without synodality and vice versa. Communion which leads to unity is the mystery of God revealed to us by Jesus Crucified-Risen and forever present in the destiny of humanity; synodality is the way that allows us to make it visible “so that the world may believe” (Jn. 17: 21). What does all this mean concretely for each of us and what are the steps to live this call? First of all we should feel that we are part of a single people, not a group of individuals standing next to each other like pins in a bowling alley or passengers in a lift. Addressing young people, Pope Francis explained it this way: “When we speak of ‘people’ we must not think of the structures of society or of the Church, but rather the group of people who do not walk as individuals, but as the fabric of a community of all and for all, who cannot allow the poorest and the weakest to be left behind: ‘The people want everyone to share in the common good and for this reason they are ready to adapt to the pace of the last one in order to arrive all together’” (Christus Vivit, 23). Here we are: walking together without leaving anyone behind, recognizing the presence of Christ in everyone who passes by us. This is the root of the equal dignity and freedom of each of us. Feeling one people is the premise, but also the purpose of synodality, just as Jesus is, at the same time, the Way and our travelling companion. The Holy Spirit dwells in every member of God’s people, as in a temple, and the only law among all must be the new commandment, to love as Jesus himself loved us (cf. Jn. 13: 34). We hope that the Course will be a stretch of road embarked on together, with our eyes fixed on the horizon of the Kingdom of God, which we meet whenever there is a neighbour to love.

Maria Grazia Berretta

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“Letters”: getting to know Chiara Lubich through her letters

“Letters”: getting to know Chiara Lubich through her letters

6 Dec 2022 | Non categorizzato

A volume of Chiara Lubich’s works entitled “Letters” has been on sale in Italian bookshops for several months. We spoke to Florence Gillet from the Chiara Lubich Centre, a theologian and scholar of the Focolare Movement’s founder who edited the publication.

Florance Gillet

Arriving at the Chiara Lubich Centre, near the International Focolare Centre in Rocca di Papa (Italy), I am warmly welcomed by Dr Gillet who invited me into the meeting room. Everywhere there are cupboards containing plaques and objects commemorating honorary degrees and gifts received by Chiara Lubich during her trips to different countries around the world, as well as numerous books on the foundress of the Focolare Movement translated into various languages, some of which have been written or edited by Florence Gillet. As we start talking, her accent reveals her French origins. She tells me that she came across the charism of unity at the end of 1965.  Three months later she was at the international little town of Loppiano in Italy, to go into depth about the ‘ideal’ she had been looking for for so long and eventually found. Studying theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University took her to Rome where she was one of the first women to attend the university. She then returned to Paris for a few years then back to Rome. Her face lights up when she recounts her experiences in a number of African countries where she set up “temporary focolares”, so called because they are only there for a certain period of time. In 2008, she was invited to join the Chiara Lubich Centre, founded in that year, to study and work on publications of the writings of the Focolare Movement’s foundress concentrating right from the start on the cornerstones of the Spirituality of Unity.  “Letters 1939 – 1960” which she edited was published recently as part of a series entitled The Works of Chiara Lubich. “There is great variety in these letters”, explains Florence Gillet.  “Some are pure spiritual direction; then there are the updating letters; letters of consolation; letters that flow from Chiara Lubich’s soul, especially those written to her sister which are very deep and strong. But they all have something in common. First of all, the literary genre, namely that they are all letters.  Secondly, you find something of Chiara’s ‘soul’ in each one of them, the way she knows how to ‘make herself one’, as St Paul says when he declares ‘I have made myself all things to all people’. Even in communicating her secret, since the clear reference to Jesus forsaken is evident everywhere’. What can this volume be compared to? This is the question Florence Gillet asks herself in the introduction and she responds with a very eloquent image: “If it were a garden, it would be an English garden without geometric shapes or symmetries but where nature is poetry and freedom with rigour and order. If it were a road, it would be a path, at times adventurous but one that is well-marked, with a clear destination and an experienced guide. If it were a house, it would be hospitable, with many interconnecting rooms, each in harmony with each other, warm and open”. The book contains 338 letters (a selection of the many letters written by Lubich) that bring the reader into direct contact with the early years of the nascent Focolare Movement and the development of its charism. “I advise everyone to make the effort,” Florence continues, “to start reading from the introduction, to grasp the key to the reading, and then continue with the letters, one by one, in an orderly way, letting them ‘speak to the heart'”.  The reader will find letters to individuals, letters to nascent communities, letters to members of her family; They will find other letters that are more doctrinal, in which Chiara explains her Ideal. “Producing this book has been a fascinating project,” she concludes, “and I think readers will find it fascinating too”.

Carlos Mana

WCC hosts Focolare community, with mutual commitment to “holding hands,” walking together

1 Dec 2022 | Non categorizzato

The World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted Focolare president Margaret Karram and co-president Jesús Moran, as well as other members of the Focolare community, on 28 November, offering a guided tour of the Ecumenical Centre, and discussing unity, reconciliation, inter-religious bridge-building, Faith and Order, and communications, among other issues of interest. WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed appreciation for the many past collaborations between the WCC and the Focolare, most recently the Focolare’s participation at the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe. Sauca said the WCC recognizes the importance of cooperation and mutual support between the WCC and the Focolare to serve together under the new paradigm of the pilgrimage of justice, reconciliation, and unity. “Christians of different churches belonging to Focolare have been part of delegations of their respective churches and in other capacities at WCC assemblies,” noted Sauca, who summarized a long history of cooperation between the two groups. “Your commitment to promoting the dialogue between Christians, Jews, and Muslims as well as your engagement in a sustained dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians are inspiring assets for the worldwide movement of Focolare and beyond,” said Sauca. Staff from the WCC and representatives from the Focolare movement also discussed past and future areas of collaboration, and shared their experiences related to unity and ecumenism. Karram shared her warmest greetings and expressed great joy to be visiting the WCC, 20 years after the last visit of Focolare founder Chiara Lubich visited the WCC. “Twenty years ago, Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement, came here at the invitation of the then-general secretary Konrad Raiser and Prof. Ioan Sauca,” said Karram. “I am very grateful to be with you all here today to commemorate this anniversary. I give praise to God because I am aware I am walking on ground that I hold sacred.” Karram assumed the WCC of the willingness and of the ability of the Focolare movement to continue walking together. “I want to add not only walking together—but we have to hold hands—not only walk together but hold hands, side-by-side. I want to promise this.” Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay WCC general secretary-elect, commended the many ways in which the Focolare community and the WCC have exchanged ideas and insights over the years. “Our collaboration has been on different levels,” he said.

Source: WWC

Full speech by Margaret Karram Photo gallery on the Focolare leadership visit to the WCC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lx8IklNEPQ&t=53s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7OMciDbHA8&t=1s

Living Gospel: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Mt 5:7)

22 Nov 2022 | Senza categoria

The merciful are those who are able to forgive others and often even themselves. However, mercy is not just an inner disposition, it is the way that unites us with God. His immense love for us is not a feeling but an action; the act through which each of us is ‘reborn’. Living in peace It was not the first time I had noticed trespassing on my land. I had never had any enemies and my father had taught me how to build good relationships, but on this occasion I wanted to see clearly what was going on.  I asked Our Lady for help and one night I went into the orchard with another farmer.  As I suspected, at a certain hour I saw my neighbour arrive with two sons armed with fruit boxes. The plan was to photograph them in the act: bewildered by the flashes, the three of them immediately ran off, leaving the harvested fruit on the ground. The next day, towards evening, our neighbour’s wife asked my wife if she would kindly destroy the photos and not press charges against her husband. As agreed, my wife replied: “I don’t know what photos you are talking about, my husband has been away for two days”. From that day on, things started to change with unusual kindness and a willingness to help with the picking… During one of the breaks, the neighbour admitted he had come to get some apples ‘to try them’ and had seen flashes. I replied: “Strange things have been happening in the village for some time. What’s important for us is to live in peace”. (V.S.E. – Italy) A real change When I retired and looked back on my life all I could see was a total failure! I never got married because my parents were against my choice of a guy who was good but not one of our ‘rank’. My relationship with my brothers and sister had almost completely broken down because of an inheritance that according to them had been unfairly divided. I could call myself rich but what a void has been created in and around me! While I was in hospital a niece came to visit me who said something that really troubled me: “The trouble with you Aunty is that you are possessed by evil. Every trace of goodness in you has disappeared”. When I was finally discharged, I looked for a priest in whom I could confide what was distressing me. When he had finished listening to me, it seemed to him that I somehow wanted to take revenge on life, on family, on everyone, so he urged me to start thinking more of other people by celebrating relatives’ birthdays with gifts, taking an interest in the neighbours’ news, writing to former students.  They were small gestures but steps towards the light. In desperation I put his suggestion into practice.  It is hard but I really feel something is changing. (G.I. – Spain) Friends in sickness While my mother was in hospital I got to know her roommate, Klari who was at the same stage of cancer and undergoing the same series of chemotherapies. They had become friends, but something was dividing them.  As a young woman, Klari had been a communist activist and did not accept the Catholic faith my mother professed. They did not argue, but you could feel that neither of them wanted to let go of their own beliefs. Nevertheless, my mother was always available and to help Klari who had no relatives she had involved us in the family with her needs – just little things, like dealing with some paperwork for her, phoning friends, etc. When their health started to deteriorate for both of them, each reacted differently to the illness.  A great peace shone out from my mother, who always remained attentive to her friend. Klari, on the other hand, became impatient and aggressive, but before she went into a coma, she thanked my mother for the way she had always been by her side. She had now become one of our family. (P.F.H. – Germany)

Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta (taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VIII, no.2, November-December 2022)

 

Dialop: dissent, consensus and hope

Dialop: dissent, consensus and hope

18 Nov 2022 | Non categorizzato

Presentation to the European Parliament in Brussels (Belgium) of a document aimed at expressing a common social ethic, which contains the shared positions of Christians and Marxists. It is the result of an eight-year journey or we could even say one which has been going on for two centuries. “A project of transversal dialogue” is how Dialop defines itself. Christians and Marxists in Europe have been working on it for some years. After a meeting in the Vatican of some representatives of the European Left with Pope Francis, it took a decisive step forward (see Dialop: Christians and Marxists working together). The event took place on 8th November in the Altiero Spinelli building with the presence of 40 people from 9 countries of the Union and others who followed the streaming. The presentation of the position paper, “In search of a common future in solidarity” was supported by the Left Group of the European Parliament, in collaboration with the Movement for Politics for Unity Movement and New Humanity, The document, on common positions in Socialist Christian dialogue, was written by Prof. Michael Brie, President of the Scientific Committee of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and by the Belgian sociologist, Prof. Bennie Callebaut of the Sophia University Institute. It analyses how, as antagonists in the past, Christianity and Marxism are faced with another wall to break down, that of wild capitalism and how they find surprising affinities in the present. In the message and in the person of Pope Francis they also find a figure who unites, a leader and a traveling companion. The paper states, “We are working on projects guided by shared visions in common struggles“. The document declines what these projects are, indicating some topics being explored: “an economy of life; a caring community; a policy of transformation in solidarity; a world in which there is room for many worlds; the dignity of every individual in a world rich in common goods; and together for peace”. The inevitable question of how, when it comes to discussion, these are expressed in practice, was formulated by Prof. Léonce Bekemans (Jean Monnet Chair, University of Padua). Walter Baier, from Transform!Europe, one of the initiators and coordinators of Dialop responded: “We work on three levels: dialogue as a cultural initiative in order to become a think tank; involving people in the work for solidarity, as happened with initiatives for migrants and refugees; arousing political involvement especially for building peace”. Marisa Matjas, Portuguese MEP of the Bloco de Esquerda, vice-president of the Party of the European Left in the European Parliament, was the hostess. She vividly remembered the words of Pope Francis to the members of the European Parliament in 2014, which were “said when we needed to hear them most”. “He spoke to us about keeping democracy alive in Europe, about employment and workers’ rights, about education, about migration, at a time when the EU was ignoring the massive movements of people coming from Syria; he also spoke about the dignity of human rights, we have many things in common that we need to work on together.” In his opening remarks on “Common paths towards a global, just and fraternal society”,  the theologian Piero Coda said, “Today we need, like the food we live on, vision, spirit and covenant. It is time to hope and give hope ‘in the plural’. This is what Dialop invites us to do”. A plurality that requires wider alliances, not only the Catholic world, but the whole Christian world, with an ecumenical dimension; not only Christianity, but all religions; not only the left, but the various political ideologies that are committed to the common good and the defence of the environment. Citing the document, he said that there must be an initial effort to put aside any claim of “having the monopoly of the truth”. “Together with Marxists and Christians, a transformative and transversal social ethic must count on the contribution of other actors and traditions who are present in our continent and have different world views”, reiterated Fr Manuel Barrios Prieto, Secretary General of COMECE, recalling the concept of human fraternity, starting with the signing of the Abu Dhabi document of 2019 and the encyclical “All Brothers”. A renewed commitment to dialogue resumed in Brussels, with a momentum of inclusiveness, aware that dialogue is a ‘ work in permanent progress’.

Maria Chiara De Lorenzo