Merry Christmas
GCPS Consulting conducts the independent investigation
The President of the Focolare entrusts the independent investigation into the case of abuse perpetrated by a former consecrated member in France to the firm GCPS Consulting
On 23rd December Maria Voce and Jesús Morán, respectively President and Co-president of the Focolare, entrusted the investigation into the sexual abuse committed by JMM, a French, former consecrated member of the Movement, to the firm GCPS Consulting, based in the United Kingdom. In addition to the immense suffering, especially for the victims, and the unconditional collaboration of the Focolare in order to shed full light on this case, expressed by the President in the press release of 22 October last, the decision was also announced to entrust the investigation and ascertainment of responsibilities to an independent body. GCPS Consulting is a consulting firm that specializes in helping organisations ensure the safety of children, vulnerable or ‘at risk’ groups and improve their systems for preventing and reporting abuse. It deals with the identification of risks and issues related to safeguarding, and has extensive experience and expertise in policy development, training, review, evaluation, as well as investigations. The task of GCPS Consulting will therefore be to listen to the victims and gather further testimonies, as well as carry out investigations into any omissions, cover-ups or silences by the leaders of the Focolare Movement. In addition, it will gather other reports that may come to light. The investigation is expected to start in January 2021. The independent commission, after the time needed to establish terms and procedures, will begin gathering the stories of the victims in March 2021. By December 2021 a public report will be presented which will detail the findings and recommendations of the inquiry commission. ——————————————— Stefania Tanesini Focolare Movement Press Officer +39 338 5658244 stefania.tanesini@focolare.org ——————————————— Contacts at GCPS Consulting for this case: inquiry@gcps.consulting info@gcps.consulting (Media)
A General Assembly held online
The next General Assembly of the Focolare Movement will be completely online. A worldwide survey has identified four themes to be explored. The General Assembly of the Focolare Movement, postponed from the beginning of September 2020 to the end of January 2021, will be held completely online. Such was the decision announced by Maria Voce, president of the Movement, at the beginning of December following a survey among all those responsible for the Movement around the world and a subsequent assessment by the General Council of the Focolare. The decision to hold the Assembly online was also helped by the preparations underway after the initial postponement. A survey amongst all the members of the movement identified a number of key themes to focus on in this Assembly. These are: Charism, Incarnation, Environment and Future, Together with the New Generations. Issues Relating to Integral Ecology and Journeying Together with the New Generations. Participants have already been provided with material on these subjects, and experts in these areas have offered their reflections in a number of webinars. The path Due to the aggravated situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was obvious that many of the 362 participants in this six-year event would not be able to travel. This left two options: to either postpone the Assembly further, or hold it partially or completely online. Besides the legal and technical issues to be resolved, other serious questions had to be addressed: how would it be possible to create, in an online assembly, the kind of communion among the participants which would help them to get to know one another and share views about candidates and issues? And how could everyone be guaranteed the same level of technical access and participation in the dialogues? It was also clear that, because of the different time zones, the programme had to take place within a specific timeframe which was equally acceptable to participants from Vancouver in Western Canada as those from Oceania. In short, how could the challenges that the global situation was also imposing on the Focolare Movement be overcome within such a short space of time? Discussions at different levels revealed an overriding willingness to face these challenges with responsibility and creativity rather than postpone this important event any longer. And to make the choice easier, it was just at that time the Vatican gave extraordinary permission to hold the Assembly online, provided that the confidentiality, secrecy and freedom of expression of the vote during the elections were guaranteed. Consequently, Maria Voce decided to organise an online Assembly for everyone – even those who would have been able to meet physically. The technical challenge and online voting Technicians and computer scientists are currently working on ways to create multiple possibilities for formal and informal online meetings. An internationally recognised voting system has successfully passed its first tests. A worldwide communion of goods is trying to ensure that all participants have the tools they need for a stable Internet connection. And for the participants who (from a European perspective) live “on the other side” of the world, solutions are being sought to ease the burden of time zones. The pre-assembly journey also offers the opportunity to look at the legal issues related to how the meeting is conducted and get to know the candidates nominated for the different roles.
Joachim Schwind
Merry Christmas 2020
https://vimeo.com/493057517 Happy Christmas, Happy Christmas to you all. For sure this Christmas, in a pandemic year! Christmas in the midst of a pandemic. We see terrible things, poverty to the point of starvation and increasing hunger in many places; we see wars that are partly hidden, partly ongoing; we see climate disasters, changes that are putting our common home at risk. And so all this makes us say: Jesus came into this world; Jesus came; he became man and took charge of this world, and he came through love to show us his love. And so, on the one hand it makes us feel humble before the greatness of this love, and grateful to him who has shown us this love. And on the other hand, it urges us to do something like him, it urges us to look around, to reach out to everyone, starting with the most marginalised, the poorest, humblest, most abandoned, migrants, those who are alone, the sick, children, all those in need. And he also urges us to love them with all that we can: by sharing our affection, our thoughts, our communion of goods and even taking risks at times, risking our lives as he did, And so this will truly be a Happy Christmas, that is, a good Christmas, a Christmas of goodness, a Christmas that because it’s goodness also becomes a Christmas of peace, hope and joy. Happy Christmas to you all.
Maria Emmaus Voce
The pandemic and the risk of an “educational catastrophe”
The commitment of Youth for a United World in the Philippines to promoting initiatives to help students through the #daretocare project. “Online learning” has now become a feature of this pandemic. Governments all over the world are putting measures in place to reduce the risk of infection from Covid-19 whilst trying to maintain continuity with children’s education. Children no longer go to school physically but “meet” teachers and other students in “virtual classrooms”: the internet has become the new setting for their education. This new model has highlighted a number of difficulties for developed countries. Losing a direct relationship has a negative impact on the quality of teaching and deprives children of a “place” for growth and development which is human relationship. What is also significant is the discomfort that arises from a kind of enforced “cloistering” and the need to reorganize one’s daily life between smartworking, babysitting, medical appointments and various other commitments. 
In developing countries and in rural areas which lack IT infrastructures, these social problems are further compounded by structural ones. Many regions have no internet connection and conditions for families who were already in financial difficulty have worsened because of the pandemic. These families can’t afford to buy educational materials, PCs or internet subscriptions for their children. All this has meant that the risk of an “educational catastrophe” that Pope Francis spoke of on 15 October in his Message for the event dedicated to the “Global Pact for Education” is very real. These difficulties are being felt by people in many parts of the Philippines. There, some of the Youth for a United World are teachers who have developed initiatives to help their students, putting into practice the #daretocare initiative which is about daring to take care of others, being active citizens who take an interest in everything that is happening around the world to try to build a united piece of the world. Frances Roble teaches primary school children. Some of her pupils come from the poorest families who do not have the educational materials they need to follow classes. To make sure their studies could continue, Frances appealed to the whole Focolare community to give them everything they need: “We pick ourselves up again together,” she explains, “by helping others in need to pick themselves up again. Ronald Allan Relador teaches in a public school. Unlike in previous years, his students had to register online at the beginning of this year to attend classes. Most, however, had neither a PC nor an internet connection. Ronald also worked hard to raise enough money to buy computers and register some of the students himself. However, the money raised was insufficient to cover all their needs. Then a well-known music band in the country decided to help by making a major donation. “I felt fulfilled and blessed to have done this,” he says, “God’s generosity is immense!” Jaquilyn Marie P. Jumuad also teaches in a primary school. She said that moving to online self-study has not been easy and has highlighted the difficulties many parents experienced of taking the place of teachers because they lacked a basic education themselves. “The help Youth for a United World offered,” she says, “has enabled us to give our students the level of education they needed.
Claudia Di Lorenzi