Latin America Without Borders

Jan 27, 2014 | Non categorizzato

Seventy one students showed up atMariapolis Liain Argentina: from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Italy and Argentina. It was an opportunity to spend nine days together and explore answers to some challenging questions.

The academic approach of Summer School 2014, promoted by Sophia University Institute and the help of some Latin American professors, examined several disciplines from a new viewpoint.

Biblical Theology. Exploration of the authenticity of Gospel texts brought out the revolutionary and transforming message of Jesus’ words.

Economic Sciences. Trust and reciprocity were shown to be helpfully important to economic performance.

Sociology. The human person and society in the historical sociological context, and in the Magisterial documents of the Church, beginning with the idea of gift and interculturalism.

Latin America is calling for deep change: a return to its roots; a recognition of its wealth and the cultures of its first peoples; the challenge of social inequality; finding ways to transform its contrasting diversity into gift.

The Arts were celebrated as a valid way for promoting interculturalism, in a display of works from several countries and the concert Music of Hope: the world opening of the opera “Hablata Oblata Opus 265 by Costa Rican composer Mario Alfaguel. It is a combination of contemporary music with texts by Latin-American thinkers that delighted the audience. Students from the first Summer School presented 29 papers in seven academic areas, and 12 projects that demonstrated that it is possible to begin from a new paradigm: the culture of brotherhood.   

Daniela from Chile presented a project titled: “The new look of knowledge in the field of health care: what the same and what is different in Mapuche medicine and traditional medicine. Comparing traditional medicine and indigenous peoples.”

Christopher from Mexico presented his work titled: “Brotherhood between the lines: an approach for its use in Mexican political discourse”. He explains: “This project’s goal is to develop an analysis of the concept of brotherhood as an element of the present system of political discourse in Mexico.”

Carlos from Argentina: “We’re many, but we’re one. Today I feel as if Central America has become a land without borders, united from north to south by a single dream: universal brotherhood.”

They leave with great challenges ahead of them: to bring forward socially transforming projects in individual regions of the continent, which will be presented at the next Summer School in 2015.

One Sign of Peace at the Heart Of the Protests in Argentina

Dec 11, 2013 | Non categorizzato

Cordoba is a city of 1.2 million inhabitants in the heart of Argentina. Provincial police began protesting for higher wages, leading to strikes that left the streets without police protection. Two people died and more than a thousand commercial centres, private homes and a Caritas warehouse were assaulted by groups of organized criminal delinquents on December 13^th and 14^th. A curfew was enforced on the citizens who remain locked in their homes, public offices, schools and universities. Public transportation was no longer in service. The mediation carried out by Comipaz (interreligious committee), through the intervention of Auxiliary Bishop Pedro Javier Torres, Rabbi Marcelo Polakoff and religious leaders from several other confessional groups helped to re-establish calm. By noontime on December 4th they reached an agreement between the parties, following which the police slowly regained control of the city. Once this agreement was announced the Young for Unity stepped into action, as Anna Maria Martinez recounts: “We were watching all the violence and sacking with a sense of fear, keeping hidden in our homes. But we didn’t want to remain passive in front of what was happening in our city. We felt a strong desire to show the people that something good could emerge from all this anger, madness and institutionalized corruption.” “Through the social networks we agreed to meet in one of the city’s squares. At 16:00 the first young people began to arrive and there were already thirty of us. Some journalists and television channels were also on hand. As time went by other groups of young people began arriving, who had also been advised of the meeting. In the end there were a hundred of us, plus many others who joined us in cleaning up the square, their buildings and the surrounding streets.” The previous night had been awful: gunshots, sirens, alarms, sacking of shops and homes, many shop-owners left to fend for themselves. There was much work to be done to clean up after the burnings and remove the ruined barricades . . . “But beyond the physical work, the basic idea was to talk with the people, to offer them a moment for dialogue and listening. The response was immediate: some brought food for the Caritas warehouse; others brought water to us workers, along with gloves, brooms and mops. So many joined in the work with us, so touched to see us who didn’t even live in the area arriving to help in the cleaning of their quarter.” We never foresaw the repercussions this would have in the news where they reported on the actions of us young people. “We feel that we’ve done more than just clean streets; we’ve realized that it depends on each one of us if we want to do something out of the ordinary. Just yesterday there was a spreading of delinquency and opportunism; today there is a spreading of good will, strength and working together to begin a change.” The situation in Argentina is not yet resolved. Protests and clashes continue to spread in other provinces, but the desire remains of not being overcome by violence, but finding peaceful paths. Video  

Youth in Argentina: “Let’s break with all stereotypes!”

Oct 22, 2013 | Non categorizzato

The big hall of the Argentinian Little City of O’Higgins was transformed into a circus setting: the characters, through their performances, the choreography and the visual projections accompanied by musical themes, demonstrated the complex reality that society faces today. A program without intermissions, that sought to transmit a deep and incisive message through art. 

Which one? To aim high, this is what was proposed by the theme song of the Festival, to have faith in the power of working together, with each one giving his own contribution, to believe that the barriers of individualism can be broken so as to be able to transform society in the different environments wherein the young people live their lives day by day, to struggle for a “culture of giving” based on a disinterested service, for a culture of fraternity and of forgiveness that breaks all the schemes of a humanity fossilized and frivolous that suffers, to believe that great ideals are not a utopia, but a reality that can come true by bringing about a true revolution of Love, through one’s daily actions.

At the heart of the preparation of the event were the 80 young people present this year in the Mariapolis Lia. The starting point was the question they asked themselves regarding what message to give to the numerous young people who come every year for this festival. The proposal was that of “showing everyone how society could be, if reciprocal love was the fundamental law of all our actions”. At the end of a critical reflection on contemporary society, they unmasked one of its most frequent illnesses: individualism.

From there came the choice of the slogan that helped them to bring ahead the propsed initiative, with the idea of risking one’s life for great ideals: “You are capable of doing great things… Let’s break with all stereotypes! A slogan that echoes the invitation of Pope Francis at Rio de Janeiro precisely to the Argentinian youth: “Hagan lío” (to make noise).

And so with a hundred young people coming not only from Argentina and from its farthest provinces, but also from Uruguay and Paraguay, the rich two-day program opened the way to participation through various workshops, the tour of the little city, a recital for peace with different invited musical groups and the band of the Mariapolis Lia. The work done together led to the search for solutions to the problems that were raised during the initial challenge.

Then they leave once again, but with the desire to put into practice in their daily life the departure from individualism, an answer to the words of Francis: “I want you to make yourselves heard (…), I want you to go outside, I want the Church to go out to the streets, I want us to defend ourselves against all that is worldly, the opposition to progress, to all that is comfortable, from all that is clericalism, from all that makes us closed up within ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions are made to go out…”.

On the frontier to serve

Aug 7, 2013 | Non categorizzato

“From the moment we began planning this trip we were aware of what a powerful experience it was going to be. But we never imagined the welcome we would receive from the people – especially the youth. We arrived after a trip that lasted for more than 12 hours. The school bell was ringing for us as we arrived. A large sign read: “Thanks for coming, thanks for coming here, we love you: WELCOME.” As soon as our bus stopped they began to greet us and unload our luggage. Then we played some games with the children and sang songs with them too.”

This is what 19 youngsters from Teens for Unity wrote in their diary. They were accompanied by 4 adults during their school holidays in the month of July, leaving behind Buenos Aires to go and spend a few days at the “Escuela km. 25” in Santiago del Estero Province, one of the many “existential frontiers” that Pope Francis has recently spoken about.

The location was a thousand kilometres from Buenos Aires, in the midst of a forest. The school has two classrooms, a kitchen, three bathrooms and a play area with a well that provides water for the 22 families of the community, who live in mud dwellings with dirt floors.

The school is attended by 35 children up to the age of 13. A lone teacher arrives every Monday and leaves again every Friday. The men work the fields and are away from home for up to three months out of the year.

“It took 4 months to prepare for the trip. With the help of the adults, youths and young people of the Focolare we held an evening event for gathering funds. We had to meet the cost of the trip, our sojourn and many other logistical problems. We brought school supplies, medicines, shoes and just about anything else that we could fit into our bags.

We all agreed that we weren’t only going there to bring the toys and activities that we had prepared for the children, but we were going there with an attitude of learning and receiving something from them as well: how they live, what their world is like, their values, what they do . . . And it turned out to be a mutually very enriching experience.

We visited their homes, taking breakfast with them. We planned to meet at 10:30, but at 9:30 they were already there waiting for us.

One day their teacher had told the children that to come and play with us, they must wear the best clothing they had. Perhaps it was the only pair of shoes they owned, while they went to school with bare feet. But they saw this encounter with us as a feast, and so they dressed for a feast.

Before we leaving we wanted to give them all the money we had for the school, and so that the children’s dream could come true of going to the city for an ice-cream! When we returned to the big city, we realised what an extraordinary experience it had been: ‘I was able to realize that living in solidarity, serving, it doesn’t matter at all, neither the place you live, nor anything else, because we truly are all equal.’ A new friendship has begun and we don’t want to miss the appointment they wrote about in their farewell message: “Goodbye until next year!”