Feb 8, 2019 | Non categorizzato
What do Medellín, Katowice and Kingersheim have in common? Despite their cultural distance, what connects them is their social and civil planning. They are located on two different continents and in three distant cultural areas. Medellin, Colombia; Katowice, Poland; and Kingersheim, France are cities that have risen to the challenge of putting the common good at the center in a most authentic way, and not just as the sum of private interests. Administrations and citizens have worked to find a way to break through the ego, poverty and isolation to recognize each other as brothers and sisters. Those playing a lead role in this field are Federico Restrepo, Danuta Kaminska and Jo Spiegel, who told their stories, which were different but with similar themes, at the “Co- Governance, Co-Responsibility in Cities Today” conference. The first story was told by Federico Restrepo, an engineer who is already a director at EPM, or Medellín Public Enterprise. Together with other friends, he did not give up in the face of the inevitability of the situation, which seemed beyond his strength. Medellín, a city that counts almost 3 million residents, like many South American cities was showing a strong tendency for growth in urban areas to the detriment of the rural population. 
“There are people in some areas of Medellín who try to build their own cities in the suburbs,” says Restrepo. For some years a pilot experience to carry out urban integration projects was started in neighborhoods that were started due to forced migration. Immigration, which has been increasing in Colombia partly due to the crisis in Venezuela, cannot be solved by building walls. “We have the responsibility,” he continues” to build relationships between cities to be able to resolve these social issues that our society is going through.” But it’s not just a question of urban planning – there are other challenges that have emerged to rediscover the heart of the city and make it beat. 
The experience that Danuta Kaminska tells links the Americas and Europe. A public administrator at the Upper Silesia Council, in Poland, she presents everyday stories that are extraordinary at the same time. They tell of citizens of Katowice welcoming migrants, mostly from the Ukraine. Just in the past year their number reached 700,000. “In order to start the shared governance of our city, we understood that we needed to support our citizens. We have been collaborating with religious communities and nonprofit organizations to help them assimilate, such as supporting the Jewish and Muslim communities.” Katowice, which has 2 million inhabitants, underwent profound changes these past years, transforming itself from an industrial city to a UNESCO site, and hosting the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24). For cities to be a transformational space, for democracy to be fraternal, engagement and spirituality need to be nurtured. This means public servants who become facilitators of decision-making. Jo Spiegel, who is the mayor of Kingersheim, a French town with close to 13,000 residents, continues to spend all her strength bringing back a multifaceted approach to her city, where different cultures and generations can coexist. “Twenty years ago,” says the mayor, “we founded an ecosystem of participatory democracy, starting a “citizens house” – a privileged place where citizens and politicians learn to live together.” More than 40 projects have been completed, such as revising the local urban plan, planning parental leave, and creating a space for Muslims to worship. “Fraternity cannot be delegated, it cannot be decreed. It’s inside us, it’s between us. You build it.”
Patrizia Mazzola
Jan 28, 2019 | Non categorizzato
Trieste, Italy – stories related by those who actually live them “Together with members of Caritas and the Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS), we support mainly migrant and refugee families and their children, hosted at a reception facility in our city, Trieste, and in the province. For the last three years, we have been organizing regular activities; some of us help mothers with their study of the Italian language to facilitate their everyday life; others play with children and follow them in their homework. Many families have been hosted in our centre, and with almost all them we have managed to build a relationship that lasts even after they leave the centre. Through collaboration with Azione per Famiglie Nuove Onlus (New Families), we set up a project to support a Kurdish family who was in difficulty. This project was financed by some members of the community. After having been supported for two years, the father has now managed to find a job, so the family is self-supporting and lives in a hired apartment. Through other small projects we help other families in their various needs; mothers are assisted to follow specialization courses and thus be prepared for a job, and children are helped to integrate and participate in various activities, as for example sport. We see that these families get the medical care necessary and we also accompany them in their search for a home. We have found small jobs for mothers; and a father, whom we helped with driving lessons, is now employed with a company as a truck driver. With the help of some families, we have managed to offer a “family holiday” to an African widow and her two children, who really needed it. We also try to share with them particular moments in everyday life such as birthdays, Sunday outings to the park, boat-trips, New Year’s Eve festivities, Carnival celebrations and also moments of prayer, as for example during the Ramadam for our Muslim friends. After the appeal by Pope Francis on the World Day of the Poor: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him”, we wanted to answer his invitation to all Christians to hear this cry and not let it be in vain. So we thought of organizing a “Friendship Festival”, a lunch for those in need: refugees, migrants, unemployed and poor people of our city. We also managed to involve our Focolare community, and asked members to help with food and with other things needed for preparing the hall. We involved even the friends we invited, asking them to contribute towards our feast – if it were possible – with some typical food of their country of origin. About eighty people participated; they came from Cameroon, Nigeria, Eygpt, Tunisia, Russia, Pakistan, Kurdistan, Kosovo. To our great surprise, we are realizing that Caritas is starting to consider us as a point of reference, a “project” that goes well beyond welfare work. We are being called to share in their programmes and projects and sometimes even to seek solutions. It seems that they are pleased with the way we welcome and support those in need, while we aim at building relationships of reciprocity. In the midst of this chaos, where, maybe, not everyone looks at the welcome given to the least from the same valuable point of view, we feel that we cannot stop, but we must continue to give hope.
Paola Torelli Mosca On behalf of the Trieste welcome and support group to migrants
Fonte: www.focolaritalia.it
Jan 24, 2019 | Non categorizzato
The trip was promoted by the Patriarch Athenagoras-Chiara Lubich International Ecumenical Chair, which was established after Patriarch Bartholomew received an honorary doctorate in 2015. “Continue on the path you’ve taken on the way of dialogue, because it is reconciliation, true encounter, the ability to understand, divine philanthropy, welcoming others who are different, transfiguring the world, and welcoming God into human history. Bring this message to all those at all levels who participate in the work of your institute, with a fraternal embrace to Focolare Movement President Maria Voce, and all our brothers and sisters in the movement. The ecumenical patriarchate is your home as well, this city of Constantine is your city as well, because you are not foreigners, but friends.” This was the final greeting that Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I gave to 30 professors and students of the Sophia University Institute (Loppiano), who are from a number of countries. Together with the institute’s director, Mons. Piero Coda, they had traveled to the patriarch’s residence at Phanar (Istanbul, Turkey). The visit of the Sophia delegation to the ecumenical patriarchate was from January 8–12. It was promoted by the Patriarch Athenagoras-Chiara Lubich International Ecumenical Chair, which had been established after Patriarch Bartholomew received an honorary doctorate on October 26, 2015. It was established “to remember and restart the prophetic spirit that animated the extraordinary harmony of heart and mind between Patriarch Athenagoras I and Chiara Lubich, just before the Second Vatican Council and the historical meeting between the patriarch and Pope Paul VI.” The academic trip included, among other things, together with the audience with the patriarch, a meeting with Metropolitan Gennadios Zervos, who was in Istabul during that time for the Holy Synod. The group also met with Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Bursa on January 10, at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Halki, Turkey. This meeting opened up productive possibilities of cooperation between the seminary and Sophia University Institute, including a summer school that will probably be held in late spring 2020. The visit was particularly significant in this fragile, tense moment that the Orthodox world is going through today. It is aiming once again to call for a commitment to tenaciously pursue a path of mutual understanding, and a reciprocal exchange of gifts to promote fraternity and communion.
Jan 22, 2019 | Non categorizzato
The meeting entitled “Co –governance – mutual responsibility in cities today” has ended with a written proposal to citizens and public administrators to both engage in and to create networks drawing together citizens, social partners and cities. “Politics is the love of loves that brings together the richness of people and groups in the unity of a shared project, allowing everyone to fulfil their vocation freely”(1). These challenging words of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare, resounded at the end of the “Co-Governance, co-responsibility in the cities today”, conference dedicated to participatory governance of cities promoted by the New Humanity Movement, the Movement for Politics and Policy for Unity and the Association of Cities for Fraternity, all outworkings of the social and political engagement of the Focolare. It was the first event of its kind that in two years time will be replicated in Brazil. Over 400 public administrators, politicians, business people, academics and citizens from 33 countries participated in the event. The focus of the event was participation, presented in the many forms it can take and illustrated through stories and good practice shared by over 60 experts in the fields of town planning, communications, services, economics, politics and the environment. “We are convinced that participation is a strategic choice, the best way to live well within cities – explained Lucia Fronza Crepaz, a former member of the Italian parliament and educator at the “School for Social Engagement” in Trent and member of the central committee of the event. “Participation is not seen as replacing procedures enabling representation, but is chosen as an effective way of addressing complex problems and thus strengthening the concept of democratic delegation”. The outcome of the event was the approval and signing of the “Pact for a new Governance” with which the participants committed themselves to engaging the interest of their own communities and public administrations. The 400 signatories to the pact committed themselves to form three networks to bring diversity together and respond to the complexity of reality. They are networks of citizens: “People who live in the city while having different roles and tasks, but inspired by the same sense of responsibility”; networks of people working in particular sectors, forming groups in professional and economic spheres, the voluntary sector, faith communities, academia and universities, communications, etc.”; networks among cities themselves: “… that aim to engage citizens actively and collaboratively first by creating platforms that are accessible to all and easy to use. They will cooperate by overcoming particular interests and prejudices that undermine trust, which is an indispensable foundation for building a network.
Stefania Tanesini
1) Info and texts of the conference: www.co-governance.org
Jan 11, 2019 | Non categorizzato
Archbishop Armando Bortolaso died on January 8, after almost 70 years in “his” beloved land, the Middle East. For 10 years he was Apostolic Vicar in Syria. How can someone manage to live for almost 70 years in such a long-suffering land? “For someone in religious life, it’s not a question of how long, but of mission. You need to be there where people most need to be loved.” That was how Archbishop Armando Bortolaso described his vocation in 2013 – explaining the deepest meaning of his choices as a person, priest and bishop. He left us on January 8 at the age of 91, at the El Houssein house of the Salesians in Beirut, after having lived almost 70 years in “his” land, the Middle East. Born in the Veneto region in northeast Italy in 1926, he went to Jerusalem in 1948. He had joined the Salesians and celebrated his first mass in 1953 in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, before taking on various roles in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. “A man of dialogue,” “a front-line bishop,” “builder of unity”. Those remembering him describe him in a number of ways that offer profound insights into this humble, open man. He had an unshakable faith in unity, which he lived and preached as the one destiny of all peoples, especially his beloved Syrians. He lived with them for 22 years, 10 of which were as Apostolic Vicar. “Syria is my second homeland,” he affirmed in an interview. “To know that ‘my’ people are wracked by suffering; to see Aleppo, a blessed city, reduced to ruins, and the churches destroyed, these cherished ancient Christian churches, makes my heart ache. This is also because of the widespread indifference to this tragedy as it is happening.” Due to his vast knowledge of the Middle East, Archbishop Bortolaso was able to analyse the causes of conflicts clearly and soberly while identifying ways toward solutions. He also had an enlightened and prophetic approach, the result of his firm faith in the love of God, who never forsakes his children even in the most desperate of circumstances. Following the war in 2006, he wrote from Lebanon to Fr. Arrigo, a priest in Vicenza. “Amid the many disasters in this war, we have witnessed something wonderful and new. Many Muslims are searching for and finding refuge with Christians who, setting aside the painful scars of the civil war took in the refugees and befriended them. This living together as brothers and sisters is something very new and would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. For now it is just a small seed, yet tomorrow it could become a giant cedar, extending its branches throughout this land famous for its cedars.” Armando Bortolaso learned of the Focolare spirituality in Belgium at the end of the 1960s. You could say that unity and dialogue became his life’s compass. For many years he was committed to the life of fellowship among the bishop friends of the Focolare, to the point that a group of bishops in the Middle East grew up around him in Lebanon, also wanting to go deeper into the spirituality of unity. In another interview about the complex situation of the war in Syria, he said, “I always thought that those who direct their lives towards unity are cantered on the heart of Jesus. So I said to myself, ‘you are not the only the Bishop of the Latins, but the bishop of Jesus, and Jesus has 22 million people here in Syria.’ I have tried to live in unity always and with everyone – my priests, the religious, the faithful, with the bishops and with Christians of the Orthodox and Protestant Churches, and with Muslims.”
Stefania Tanesini
