Jul 9, 2019 | Non categorizzato
For the first time the historical meeting of the Focolare is organized on a continental level and Europe will be the forerunner. From 14 July to August 11, 3,000 people are expected in the Italian Dolomites. For the first time in 70 years, the Focolare organize their historical gathering, the “Mariapolis” (city of Mary), for an entire continent, Europe. The European Mariapolis with the title and motto “Aim high” will take place from July 14 to August 11, 2019 in Fiera di Primiero, in the Italian Dolomites, just where this experience began 70 years ago, inspired by the charism of unity. According to organisers, the event is arousing much interest. In just a few weeks, early bookings have far exceeded available accom modation. As of 31 January, the closing date for pre-registration, almost 3,000 people had registered. There will be about 600 people per week. The European Mariapolis comes against the background of an increasingly fragmented continent of Europe. “Our dream is to have an event which underlines the beauty of the European continent in all its diversity, where the richness of every culture emerges in the splendid tapestry that is Europe,” said Peter Forst from Focolare. “We believe that through sharing our stories, our cultures and our histories – getting to know each other – we can lay the foundation for a more united Europe.” A Mariapolis is a gathering where the citizens of a temporary ‘town’ try to build a new type of human society based on the relationships in a family – fraternity and mutual respect, as they holiday together. Participants will be accommodated in hotels, a religious institute, houses and self-catering apartments in the Fiera di Primiero region. A team made up of people from a number of European countries has prepared the programme for the four week-long Mariapolis events, which will include a variety of key inputs, moments of cultural exchange, workshops and round table discussions. “We hope that there will be something for everyone! And of course, it will also be a holiday – participants will have many opportunities for walking, hiking and other cultural events,” commented Ana Siewniak from the UK, a member of the group preparing the programme. She told CatholicIreland.net that one of the aims of the European Mariapolis was to have loads of “spaces in which to exchange the richness of our cultures and our experiences”, for example learning each other’s national songs or dances. In a recent interview, Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, described her own first experience of the last Mariapolis at Primiero 70 years ago in 1959. “I remember it well – we slept in school halls – all the mattresses on the floor. There was a chair between each bed and that was the extent of the furniture for the participants. There were no wardrobes, no mirrors for doing your hair. Yet none of this took from the experience of the life of the Mariapolis.” Although the Mariapolis was materially poor, she continued, it was “very rich in spiritual grace – the divine, which was built up and shone out among the people of the Mariapolis, involving all the participants”. Among the 12,000 people who passed through the final Mariapolis at Fiera di Primiero in 1959 were people from all walks of life, she explained, and from many countries. “Poor and rich people came” through a large communion of goods among everyone. “It was truly the coming together of a town rich in these relationships of mutual love. People were all equal in a love that gave everyone the same divine life and full joy.”
Susan Gately
Fonte: Catholicireland.net Per informazioni: mariapolieuropea.org
Jul 4, 2019 | Non categorizzato
Emotions, sexuality and relationships are at the heart of this course for teens and families. This year it will extend to smaller children as well. We discuss it with Barbara and Paolo Rovea. Let’s be honest: building relationships that can really be called “true” has never been easy, especially not these days, when most of our relationships are filtered through technology beginning at the earliest ages. Children and teens learn much from their smartphone screens, while today’s parents are more or less left floundering and, with various levels of awareness, continually searching for the key to understand and educate their children about their emotions and sexuality. It is an immense challenge when faced alone, although it does become possible through the synergy of family, youth facilitators and professionals. The Up2Me Project (with the tagline “It depends on me”) began by reorganising the educational pact entirely. It started by offering teens, tweens and their families a personal, shared space that was also qualified to recognise and deal with emotions. This was in order to bring about positive relationships at home, school and in groups, and ultimately to offer tools to build purpose over a lifetime. Begun within the Focolare’s education environment, the project grew and is spreading to a number of countries. We talk to Barbara and Paolo Rovea, a physiotherapist and doctor couple in Italy who are on Up2Me’s expert panel and members of the New Families International Centre. 
Up2Me began in 2016 with two pilot courses in Italy and a few trials in various countries. Where did the idea come from? The project aims at holistic training, including emotions and sexuality. This is in order to shape the basic choices in life – which our children need to deal with and for which they are often not adequately prepared for with the right tools. Many parents even do not feel sufficiently prepared for the role of educator, and the information teens get at school or through the media in many cases does not shape them to place value on people, nor educate them to take responsibility for their choices and behaviours. At the core of the project is the idea to contribute to create a “person-relationship”. What’s that about? To relate to others is the essence of being human, an ontological foundation to promote complete development, which sees children and teens, according to their age, play a lead role in making their decisions, aware and able to experience positive relationships, all for the harmonious development of their physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, historical and spiritual sides. In order to become an Up2Me tutor and start teaching a course, you need to attend an international school. When are the next ones scheduled? For 2019 there are three new courses planned. One will be launched in the Philippines and is especially for Asia and Australia. Another in Argentina will be for participants from the Americas. Finally, one in Prague is aimed at Europe. There will also be a specific course in Prague for facilitators of the Up2Me course for young children. Up2Me has three courses for tweens and teens (ages 9-11, 12-14, 15-17) and one for children. What methodology is being used? Employing inductive reasoning, under the guide of a tutor, this method helps young people develop their capacity to gain a conscience autonomously. Through video, role playing and group activities, teens and tweens discover fundamental principles so they can shape their personal consciences. Up2Me also offers their parents, if they wish, a parallel course with educational topics that correlate to those taken on by the teens. Alongside a married couple, they exchange experiences of life and find that education is actually “mission possible”. Finally, in the course for younger children, their parents are actively involved alongside facilitators and experts. Together with their children, through games, they open up to specific subjects. All of this is to build up people who are able to recognise emotions within themselves and others and learn how to manage them, as well as take on subjects such our bodies, living and even dying.
Stefania Tanesini
Download the Up2Me flyer in English here.
Jul 2, 2019 | Non categorizzato
Interview with Guilherme Baboni, Focolare representative at the recent International Youth Forum of the Catholic Church “We want to bring the light of the Gospel to all, to be witnesses of Jesus’ love, going beyond our own environments to reach those furthest away”. With these words, Guilherme Baboni, a 26-year-old from Brazil, describes his enthusiasm for the 11th International Youth Forum hosted by the Catholic Church’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, 19-22 June in Ciampino, near Rome. Effectively a continuation of last October’s Synod of Bishops on the Youth in the Church, it was a meeting of 250 18-to-29 year olds, representing 109 different countries and 37 ecclesial communities and movements. They focused on the Pope’s recent “Apostolic Exhortation” for all youth, the document Christus Vivit. Guilherme, representing the Focolare at the forum, reflected, “The image of the Church is often projected as an old, dying institution, out of touch with real life. However, at the Forum we experienced a living, creative, universal Church, formed of many youth people who’ve encountered Jesus in their lives. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we young people want to bring the light of the Gospel to others, whatever their age. We see a Church with many different forces within it, working to achieve this aim”.
In the center Guilherme Baboni
Claudia Di Lorenzi
Jun 30, 2019 | Non categorizzato
01/07/2019 Broken families, divorced couples, people in subsequent relationships, or living together – what’s the best attitude to have towards these situations? New Families is committed to married couples and families in crisis. “Family is an exchange of love – sharing, support, reciprocity. It’s caring for children and a privileged place to grow, even for parents. Family means continually starting over.” That’s how Massimo and Lucia Massimino describe it. They’re in their forties, have been married for 17 years and have three children. They live in Collegno, near Turin, and through Focolare are involved in the New Families Movement, which offers a space for couples to upskill and dialogue. They answered some of our questions. 
Today people seem to only talk about the sacrifices that building a family takes. What’s missing is anything said about the beauty of the family. Let’s start with that. Lucia: The beauty of the family is the feeling that you are taking care of someone and that someone is caring for you. It is that someone is thinking of you, fond of you, and that you are part of a community. Massimo: It is also sharing joys and sorrows, even with our children, so that they can see beyond the words you say. It is great when your life moves forward in your children. Today many families are in crisis, torn or divided. In New Families you take in the pain of many couples – which way forward do you suggest? Lucia: Certain crises call for us to support them through difficult moments. Couples ask to be able to confide in us – as friends who can understand them because they have gone through something similar. These are only some of life’s transitions. When faced with more serious crises, however, we try to walk with the couples towards choices that include professional help, motivated by important values. Massimo: As a movement we emphasise training a lot. Lucia and I work with young couples and organise meetings where we invite educators and psychologists, with the goal of providing solutions, such as how to manage conflict. These are meetings that are open to all couples, whether engaged, married, living together or separated. The training is inspired by Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity, which was born in the womb of the Catholic Church, but it is open to people of other faiths or those who have no ties to religion. 
Broken families, divorced couples, those in a subsequent relationship, or living together. What’s the best attitude to have towards these situations? Lucia: In the Focolare Movement we have them truly at heart. New Families tries to get to know them, investing in personal relationships. This is the only thing that can really help, and it allows us to understand the reasons for the breakup and the pain. The days we have dedicated to families are privileged spaces where there is an atmosphere so that advice can be given and there can be the opportunity to start again after a relationship breakdown. When you talk about family you talk about love. Do you always end up referring to God in your reflections? Massimo: We feel that marriage brings the presence of God in the family, and because of this presence the family has love circulating through it. As Chiara Lubich says, it recalls the love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We feel that this presence sustains us, even through moments you wouldn’t want to go through. It is an experience that cannot be taught; you just have to do it, and we openly say this to couples who are not married or believe. Many ask themselves, “Can love end?” Is there a recipe so that “forever” can truly last forever? Lucia and Massimo: Falling in love does indeed end, but the key is to begin again, and to know how to forgive. What nourishes a couple is being able to share the path that marriage brings with other couples, sharing important values, and common projects. It is also important to remember to be a husband and wife in love, not just “Mum” and “Dad”.
Claudia Di Lorenzi
Jun 28, 2019 | Non categorizzato
29/06/2019 Sixty people from different Churches came together to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Switzerland. A journey through history and remembrance, through knowledge and the dialogue of life to understand the roots of the Reformed Church and the challenges it faces today. “This weekend I experienced how a ‘life of fullness’ really is possible in the Reformed Church and the Catholic Church through Jesus present in the midst of those who love one another. I want to contribute in a completely new and more conscious way to building bridges between the two confessions. This is how one of the participants summed up the three days dedicated to “Reformation Zurich” promoted by the Focolare Movement in the Swiss city to understand what caused the Reformation in this city. Five hundred years ago in January, Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), who at that time was still a Catholic priest, started preaching in the pulpit of the Grossmünster interpreting the Gospel of Matthew. This is what many consider to be the starting point of the Reformation in Zurich. The aim of these three days was to bring people of different denominations together and introduce them to the history and particular richness of the Reformed Church. To love “one’s neighbour’s Church as one’s own” (Chiara Lubich), you first need to get to know it. Sixty people came to the weekend from Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovakia and various parts of Switzerland. The simplicity of the Reformed Church in Baar, all centred on the Bible, the baptismal font and the pulpit formed the setting for the first of the weekend’s events. Dialogue with the local pastor enabled the participants to have a deeper understanding of reformed spirituality. He did not hide the difficulties that his Church was experiencing but he shared his passion for seeking guidance and support from the Word of God alone, not from an institution. Successive events took place in Zurich. At the Theological Seminary, Dr. Gergely Csukás, Senior Assistant at the Institute of Swiss Reformation History, described the social, political, and religious situation in Zurich during the Middle Ages, highlighting Zwingli’s aspirations as a reformer, and emphasizing its relevance. “Reformed Christians are closer to me than ever before”, said one of the pariticipants. “Through the history and everything that has been communicated to us, the beauty, and also the suffering caused by what happened, have made a deep impression on me. It is about the life of Christians together. I want to start again and go ahead”. Another said: “Never before have I received such a clear explanation and understanding of Zwingli’s aspirations which are still relevant today. I have learned to appreciate him, his first companions and the reformers who offered their lives for the Gospel. Despite the unfavourable weather forecast, the participants still managed to walk through the places where Zurich’s Reformer worked – from the Grossmünster to the Wasserkirche, from the Lindenhof to the plaque marking the place where the first Anabaptists were drowned in the Limmat River. Pastor Peter Dettwiler spoke specifically about the work of reconciliation with the Anabaptists and the Amish in the United States, while Pasteur Catherine McMillan presented a picture of the Reformed Church in the world today. At the end of the visit, prayers were offered up in the crypt of the Grossmünster. “When I walked into the stark church in Baar on that first evening I was shocked” – said one of the participants – “That space did not seem to radiate anything solemn or sacred to me. Then, in the dark crypt of Grossmünster where we had gathered for prayer as sisters and brothers in Christ, it was as if an interior light suddenly illuminated the grey, secular walls. I felt deep joy and reverence.” On the last day, writings from St. Nicholas of Flue, patron saint of Switzerland, and Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare, were read out which formed the spiritual basis for the celebration of Holy Communion. “Being the one body of Christ in diversity” – as one of those present commented – “showed us what the visible unity of the Church looks like. It was an encounter with Christ! I hope that with life and theological dialogue coexisting we will continue to grow closer to one another”.
Stefania Tanesini
