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Dec 3, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
A soccer tournament where the winner is not one team but two and from different parts of the planet sometimes very far from each other? Where Art Play is practiced and awarded? Where the sponsors are willing to donate an amount for every goal as a contribution to finance scholarships for teens from disadvantaged countries? Many initiatives and projects of solidarity? A “third playing time”…?
«This and many other things were part of the Super Soccer World 2014 – Federico Rovea, one of the organizers of the event shared with us. This sporting event was promoted by the “Teens for Unity” of the Focolare Movment and involved 56 soccer teams from various cities in the world».
Two teams win. Characteristic of the tournament is that the winners are the two teams of the twinned cities, which symbolically play together at a distance, giving the competition a planetary dimension.
Among the 14 twinnings: the teens of Bečej, a small city of Serbia, twinned with Tlencem in Algeria; those of Loppiano (Italy) with the teens of Florianópolis in Brazil, the Italian city of Rieti played simultaneously with Buenos Aires (Argentina).
This last twinning, just like all the others, was not just “ideal”. In fact during the tournament it was possible to have a telephone link-up with Argentina to share with the participating South Americans the same spirit of friendship and fraternity. The teens of Rieti shared – aside from the experience of the day – that also some projects of solidarity were born thanks to Super Soccer. And this was: the organization of a sports activity for disabled teens and fund-raising for those in need, through the sale of sweets. The parents present were also very much involved and enthusiastic about the initiative.
Art Play. On the sports fields, the teens put into practice – aside from their passion for the sport – also the spirit of Art Play. This meant four fundamental rules:
• Respect for the others
• Cooperation
• Responsibility
• Relationship
True cornerstones of the tournament that contributed to the points of the teams just as much as the goals scored. The referees watched out, therefore, not only for the respect of the rules of the game but also for the spirit which animated the players, giving a positive point to whoever distinguished himself in living it. «The teens were attentive to these rules just as much as they were to scoring goals. According to me, this rule must be inserted among the rules of the World Cup tournaments », affirmed one of the gymnastics professors involved in the organization of the event.
Scholarships. Linked to the tournament was also the project “Schoolmates”, with the proposal of finding a sponsor which, in every city, would be willing to donate an amount for every goal scored, as a financial contribution for the scholarships for teens coming from disadvantaged countries. The 367 goals scored gained € 2,370, for a total of 22 scholarships.
The “third playing time”. A moment of celebration shared with the participants to the sporting event and with the palyers, which contributed to bringing the spirit of the sports competition also outsied the playing field.
Super Soccer World, more of a celebration rather than a tournament, characterized by its being worldwide and by sharing, by solidarity and the respect for the other, that the teens had the possibility of experiencing within, and above all, outside of the soccer playing field. We’ll see each other again next year!
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Dec 2, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“It is true that the Holy Spirit brings forth different charisms in the Church, which at first glance, may seem to create disorder. Under his guidance, however, they constitute an immense richness, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of unity, which is not the same thing as uniformity. Only the Holy Spirit is able to kindle diversity, multiplicity and, at the same time, bring about unity.” These words that Pope Francis spoke at the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit of Istanbul in front of thousands of the faithful from diverse Rites of the Roman Catholic Church, produced great joy in all of us. Even more, they confirmed our conviction that the presence of the Focolare Movement in this land, although a small presence, has every reason to continue the journey begun many years ago when, in 1967, the focolare first came to Istanbul at the explicit request of Patriarch Athenagoras. But how did we spend these days? With a lot of joy and emotion! We were quite involved in the preparations both in the Catholic Church and, at the request of the Orthodox Patriarchate, collaborating with the press. Thanks to the close relationship we have with Patriarch Bartholomew, we were able to personally express to him our desire to accompany him with our prayers. And we were direct witnesses of his growing joy, his love for Pope Francis and his passion for unity! Two focolarine were in charge of the Holy Father’s lodgings and attended his private Mass on Sunday morning. Along with the welcome from the Movement in Turkey, we also presented the Pope with greeting cards and gifts from some of our Muslim friends. Then we attended Mass at the Cathedral (where a focolarino priest concelebrated) and Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning at the Fanar. The message of brotherhood and unity at all levels which Pope Francis leaves to Turkey, hits upon an underlying question of this land as the Gateway between East and West, and of the composition of its population. Undoubtedly, however, his message is primarily an ecumenical one, as he demonstrated at the ecumenical prayer service in the Patriarchal Church of St George where he asked the Patriarch and the whole Church of Constantinople to “bless me and the Church of Rome.” And it is precisely within the context of this ecumenical scenario between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of recent years, at times marked by weariness and apparent immobility, that the Focolare Movement finds a place in these lands. 
We should say that we are the beneficiaries of a privileged relationship with the Patriarch and with many Metropolitans, which we inherit from what was sown by Chiara Lubich during her visits to Istanbul. However, our relationships of simple and sincere communion are not limited to the hierarchy, but interweave with many sisters and brothers of the Orthodox Church. In light of what has taken place during these days it seems that an unequivocal sign has been given by the two religious leaders: to push forward on the path towards unity and not to succumb to the effort it will take, and to accept the challenges in order to together offer answers and solutions that are required today. The Pope and the Patriarch have proven that they are beyond, although realistically. This was demonstrated in all they did and said, beginning with their joint declaration. During the return flight Pope Francis strongly reiterated that in this journey towards unity, only what “is of the Holy Spirit is correct, because He is [a] surprise; He is creative.” this mandate is both joyous and liberating, indicating a path that is clear: to be open, attentive to the signs that the Spirit will place within our reach; to use imagination, personal and group strengths; to take advantage of every opportunity that is offered in the complex and at times difficult context in which we live, so that He can act. Source: Focolare Turkey
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Nov 29, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
We recall a thought from Chiara Lubich about Europe, part of her address to the first “Together for Europe” meeting in May 2004. Ten thousand people gathered in Stuttgart, Germany and more than 100,000 were linked up for simultaneous events in various European capitals. The gathering was supported by over 150 movements and ecclesial communities from various churches, from all over the continent. 
«Universal brotherhood was also the project of people who were not motivated by religious motives, but simply by the desire to benefit humanity. The French Revolution’s motto: “liberty, equality, fraternity”, summarizes the great political project of modernity, a project which, in part, has been disregarded. While numerous countries have built democratic systems of government and have succeeded in achieving some degree of liberty and equality, the same cannot be said of fraternity which has been proclaimed more than it has been lived. But the one who brought fraternity as the essential gift to humanity was above all Jesus. In revealing the fatherhood of God, He broke down the walls which separate those who are “the same” from those who are “different”, friends from enemies. He loosened all people from the bonds that imprison them, from all forms of slavery and subordination, from every unjust relationship, thus carrying out an authentic existential, cultural and political revolution. (…) The instrument that Jesus offered to us in order to accomplish this universal fraternity was love, a great love, a new love, different from the one we usually know. In fact, He transplanted the way of loving of heaven here on earth. This love requires first of all that we love everyone, therefore, not only relatives and friends. It asks that we love the pleasant and the unpleasant, our fellow-countryman and the stranger, the European and the immigrant, those of our Church and of another, of our religion and of another. Today it asks the countries of Western Europe to love those of Central and Eastern Europe – and vice versa – and it asks everyone to be open to those of other continents. In the vision of its founders, in fact, Europe is a family of sister nations, not closed in itself, but open to a universal mission: Europe wants its unity to contribute, then, to the unity of the human family. This love asks that we love our enemies as well and that we forgive them if they have offended us. After the wars which stained our continent with blood, many Europeans were exemplary in loving their enemies and promoting reconciliation. Therefore, the love I am speaking of makes no distinctions and takes into consideration all those we meet in any moment, directly or indirectly: those who are next to us physically, but also those about whom we or others are speaking; those who will receive the work we do day by day, those we come to know about through the newspapers or television…. Because this is the way God our Father loves, making the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causing the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike (cf Mt 5:45). (…) Furthermore, the love that Jesus brought is not an idealistic, sentimental love, made up of words. It is a concrete love. It needs to be expressed with deeds. And this is possible if we make ourselves all things to all people: sick with those who are sick; joyful with those who are joyful; worried, insecure, hungry, poor with others, feeling in ourselves what they feel and acting accordingly».
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Nov 27, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Every year in September in the Citadel Lia, in Argentina, the YouthFest is held; this time it was entitled: “Let’s live this madness” which was expressed through a show wherein, in the midst of the celebration of Carnival, it showed how many people, by wearing masks, lose their identity, and become part of an unruly and faceless crowd.
The performance showed, through workshops, theatre, experiences, music and choreographies, the importance of the choice of a lifestyle that goes against the current, based on evangelical love.
The day was so beautiful and involving that it impressed and took in the 120 participants from Mendoza, a city at the foot of the Argentinian Andes, who left the Citadel Lia with the desire in ther heart to repeat the YouthFest in their city.
So as to transform this dream into reality they needed to work a lot: just imagine that they had to bring the almost 100 youth actors who formed part of the show in the Citadel Lia to Mendoza, a trip of more than 900 kilometers, and also to house them for three days.
The first show took place on November 10, in front of 500 people, among which were various class sections of a school, but also youth from the peripheries of the city. «We see many problems in our world – began the young actors on the stage – and some expect the others to find the solutions. Here, we are 90 youth from 20 Countries who have decided not to wait any longer. We want to be the protagonists of this change, and we have discovered the recipe: to work in building the unity of the human family».
The next day, the second performance was held, in a Convention Center 40 km. from Mendoza. Here too the tickets were all sold out, with 500 fully occupied seats and some people standing and also some teens who came precisely for this event from a school that is 250 km. away.
The young people who watched the show were positively surprised in seeing about a hundred young people their age coming from 20 different nations who, with great artistic talent, presented their way of life which was totally different from that imposed by society today.
In both shows the proposal of a lifestyle based on love that becomes concrete service towards the others, was welcomed and everyone left withtheir heart full of joy.
But also for the “actors” themselves, the teens that spend a period of their life in the Citadel Lia, this tour was important because it showed that it’s possible to live the “madness of love” if each one does his or her own part, without looking at what has been done or what is yet to come, but only aiming at the present, using it well.
One among the many messages received through WhatsApp: «EVERYTHING WAS VERY BEAUTIFUL! It was truly a moment to live the title of the day: “Let’s live this madness”, because these 3 days were unforgettable. Even my friends who came were enthusiastic and very much moved! It was special for me in that I was able to get to know the young people who came from Citadel Lia. Let’s continue to live this madness together!».
Read also: Argentina, a thousand youth for a folly
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Nov 23, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
«Christopher Dawson, in The Making of Europe, scrive: “The influence of Christianity on the formation of the European Unity is a striking example of the way in which the course of historical develompment is modified and determined by new spiritual influences. […] Thus in the case of the ancient world we can see that the artificial material civilisation of the Roman Empire stood in need of some religious inspiration of a more profound kind than was contained in the official cults.” That need was met by Christianity.
It could be said that the religious divisions sanctioned by the cuius regio eius religio norm, were devised to permit political divisions, national isolation and, as a corollary, wars. Within the unity of religion wars and battles were considered fratricidal and there was an effort to avoid them. Then, when Christianity was divided, contflicts became signs of national glory. Yet, since the Christian conscience of Europe never died, to the spirits of many people those wars appeared as nothing more than infighting, and that the conscience of the Europen community never wavered.
A common beauraucracy is not enough.
The Russian, Soloviov, once wrote that just as the Church had at one time unified Europe, first with the French and then the Saxons, now it would reuinte it with social justice, bypassing the divisions of race, caste and class; that is, by eliminating the major cause of conflicts.
By social justice which according to the Christian meaning is contained in that communion of spiritual and material goods that sees all people as children of the same Father, equal to one another, and this is the view the Church awakens in view of peace in wellbing and in freedom. Hoping to obtain this rational order only with class war would be equivalent to repeating the mistake of Germanic and Slavic militarism. . . that claimed to unite Europe by the sole use of arms. .Christianity represents a unification in freedom and in peace with the elimination of wars and motives for friction. The contribution of religion in this sense is not directed towards the structuring of institutions, as it is to the formation of spirits.
In religion today we see two unifying thrusts in motion: 1) the improving sense of the Mystical Body; 2) the rebirth of ecumenism by which the unity of the Church triggers the unity of the peoples. Two thrusts which, as they correct the direction of the currents and eliminate the passions from whence the vivisection of Europe happened, they also arouse spiritual energies capable of giving a soul to this political union; of infusing a supernatural inspiration into this human project; of popularising the application of unity. If this were left only to economic, political and military factors it would fail.
It is not enough to make Europe a common army or a common beuraucracy. It is not by chance that men of politics tend to incorporate ideologies; that is, giving the body a soul. Europe already has its soul: Christianity, its substance and its genesis.
Igino Giordani
(Rome: Città Nuova no. 5, 1972), p.23.
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Nov 21, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“I’ll never forget his smile when he would greet me as he returned home tired from work. . . Even though he would never get more than only a few hours of sleep, he never missed the early morning Mass. . . He never brought political problems into our focolare, although there were times when he would ask for our opinions. Actually, he had to go against the current quite often, but I never saw in him any hatred towards his opponents.” As he went off to work each morning, he would tell us goodbye saying: ‘Always, immediately, with joy!'” It was a way of telling us he was prepared to accept any situation, even the difficult ones that the day would be holding in store for him. This attitude was probably the secret behind his life, which made dialogue possible with everyone, often in very difficult situations.” This is how the two focolarini who lived in the same focolare as Josef Lux remember him.
Born on February 1, 1956, in the late 1970s he became acquainted with the spirituality of Chiara Lubich, in Cocen, Eastern Bohemia where he worked as a zoo technician in an agricultural cooperative. In 1986 he married Vera and felt the call to follow Jesus in the focolare. Chiara assigned him a sentence from the Gospel that gave direction to his life: “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Mt 22: 21).
Josef Lux with his wife Vera
The events of November 1989, followed by the fall of Communism, changed his life. Right from the start of the political changes he was among the main organisers of the demonstrations in the square, and in 1990 he was elected to the National Parliament for the People’s Party. His decision to enter into politics was the result of deep reflection. He was strongly convinced that politics could be purified by people who were ready to make the personal sacrifice. He enthroned a large portrait of Jesus on the Cross, on the wall of his study. He wanted to have Him always in front of him, especially during the intense negotiations, and in the demanding work.
In September 1990, after a brilliant speech in front of the People’s Party convention, he was elected president. He worked for the transformation of this political group into a modern party with a Christian orientation.
In 1992 he was re-elected to Parliament and became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Government until 1998. For many people he was a sign of contradiction: esteemed by the people who shared his choices and rejected by political opponents.
Vera and his six children were of great support to him.
Josepf Lex with Vaclav Havel
In 1998 he was informed that he had a serious illness: leukaemia. That news gave rise to a chain of support: many Czech citizens as well as many others, offered bone marrow transplants. Although it was proving difficult to find the right fit, Josef was still pleased because that allowed the data base of possible donors to expand. Finally, an anonymous donor was found in Italy and the decision was made to have the surgery in Seattle, USA. The surgery went well, but during his recovery he developed an infection that worsened.
His children arrived in Seattle, accompanied by a focolarino priest who celebrated Mass in his hospital room. Josef continued to repeat that he offered his pain for the spreading of God’s Kingdom and for young people. Chiara Lubich followed him closely, assuring him of her daily prayers.
Vera and the children held hands as they sang Josef’s favourite psalm: “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust” (Ps 91:2). Well aware of the gravity of his condition, he was serene and continued to ask for prayers. Then he said some words that have become his testament: “Smile, don’t cry.”
In announcing his death on November 21, 1999, Chiara asked that Josef Lux be the protector of the Movement for Unity in Politics along with Igino Giordani.
His first little “miracle” following his death was a day of unity for the whole nation, a unity never seen since before the Velvet Revolution: on the radio, in newspapers, on television – everyone including his political opponents openly expressed their esteem for him and for the values he defended and spread during his time in public office. Many said they found in him not only a “statesman” but also a Christian who drew from his faith in God the strength and the courage to work in favour of his country.
