From Rwanda to the Synod on the Family
Dieudonné & Emerthe Gatsinga from Rwanda
Synod: meeting of the Focolare Movement with Synod Bishops
Marriage preparation, support for women with unwanted pregnancies, willingness to leave everything behind in order to take the Gospel to faraway lands: “Real life” emerged at the seat of the Pontifical Council for the Family on October 12, 2014 in Rome during a meeting of Synod Bishops and auditors with a group of families from the Focolare Movement. They were welcomed by Focolare president and co-president, Maria Voce and Jesús Morán. Among those who attended were Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, Archbishop of Seoul, and the presidents of the Bishops Conferences of the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uruguay. “How often do we parents make mistakes with our children? At times we’re too permissive, at times possessive, weak or inflexible when there’s no need to be. This is where the ‘begin again’ rule must apply, always being willing to recognise our mistakes and ask forgiveness. And when it’s a son or daughter who has erred, invite them to see their mistake, but at the same time demonstrate your trust.” Often wounded internally by betrayals and guilty silences, the family remains an irreplaceable setting where life is generated and transmitted. Anna Friso (New Families) went on to say that anyone who works alongside families today has decided to live life on the “peripheries” because, “as Pope Francis says, a person is not a Christian in order to stay in the camp but to go into the peripheries of the world.” “And in the peripheries,” Friso continued, “a Christian cannot ask whether people are married in the Church, whether they live together or are separated. We welcome all just as they are. We love them, listen to them deeply and try to help them with their needs if we can. And, at the right moment, to each and every person, no matter the situation or background, we extend the same message: God loves you immensely. No human being is excluded from God’s love.” 
The bishops also listened to the story of Tiziana G. whose 13-year marriage had been made up of lies, arguments, pseudo-explanations and new disappointments. Then she met an old school friend and a new family life began. “I could have gone to a church where no one knew me, and receive Holy Communion,” she recounted, “but out of obedience I never did so.” Tiziana did not hide from the bishops the strong sense of “self-exclusion” she felt, “the great spiritual loneliness” that she experienced and the “huge discomfort while watching everyone else approach the altar while I remained in the pew. I felt abandoned, rejected, culpable.” Then Paolo R. spoke who, although alone, remained in his marriage. It was a painful story that began with the abandonment by his wife, going through the separation and lawyers, until he found himself in an “interior desert.” But he decided to “wait” because “that,” he said, “is what Christian marriage is: a sealed box. You put your life in God’s hands, through the sacrament, through the person you marry, the person you’re in love with . . . but then love needs to be constructed, even amidst pain, one day after the other.”
Dieudonne and Emerthe Gatsinga from Rwanda
Teresa of Avila and the Charism of Unity
“In explaining the meaning of the spirituality of unity to the Bishops of the Focolari Movement during their meeting on 10 February 1984, Chiara Lubich made a few remarks: “It is a journey undertaken together, in which we strive to help the others to reach sanctity in the same way as we try to sanctify ourselves, since what matters before all else, is to glorify God. And what gives a decisive impulse to the personal effort to reach sanctity is Christ’s presence in an increasingly intense manner among Christians which affects each person in an ever deeper way.” And here, once again, Chiara Lubich underpinned the novelty of this type of sanctity and pathway: the term, “An interior castle,” in the same way as St. Teresa called the reality of the soul inhabited by His Majesty, is a very suitable term which we have to discover and highlight. It is the height of sanctity in an individual path. However, the time has come to discover, enlighten, and edify for God, also his exterior castle, so to say, with His presence among us. This – on a deeper reflection – is nothing else but the fact that the Church in which we live, through this spirituality, can more and more fulfill this calling, and grow in beauty and splendour as the mystical spouse of Christ, the foretaste of the Heavenly Jerusalem, which was described in the words: “Behold! The dwelling place of God is with man! And He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21,3). […] When visiting Spain in the first days of December 2003, Chiara wanted to go to Avila, St Theresa’s birthplace, to visit the monastery of the Incarnation where Teresa had lived for more than 27 years […] She signed the monastery’s Golden Book with this testimonial of her “spiritual friendship” with the Saint of Avila: “Thank you, St. Teresa, for all you have done for us, for our journey. Thanks! But we will express our deepest thanks to you in Paradise. Continue to watch over all of us, over “our exterior castle” which the divine Spouse established on earth, as a completion of your “interior castle,” to embellish the Church as you desired. See you soon, St. Teresa. A big hug, Chiara.” I have always considered Teresa of Avila’s interior castle as a proposed evangelical lifestyle for all Christians who wish to live their own universal vocation of sanctity, union with God in the Trinitarian and ecclesiastic experience. But what I consider the even bigger grace, and more exciting adventure, is that of participating with the charisma of unity, in the discovery of this particular design of God, the possibility to live together the adventure of community and ecclesiastic sanctity, in building a splendid, shining exterior castle, personified in the Work of Mary, for the Church and humanity.” Further reading: “Two women and two castles” Excerpt from “The exterior castle, the novelty of the spirituality of Chiara Lubich,” (“Il castello esteriore, il nuovo nella spiritualità di Chiara Lubich”), by Jesús Castellano Cervera (1941-2006), pp. 63-67/68.
EoC: Training for an economy which has a soul
This experience began in 2012 with the first workshop titled: “Start up the Future”. The following year another workshop was held: “Planning Labour and Building the Future”; and this year’s workshop: “Being satisfied with your job”. The young people write: “This workshop encourages us to seek work that will not just satisfy our financial needs, but but will also permit us to develop our talents, initiatives and to live our work-life as a calling, in communion with workmates. It’s a horizon to look towards, a target to aim for. With the help of numerous experts and professionals we became more acquainted with the Economy of Communion (EoC) and examined the indissoluble link us and our work. The workshop was not only a training, but above all dialogue and growth as we reflected on our aspirations and on the importance of recognising our talents in order to be able to fulfill ourselves at work not so much as individuals, but members who belong to a community. Knowing the world of the EoC showed how much our small contribution can become much more significant and pleasing when it is shared along with the resources of others. 
Professor Luigino Bruni reminded us: “working is never just holding some generic place in the world, but a fundamental exercise for understanding one’s place in the world” and, above all, that practising a profession means inserting oneself into a social network. Another important point was also highlighted; that is, the need to look towards an economy “with a soul,” one that centres on relationship. Between training sessions, workshops were offered that focused on: the content and the direct experiences of several EoC business owners and professionals in different fields of work; and self-knowledge through the exploration of personal talents that could be developed and put in common with the talents of others to provide a work experience that would not only be fulfilling for us, but also a contribution towards the common good. Those days together provided us an experience of communion. At a moment in history characterised by the crisis of our economic models, by distrust of institutions, and by individualism, activities such as these are able to instill new hope. But this hope has sprung from concrete examples, from the experiences of those who have stepped into play with an innovative economic model that includes and is based on the centrality of the human person, as well as the gift of the economy. It is a hope born from the very experience of these days together in which, by questioning ourselves and sharing our thoughts, we have turned a glance towards the future.” Flickr gallery
Augustine of Hippo: a legacy and a resource
Loppiano’s Auditorium was packed last October 3, in an atmosphere of great expectations. On the agenda was an evening dialogue on “Augustine of Hippo: a legacy and a resource,” inserted within the framework of the fifth edition of LoppianoLab, promoted by the Sophia University Institute (IUS) and Citta’ Nuova Publishing House, and emceed by Marco Tarquinio, Director of Avvenire, the main Catholic paper in Italy. Onstage were two “top advocates of Italian creative thought,” according to New City’s Director, Sophia University, theologian and philosopher, Piero Coda. This was really “an extraordinary lesson” offered within a perspective of dialogue and enriched by stimulating questions addressed by the students regarding the actuality of the philosophy of this “gigantic” figure of the Church and of philosophy. Despite the different profiles of the two main guests and the outstanding diversity between their evaluations of the works of the Bishop of Hippo, what occurred was not so much a rhetoric duel or even an abstract confrontation detached from daily life, but rather, a remarkable outcome which the art of dialogue is able to produce when knowledge and sharing intertwine in a clear action, open to the light of truth. The philosopher, Galimberti, gave the Bishop of Hippo credit for having introduced into western culture the concept of the individual person, underlining the dualism of body/soul, as inspired by a religion such as Christianity which assigns a central value to self reflection on one’s own corporeal existence (“And the Word was made flesh”, wrote John in the prologue of his Gospel). Piero Coda, on the other hand, defined Augustine as the person who “discovered interiority” in the Christian perspective. Interiority is seen as the inner space where man encounters God, and reaches total fulfillment as a bodily and spiritual being, as conveyed in the expression, “withdrawing inwards… so as to transcend also oneself,” which is the starting point of Augustine’s reflections, without however isolating oneself in a blind introspection but in order to perceive also what lies beyond ourselves.” Augustine’s interiority is inhabited by Christ and therefore by the relationship with the other: and this where the discussion faces the concept of “relationships,” since God reveals Jesus Christ, who in turn speaks of God as a father and attests to the universal bond of brotherhood. The third concept which clearly emerged was that of the “city” given that precisely Augustine wrote “De Civitate Dei,” a work that deals with the image of a city which embraces people of all beliefs, open to the quest for a common good rooted in that Utmost Good which is God, through the life of the Gospel. Three overviews offer new meanings that can direct society today towards a fuller integration. Dissatisfied with the consolation of certainties, and a relentless seeker of truth, in this sense Augustine also on this occasion, has revealed to be a personage who is able to bridge the centuries and speak to the youth and adults of all latitudes. It is a landmark which guides us in our quest for the roots of the “person,” of a people, so as to better grasp the present and also work up new proposals for the future. Source: Sophia University Online
LoppianoLab 2014, a review
Economics, gender, education, family, immigration and interculturalism, gambling, reforms and political participation; companies that “prefer” the poor to making a profit, these were among the topics touched upon in the 15 workshops held at LoppianoLab, from October 3 to 5. On the issue of gender, space was given not only to reflect on this burning issue, but especially to the sharing of stories, sufferings and experiences, in an effort to stimulate dialogue between the different sensibilities. With regard to gambling, reference was made to the more than 60 cities reached by a Movement known as Slotmob, in support of managers of bars and public places that have rejected slot machines and of numerous social and cultural initiatives for the rehabilitation of people, places and communities from this scourge. On the economic front, the Virtual Expo and Convention of the Economy of Communion have allowed a real national map to be drawn of the companies that belong to the EOC. In addition, at the Lionello Bonfanti industrial park, a project called “Tuscany towards Expo 2015” is starting in collaboration with the Region of Tuscany: a series of preparatory events on issues of the common good, from biodiversity and forms of enterprise, to civil economy and public happiness. 
A Workshop of the Economy of Communion, a Seminar on Political Formation run by the Movement for Unity in Politics, and the proposals of the Sophia University, showed the commitment of the many young people present at LoppianoLab to build networks across the country not only with institutions and the world of politics, but also with the world of business and work. “Only a society where we return to trust each other can be correctly defined civil; only then can we say to one another: ‘it doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as we can go forward together’,” the editor of Citta Nuova, Luca Gentile stated. 
There was an unexpected number of participants at the 3 days of LoppianoLab: 3000, in fact, registered. Among these was the premier Matteo Renzi, who stopped off at the Focolare town during the celebration for its 50th anniversary to “bring the esteem, the friendship and the closeness of all the Italian institutions.” The Prime Minister brought attention to three issues: unity, first of all, which he defined as a “political choice with a capital ‘P’,” “a great political challenge that arises from an extraordinary intuition.” The entrepreneurial industrial park and challenge of the Economy of Communion, which constitute “a new model for the economy, an economic paradigm for our time”, in which “there is need to reflect on how the crisis has changed our production and employment system.” Finally, recalling the definition of Loppiano by the scientist Ugo Amaldi (“City of trust”), Renzi stressed how much there is a need for trust today: “Trust which has not only been lost in interpersonal relationships, but especially in the future.” While acceptance, dialogue and care of education to generate the common good – not only of Italy, but of humanity – are the points raised in the video message of Pope Francis, a real surprise for the inhabitants of the town and all the participants at LoppianoLab with his wish to “look forward and aim high with confidence, courage and imagination.”