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21 Aug 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Learning Fraternity is the title of a 2014-2015 project of the United World Project (AMU) which has been accredited by the Italian Ministry of Instruction in collaboration with the Focolare’s New Humanity Movement. The main objective of its extended series of events is “to raise awareness and sense of responsibility with respect to the challenges that invest the modern world, and to become personally involved through training in active citizenship and respect for the environment. AMU and New Humanity offer training events on these topics, for teachers and educators at the world citizenship campus in Loppiano, Italy, along with thematic workshops for students. There is also a global network of projects. Some are in Italy, including the “Let’s Build A World of Brotherhood and Peace Project” which has been underway for several years in many schools in Sicily and Calabria. Its main objective is training in listening, encountering, dialoguing and living together with people of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, such as Rom, Indian and North African who are found in many parts of Italy. There are twinning and partnership projects with foreign schools such as the School on the Andes Project, and the international Schoolmates Project (www.school-mates.org) in collaboration with Teens for Unity. Schoolmates is a worldwide network among classrooms for sharing experiences, cultures, languages, traditions and current projects. This project provides for the support of more than 600 scholarships for students in developing countries and other micro solidarity projects in several parts of the world thanks to the projects and fundraising of the teenagers themselves.
![The Learning Fraternity Project]()
20 Aug 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
A project which, in the outskirts of Kinshasa – capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo – would like to give teens an adequate education and nutrition, medical treatment and clothing is known as Petite Flamme (Little Flame) and it has been taking care of 1650 children inserted in 9 schools. “It has already been 17 years that I have been accompanying this project,” says Edi, project collaborator for the Focolare Movement, “which for the past 19 years we have taken ahead thanks to the “Support at a Distance” project of the New Families Movement. Aside from the children, the teachers and their families are also benefited, since they have a job even if the salary is a modest one, in a country where the unemployment rate exceeds 80%.” 
There are countlesss examples of the concrete support that the project is able to give. “For example,” Edi continues, “a single-mother in difficulty was able to obtain a diploma in sewing, and is now able to provide food for her child and for herself. Or in another instance, an orphaned teenage boy will be the first to graduate in mathematics and computer science at the University of Kinshasa”. At Petite Flamme we also welcome unsighted children who follow a formation course especially made for them. And once they have completed their studies, the teens are not left without any means of livelihood: the teenage girls who have received a diploma in dressmaking, for example, will be given a sewing machine so that they can start their own professional activity. “These children, receive a special formation in music,” Edi explains, “and they receive as a gift a classical guitar. During the graduation celebration a blind boy sang for everyone a song composed by all of them as a gift, and to thank their parents for having taken care of them despite the difficulties that their situation involves, especially in a poor country.”
Jonathan (left) with his classmates
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19 Aug 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Seoul, 14 August 2014. As of today, the Pope is on Korean land. We were struck by a small gesture by the Pope at the Nunziature. When everyone had left the room, the Pope turned off the lights. . . During his homily at a private Mass, he spoke of forgiveness as a necessary condition for constructing fraternal relationships and solving conflicts also on a large scale. In the Nunziature we were struck by one small gesture: “While he was exiting a hall that everyone else had already left, the Pope turned off the lights. Daejeon, August 15, 2014. First he met with survivors and relatives of the victims of the Sewol (South Korea) ferry disaster. Then there was Mass for the feast day of the Assumption with more than 50,000 faithful who filled the World Cup Stadium. He strongly urged the young people to reject inhuman economic models that create new forms of poverty and marginalise workers, and the culture of death that devalues the image of God, the God of life, and violates the dignity of every man, woman and child. He asked asked them to be intensely concerned for the poor, the needy and the weak in our midst. The Korean people were more and more convinced by this Pope whom they found so striking in the way he understood them and offered them concrete reasons to hope. In the afternoon there was the long-awaited open discussion with the young people AYD. Ten thousand young people from 23 Asian countries him to the Shrine of Solmoe with songs and dance and theatrical performances and testimonies. Francesco exhorted them: “Together with young people everywhere, you want to work to build a world in which everyone lives in peace and friendship, overcoming barriers, mending divisions and rejecting violence and fprejudice.” He also invited them “to pray together in silence for the unity of the two Koreas.” After that prayer he spoke off-the-cuff: “Korea is one, it’s a family, you are brothers and sisters who speak the same language.” Right now preparations are underway for tomorrow’s Mass at the Gwanghwamun Gate in Seoul, for the Beatification of Paul Yun Ji-Chung and his 123 Companion Martyrs. It took only two days for the Pope to set everyone’s heart on fire, and not only those of the Catholics. Seoul, August 16, 2014. A very busy day today. One million people were able to remain in absolute silence during the homily and Communion, bowing in unison at the sound of the bong. Pope Francis spoke paused to talk about the role of the laity who spread Christianity in Korea before the arrival of missionaries. “The Martyrs call us to place Christ over all things, and to see every everything else in relation to Him and to His Eternal Kingdom. These make us ask if there is something for which we would be willing to die for.”Perhaps the most moving moment of his journey was the visit to the “House of Hope” centre for the disabled in Klottonganae. The Pope’s expression also brightened as he listened to the children sing and dance and embrace him. 
During his meeting with Korean men and women religious he thanked the superior generals for “. . . speaking clearly of the danger that globalisation and consumerism pose for the religious life.” Finaly there was the meeting with Lay Leaders at which members of the Movement participated, among them two married focolarini who spoke to the Pope on behalf of all. Tomorrow the Pope moves to Haemi for the meeting with the Bishops of Asia. Then there will be the concluding Mass of the sixth AYD, which the young people are ardently looking forward to. Seoul, August 17, 2014. The Pope told the Bishops of Asia that he firmly hoped that the countries on the continent of Asia who did not yet have full relations with the Holy See would never hesitate to promote dialogue for the good of all. I am not referring only to political dialogue, but also a fraternal dialogue.” In the afternoon there was the long-awaited AYD Mass amidst an atmosphere of warm and youthful enthusiasm. The Pope adds “fire to fire,” strongly uring the young people to “not sleep, but to wake up and reach out to the world.” The Pope has left, leaving behind much warmth, hope and new courage. You could say that the whole Korean Church and society has had a healthy wake up call, that “wake up” directed to the young people by the Pope whom they understood loved them very much. From Korea, Won-Ju Moon e Alberto Kim
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18 Aug 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
I’m a drug addict! A young boy approached us, “I’m a drug addict,” he said, “but I want to quit. I need someone to help me to stop taking drugs; I want to be hospitalized. I do not know how I got here. I was on the train … and I fell asleep.” Since there are no institutions in our city for recovering addicts, we invited him to stay with us. While eating the snacks offered to him, he confided that his addiction was serious, so much so that he would do anything to be able to obtain drugs. Through God’s providence, a doctor friend found a way to get him into a hospital. The next day we went to see him, bringing him some sweets. He begged us not to leave him alone. When he left the hospital a few days later he came to stay with us. Meanwhile a place became free for him in a specialized centre. We could see that he was happy when he left, confident that he could still count on us. E. – Argentina The Gospel in action! An ex-convict wanted to meet me, but at the same time I had to take some food parcels to several families who were in difficulty and which I knew had an urgent need of support. While trying to figure out what to do, I received a phone call: “Do you need help? I have a car and am willing to take some packets to the families.” I was a bit taken aback when I realised how God is at hand and sees all, hears all. It is true that he sends his angels to help us to do good. So I went to see my friend I had met in prison, while the ‘”angel” went to bring the packages to seven families. That’s how living the Gospel works! A.D.N. – Italy The seasonal workers 
On my building site there are many “seasonal workers”. It was payday, but I didn’t have enough money to pay everyone: the amount available was enough for the permanent workers only; the seasonal workers would have to wait. At the exit, their wives came to meet me. After I tried explaining the situation, they said they would remain there until we paid them, as their children at home were hungry. Back in the office I took some money from my pay packet, and proposed to the other workers who had already been paid to offer 10 bolivianos each, in order to make up the missing money. After a little bit of hesitation, they agreed. Only one did not do it, but just when I was giving the money to the wives, he caught up with me to give me his 10 bolivianos. F.M. – Bolivia To do something more With my wife and our two children, we felt a strong desire to do something for our small town, crushed by so many problems: couples breaking up, single mothers, immigrants, poverty and moral destitution. And so our nice apartment has become a listening centre. The people of the village were happy with this initiative; also many relatives and others have become involved in volunteering. So now we have many opportunities to help people in need: the possibility to welcome Sonia, a Slav single mother who was helped before and after the birth of her baby Peter; dinners for the Ukrainian women who worked in the area, a mini-school for parents and collaboration with various young people for the realization of some projects in Africa. The apartment where we live is small, but now houses a small seed of “United World”. TP. – Italy Source: The Gospel of the day (Supplement to no. 11/2014 of the magazine Citta’ Nuova)
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17 Aug 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“A writing of Chiara Lubich (1) speaks to me of the Church and makes me understand the priest as part of the living reality of the Church. Actually, Chiara Lubich’s meditation speaks of the individual Christian, but it also speaks, indeed even more so, of the Church. Today, perhaps as never before, the credibility of the priestly service depends on how much the individual priest is rooted in a vital unity, in a form of life in which priestly service becomes a common witness by having the Lord Himself, the One Priest, in our midst. If a priest must specialize in something it must be in communio, unity. The spirituality and lifestyle of the priest is unity. Living in communion with Jesus among the members of His Church and being a concrete expression of God reaching out to humanity: this is his task. And the accomplishment of this depends decisively on the measure to which Jesus’ Testament, contained in His Priestly Prayer, is fulfilled: That all may be one (cf Jn 17:21). For Jesus Christ is present in the Church and this can be experienced wherever believers are united in His name, whenever they love one another as He loved us (see Jn 13:34). The world will believe when it sees the Church living unity through mutual love. We said before that today’s world is seeking a mystical dimension and concrete commitment. Very well, to live together with our gaze fixed on Jesus in our midst, in a constant commitment to have Him in our midst and thus to bring Him near and far: this is what it means to be a priest today. The priest today? Is that not saying too little? Perhaps it would be better to say: priests today, united to one another, with Jesus in their midst.” (1) Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City Press, New York and New City, London (English translation), 2007. See also: Klaus Hemmerle: The Priest Today (1) (2) (3) Forthcoming event “Networking” 19 August 2014 – 22 August 2014 A meeting promoted by the Focolare Movement for young priests, deacons, seminarians and young people attracted to the priesthood.
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9 Aug 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“If it is true that only by comparing him to Christ that a priest can be understood both in his greatness and in his smallness, in his mandate and in his frailty, if it is true that the priest relives in space and time the deprivation that Christ filled in Himself, then no words can better express the priestly life than those of St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20). These words hold true for every Christian just as the text of Chiara Lubich we quoted applies to all Christians. For in Baptism, the decisive ontological event that regards our person has already taken place. There is no longer the “I” that asserts itself against God and which must consequently die. Rather, it is the “I” which, having died with Jesus Christ in God makes room for Him, for God Himself, for Jesus Christ within us. I belong to Jesus Christ. Dying again and again in each moment in Him, so that He may live in me, this is the true way to find ourselves, to reach self-fulfilment. To say “you” to Jesus each time I say “I”: this is the way of sanctification which has its origins in Baptism. It is in this way that I can remain in continual contemplation, in continual union with God; and it is also under this condition that God-Love, who in Christ gives Himself to humanity, can give Himself to our times and communicate Himself to the men and women of today. There is no truer model for accomplishing this than Mary. She looks at God alone and at His will and receives Him completely within herself. Thus she gives Him to the others, gives Him to the world. The gratia plena is also the Theotokos, the God Bearer and Mother of God. Now, if a priest is a person who is mandated to àgere in persona Christi, this mandate cannot be limited to merely carrying out sacramental acts for which, in the strict sense, this mandate was given. The sacramental acts, the carrying out of priestly ministry will become a witness in the measure that the priest corresponds with his entire life to those acts. Therefore, the more deeply the priest lives out his Christianity, his Baptism – the more Marian he is in the sense explained above – all the more will Christ the Priest shine forth in him. Being priests by being totally Christian! Living Christ the Priest totally, by living Mary totally – her self-giving, her serving! The priest must give himself to God completely. Nothing else should fill his life, not possessions, demands or things he can be left to dispose of. That part of the human heart which could be kept apart for the most beautiful, noble and sacred human sentiments must be kept free for Jesus Christ alone. His hands must be empty and hold nothing other than Christ, thus enabling the priest to give Jesus Himself to others. He must be united with Jesus alone, and thus to have greater freedom.” (to be continued) See also: Klaus Hemmerle: The Priest Today (1) (2) Forthcoming event “Networking” 19 August 2014 – 22 August 2014 A meeting promoted by the Focolare Movement for young priests, deacons, seminarians and young people attracted to the priesthood.
Learning Fraternity is the title of a 2014-2015 project of the United World Project (AMU) which has been accredited by the Italian Ministry of Instruction in collaboration with the Focolare’s New Humanity Movement. The main objective of its extended series of events is “to raise awareness and sense of responsibility with respect to the challenges that invest the modern world, and to become personally involved through training in active citizenship and respect for the environment. AMU and New Humanity offer training events on these topics, for teachers and educators at the world citizenship campus in Loppiano, Italy, along with thematic workshops for students. There is also a global network of projects. Some are in Italy, including the “Let’s Build A World of Brotherhood and Peace Project” which has been underway for several years in many schools in Sicily and Calabria. Its main objective is training in listening, encountering, dialoguing and living together with people of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, such as Rom, Indian and North African who are found in many parts of Italy. There are twinning and partnership projects with foreign schools such as the School on the Andes Project, and the international Schoolmates Project (www.school-mates.org) in collaboration with Teens for Unity. Schoolmates is a worldwide network among classrooms for sharing experiences, cultures, languages, traditions and current projects. This project provides for the support of more than 600 scholarships for students in developing countries and other micro solidarity projects in several parts of the world thanks to the projects and fundraising of the teenagers themselves.