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23 Jun 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, pulsating with experimentation and innovation, was the ideal venue for exploring new fields and new frontiers in Architecture at the international workshop ArquitecturaLimite, which was held June 15 to 18. It was attended by 30 people including young architects, teachers and students of architecture coming from Spain, Italy and Colombia, and with contributions from lecturers of the Polytechnic of Barcelona (EPSEB – UPC), of the ‘University Without Borders’, of the University ‘La Salle’ in Barcelona, of professional studios and technical schools of bio-architecture (for example constructing brick buildings using only ecological materials). 
The programme allowed participants to analyze issues and low cost technologies to deal with design solutions in extreme environments. The concept of limit, low-tech technologies and the management of participatory processes and cooperation were all looked at. There was a great response at all levels, from both teachers and students, who expressed the desire to keep in touch, and re-opened the discussion, in these times of major changes in society, about what the essential elements of this discipline really are. What do you take away in your backpack, and where do we go from here? These were the two questions that participants responded to in group work: “Architecture must be built for the people and together with the people in a shared way: it is a cultural change.” “I take away a deep ethical sense: I’m not building schools, but education; not a health centre, but health. ” And again: “Replace the words ‘working for countries in the developing world’, with ‘let’s go to share’.” Everyone left re-charged with experiences, values and dreams. Some scenarios of participating in upcoming projects of International Cooperation in 2015 were identified and planned, in collaboration with the NGO Action for a United World (AMU). Haiti, Madagascar and the Philippines being possibilities. The next round of Dialogues in Architecture, the organiser of the Spanish event, is the national interdisciplinary workshop “Openings” (“I Varchi”), a week for musicians, architects, filmmakers and writers, in Italy, in Montefalcone Appennino, from July 27 to August 2.
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21 Jun 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Live streaming from Loppiano, 21 June at 3.30: http://live.focolare.org/loppiano
“Thank you, Eletto!” A journey through history and reflections on Eletto Folonari’s life, on the development of Loppiano which from October next will be celebrating its first 50 years of life, and the Gen Movement which he accompanied on its very first steps. In a letter to Chiara Lubich, Eletto wrote: “I have chosen God for ever and only Him! Nothing else.” He goes on to tell her that he wants to give all the goods he had inherited to the Focolare Movement – including the 200 acres on which the town of Loppiano (Florence) now stands – adding: “It was of no credit to me that I owned them, I was given them for free.” One of Eletto’s characteristics, in addition, was his relationship with the children and young people of the Movement that Chiara herself had entrusted to him in the early ’60s. “Why do we want to say thank you to Eletto?” – the gen that are organizing the event on 21 June in Loppiano ask – “First of all, for that Yes to God, an unconditional yes that is at the origin of what the Eternal Father has since worked through him, that is the birth of the first of the 33 towns of the Focolare Movement and the Gen Movement now spread throughout the world.” Yes, because this was his fundamental quality: Eletto knew how to place himself completely at the service of the divine will as Igino Giordani, who was his first biographer, so well expressed. In the conclusion to his 1965 book which simply bears the title “Vincenzo Folonari”, Giordani writes that his best known virtue was humility and that he: “… remains an example of the apostolate of modern lay people (…). It is basically the type of holiness that is required today in a democratic society, community-based, but which has been desecrated on a global scale: evangelization from the inside, without any props, motivated by love alone (…). ” The afternoon (live streaming starts at 15:30) offers a journey through history and reflections on Eletto’s life. There will be family members present and some of the first “popetti” (as children were called in the local Trentino dialect) who participated in the first Mariapolis’ in Fiera di Primiero (Dolomites) and whom Eletto looked after and loved. There will also be music and dances from different countries and the presence of many Gen, witnesses to the life and influence of the Gen Movement from the ’60s to today, all over the world.
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20 Jun 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
In Ascoli Piceno, a city in Central Italy, the Focolare is present in numerous parishes of the city, in many ecclesial bodies, aside from the many environments of professional and civic life. In fact, many of our co-citizens have come to know the Ideal of unity, through the meetings proposed by the Diocesan Movement of the Focolare. We dream that our city can become a city of fraternity, we look first of all at the relationships that animate it, at the good that circulates, at the abundant commitments of many in the different sectors and we are amazed. We try to weave a network of relationships among people, lay and religious institutions, associations, movements, highlighting their specific characteristic with the aim of realizing the common good. The city thus becomes a laboratory of fraternity. With this goal in mind we have constituted an association whose title already expresses our objective “Amolamiacitta’ (Ilovemycity)” onlus. A “transversal” consensus is built around it among associations and movements of civil society who start to work for fraternity together with us. The public institutions also have started to collaborate with us through this new instrument that we are equipped with. There are numerous initiatives that have started, involving the different ecclesial realities present in the city, together with the members of the Movement and many citizens. Some examples are the “United World Week” of the youth, the “Spring Bazaars” of the teens, the “Feast of fantasy”, held during the period of the Carnival, the “Family Week”, “City onstage”, with the involvement of the schools of various arts in the city, the vacations in the snow “On skis together is better”, the “Room of marvels”, wherein beauty is profoundly shared, and which has become the “venue” of knowledge of the marvels of the world. Then there is also the project “And the city… as a school”, the campaigns against gambling, “Everyone’s New Year Celebration”, maybe a true icon of the entire project “I-love-my-city”. During the New Year in fact, we can see how our city becomes a city of fraternity the way we dream it should be, characterized by a sense of family that shortens distances, drives away all fears and makes diversity beautiful. A fruit of all this life that floods the city was lived by us in 2009 when the “Chiara Lubich Award for fraternity” was given to Ascoli Piceno for the project “I-love-my-city”. The Municipal Council, in the speeches expressed the desire that the granting of the award would mark a new way of working for the city, a “compromising” of personal positions and of one’s political party in view of the common good. The city of Ascoli is also well-known for the precious bobbin lace, that are made by the weaving together of many fine threads by expert hands that at times are truly masterpieces. We feel that linked by reciprocal love we can weave many bonds of fraternity with everyone and contribute towards opening our city to a united world. (R.C. Ascoli Piceno)
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18 Jun 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Another step forward for Slot Mob, the campaign against gambling supported by several associations and the media, thanks also to young people: it took place in Catania, (Italy), where the City took a stand against slot machines, approving an amendment in the resolution of the municipal domestic and waste tax, which reduces by 50% the tax on waste to those business people that remove them from their shops. This is a reduction for two years in total, which includes a commitment not to install any other gambling machine for 10 years. The event to promote public establishments which do not have slot machines and video poker took place in Catania on 22nd February. On that occasion “Youth for Unity” in their publication “Grafoteens”, an information sheet for young people in Sicily, Calabria and Malta – posed themselves the question about “an ethic that is less about the world of gambling in general and which affects more and more the poor areas of the city”, including children, in spite of the prohibitions, and conversely on “an ethic that emerges in a stronger way regarding the use of goods confiscated from the Mafia, and which, in Calabria, the ‘Ndrangheta (a Mafia organization) continues to attack”. From this the meaning of the article summary is clear, “What side is the state on?” This constitutes a specific request to the administrative institutions to take a firm stand to support ethics which despite everything survive. And the answer came in June, with the resolution of the Municipality. The “Let’s get in the game” committee which promoted Slot Mob, and the “Teens for Unity”, who were committed to pursuing its instances were understandably satisfied. It’s a sign of detachment from the very strong culture of patronage and lobby of the managers of slot machines, wrote Giancarlo Morello in the editorial of the June issue of Grafoteens . We also appreciate the commitment and promise-keeping that some councillors demonstrated in the days of the creation of the Slot Mob, and who were then committed to the idea of rewarding those who would take away these machines. It all constituted a first signal towards achieving the “Let’s get in the Game Committee” and Grafoteens’ goal of a “City without slots”. The city of Catania is also working on a municipal regulation to counter the spread of pathological gambling. Like Catania, there are many municipalities where the fight against gambling, by mobilizing citizens, has taken many forms through the Slot Mob campaign. Supporters of the initiative include the Italian New City magazine and the Economy of Communion. To learn more or to arrange a Slot Mob in your city go to: http://www.nexteconomia.org/le-attivita/slot-mob http://www.edc-online.org/it/home-it/slotmob.html http://vimeo.com/98447447
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17 Jun 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
The feast of Pentecost is past, once again bringing the gift of unity that is felt even among different charisms, such as those developed through the centuries by many Christian churches. In order to emphasize the spirit of Pentecost, which unites Christians, the churches in the southern hemisphere celebrate at this time of year the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In Porto Alegre, for example, conferences have given way to art: a musical evening called “An Ecumenical Musical Evening” brought together various groups in the city, both as audience and as musicians. Intense correspondence over a two-month period meant that all those who in previous years had participated in ecumenical initiatives were invited. And finally the much-expected date arrived: June 4, 2014. There were approximately 300 people, to listen to a performance of violins, with children from different schools, the choir of Porto Alegre, with people from all over the city, not belonging to any particular church, and other artistic pieces. The recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was an important moment, to seal real relationships as brothers and sisters who seek to bear witness to the one faith in Christ. How to live this witness? Joan Patricia Back (Centro Uno of the Focolare Movement), in a reflection during the Week of Prayer in the northern hemisphere (January 2014) in Modena, Italy had said, “The exhortation to unity is contradicted by the actual situation: for centuries Christians have been divided, and the divisions are the anomaly with which they present themselves to the world that does not know Christ. But Jesus said that the world would recognize him by the unity of those who follow him: how can we live today so that the world may see Christ in us? We are called to live a life of communion in Christ, which is the foundation of unity: if we base our lives on Him, we live as he taught us, we are his people, then we will be one. And he invites us to love one another as he has loved us, because from this people will recognize us as disciples. And we can love each other even though we belong to different churches.”
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16 Jun 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
“After a year of intense collaboration and mutual understanding with our Muslim friends of the mosque in Harlem – some members of the Focolare community in New York write – on 29th May last, we held a meeting called: ‘Our Journey towards the Excellence of the Human Family’.” Before telling the 200 participants about the journey travelled together all these years, the young Muslims and members of the Focolare Movement recited the covenant of respect, brotherhood and mutual love, which is the basis of this walking together. “It was very powerful – Lumi tells us – to see the conviction of these young people who took the assignment to build universal brotherhood with responsibility and seriousness, referring to the pact made by Chiara Lubich and WD Mohammed.” In fact, a new page in relations between Christians and Muslims was opened in May 1997 in the United States. Chiara Lubich, a Christian woman, had been invited by Imam WD Mohammed, the charismatic leader of African-American Muslims, to address her message to the faithful gathered in the Historic Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, in Harlem. At the end of that special day, the Imam said: “Today, here in Harlem, New York, a page of history has been written.” That was when the two leaders had made that pact of fraternity. 
Watching the images showing the history of the path followed up to today, for someone it was like “reliving the power of that extraordinary meeting of ’97 in my mosque; my hope is that together we can keep this flame burning and give light to many … “. For many, on the other hand, it was a discovery to get to know the origins, but also the development of this unique experience of fraternity among African-American Muslims and American Christians. The comments of the participants speak for themselves: “I was struck by the atmosphere of family and reconciliation among some Muslims of different communities.” “We must continue to work together, because this is not a superficial relationship and leads to hope.” “We had the distinct impression that the words of Chiara and the Imam were more alive than ever, the prophecy of a miracle that continues!” Father McWeeney, Director of Interreligious Dialogue of the Archdiocese of New York, bringing the greeting of Cardinal Dolan pointed out that Chiara and the Imam WD had made that covenant “forever”, inviting us to pass on this experience to young people. Today in the U.S., there are more than 40 mosques and Focolare communities involved holding regular meetings of Christian and Muslim communities, whites and blacks, which aim to build fraternity; a spirit of brotherhood that has a practical expression in various initiatives for the benefit of their own cities and neighbourhoods.
