Argentina: International Youth Camp
500 teenagers from every continent will attend the events at Mariapolis Lia, a Focolare town in the state of Buenos Aires, Argentina. But they are only a small portion of the workshop which will be followed by members of the Youth for Unity worldwide. A Facebook page has been documenting the preparation stages of the event: “There is a global mobilization underway, with those of us who have been preparing since July 14-21 at Mariapolis Lia; others who have been awaiting and preparing events to welcome the teens to their cities; and still others who have been organising projects at local levels. They are all like small workshops of a worldwide construction site for the building of universal brotherhood and becoming citizens of the world! Even the preparatory activities have turned out to be opportunities to interact and share with many people – civil authorities, public institutions, associations, friends, the local Church and community – the most beautiful gift we have received: our ideal of a United World.” Why has the camp been given this name? Chiara Lubich explains it in something she wrote to some young people in 1970: “The man of tomorrow will be a man of unity, a citizen of the world. He will be capable of both welcoming in his heart the treasures that the peoples of other lands have to offer and of giving his treasures to all of them. The man of tomorrow will be a man of unity, a world-man.” 
Newsflashes from around the world.Paraguay: “We are getting ready to welcome the teens from Ireland. In the photo you can see me telling Radio Caritas listeners about the activities that will take place during the second week of the camp. We will go to three cities: Asuncion-Lambare, Capiata and Caazapa, which is 230 Km from the capital.” Austria: “Five of us will be attending and, in the second part of the camp, we will move to Bolivia to the Rincon de Luz Social Assistance Centre. Teens from Switzerland will go to Bolivia as well.” “In Salta, Argentina, we’ve been getting ready for some time to welcome the teens from Italy. We are working with public institutions, the local Church and youth organisations to finalize the “Let’s Colour Our Cities” projects that will be taking place. The most worrisome gray areas that have been identified are injustice, corruption, the gap between those who have and those who have nothing. . . Then there is the problem of drugs and the growing violence that has become natural among teens like us. The second stage activities will be held in three communities: Tartagal, General Mosconi and Yacuy. There is an obvious lack of material wealth in these regions, but there is certainly great cultural wealth, as well as a strong desire to build a more united world. There will be many opportunities to deepen our friendship with groups of teens from these communities! These areas are populated by Argentina’s indigenous peoples: the Wichi and Guarani.” On July 19th a “SPECIAL DAY” will be held at Mariapolis Lia during which the young people will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Youth for Unity Movement. There will be a live streaming of the event at 15:00 GMT (11:00 local time). http://vimeo.com/98558320
Spain: Architecture – pushing the boundaries
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.
Loppiano: A special ‘thank you’ to Vincenzo (Eletto) Folonari
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.
Ascoli Piceno: I love my city
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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Slot Mob against gambling
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