Participants in the “Living Peace Project”
Cameroun
Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Marocco, Lebanon, Jordan
Spain
Brazil, Argentina, United States of America
France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Malta
Italy
All the countries that took part in the project
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On April 2, 2014, the Fon of Fontem, Njifua Lukas , died suddenly.
From right: Fon Njifua Lukas (Fontem) , Chiara Lubich, Fon Njiendem Joseph (Fonjumetaw)
Fon Lukas Njifua (3rd from right) with Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti during their visit in 2009
Mariapolis Gloria, with its hundred citizens has more than 40 buildings that blend in well with the natural surroundings. The Mariapolis was begun in the early 1970s as a training centre for the growing community of the Focolare Movement in that region. The generosity of many people not only made it possible to begin the work but provided even more than enough for unforeseen developments. One couple donated a large piece of land, several families settled on the property, and the permanent Mariapolis was begun.
The area is part of Benevides, a small city with some 50,000 inhabitants. The poverty, which is quite visible, generates violence and opens the door to drug trafficking. The first main victims are always the adolescents.
The Mariapolis stands against this background as an oasis. The Fiore School and Welcome Centre’s after-school programme have been in operation for 20 years. There, more than 300 children between the ages of four and twelve are able to find not only tutoring and academic instruction, but a family, a home that welcomes them each day.
Workers at the Centre are all ex-students. They are credible models for the children, because they live in the same environment and give witness to the fact that change is possible. G. cares for the younger children. She teaches computer science. She lives in one of the most violent quarters, but her shining eyes bear witness to the transforming power of love even in her family where relationships were practically non-existent. “In front of the violent attitude of many children, we need to discover what lies behind it. We listen. We only try to make them feel loved. Then, little by little, the change happens,” says Francesca who is the Director of the school. It prompted one drug-dealing father to say: “But what is there in this place that I see my son so changed?”
The press has also shown interest in the project. One journalist interviewed the Focolare president and co-president Giancarlo Faletti during their visit to Brazil. During the interview Maria Voce had this to say: “I admire this place so much, Mariapolis Gloria. Here you focus on the whole person, who is the future of Brazil; you provide great opportunities for human development, for an experience of mutual support among teachers, students and families. I want to offer my full support.”
The Mariapolis is also an oasis of spirituality that nourishes communion among the communities located there – some ancient like the Carmel and some new like the Bethlehem Mission that serve the poorest of the poor – as well as several others. It is a support for people working in politics. This was expressed by two city councillors and several representatives of religious orders and new communities, during their conversation with Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti.
The two arrived at the airport in Belem on March 31, 2014 for the third stage of their journey in northern Brazil. Previously they had visited the North East: Recife in Pernambuco where they attended the inauguration ceremony, establishing the Chiara Lubich Chair. Then there was the visit to the social projects on the island of Santa Terezinha and the visit to Mariapolis Santa Maria. Next, they moved on to Fortaleza where they met with founders and directors of the new communities of the Condominio Espiritual Uirapuru (CEU).
Follow the journey on the Mariapolis Journal– Login required
Website: www.focolares.org.br/sitenacional
The backdrop for the third edition of the Living Peace Festival, which will take place in Cairo, is the tense situation currently present in Eygpt.
It was in 2011 that a professor of English at El Rowad American College in Cairo started this initiative to educate for peace, and today more than 25,000 students from all over the world are involved in the Living Peace project. On Sunday April 6, 2014, the third international appointment will be taking place.
Living Peace is characterized by the participation of students and teachers, who are involved in creating initiatives to educate for peace, through a global network of people and institutions. Schools taking part are allowed to develop projects according to their ability, while encouraging young people to use their creativity and making them aware of their contribution towards a common aim. This creates a dynamic participation that fills the various components of the school with enthusiasm while reinforcing solidarity among students, teachers, principals and parents, and also leaving an impact on civil society.
In Cairo, for example, Living Peace involves students and teachers, Muslims and Christians, that come from twenty schools. In other countries, the results of the project are presented to civil authorities (Uruguay,Spain,MaltaandLuxembourg) and to the media (KoreaandBrazil). The project is also presented through street activities, where the school involves the city in youth initiatives in favour of peace and fraternity. Of particular importance are those initiatives set up to address crisis situations, as schools in Japan hit by the tsunami in 2011 and those in Syria struck by war.
International organizations have shown interest in Living Peace since its very beginning. Carlos Palma, the mind behind this initiative said, “In 2011we were invited to the World Peace Forum in Schengen, Luxembourg to talk about our projects. Since then, we have attended the World Peace Forum every year and we have created a network of relationships with personalities both in the United Nations and the European Union, who sustain and encourage our efforts for peace”.
The Focolare Movement supports this project through AMU and New Humanity
The event can be followed on live internet: http://live.focolare.org/ipf (April 6, 2014, 10:30 CEST, UTC+2).
For the president and co-president of the Focolare Movement this is the final stage of their trip to Northeast Brazil before going on to Belem: they visit the CEU (Uirapura Spiritual Condominium), in the heart of Fortaleza, the capital of the Ceara State in Brazil.
Ready to welcome Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti in the foyer of the hotel in CEU, which is run by the Sisters of St Dorothy, are Moises Louro of the Shalom Community, Nelson Giovaneli, who together with Frei Hans Stapel, founded the Fazenda da Esperanca; Fr Renato Chiera, from the Casa do Menor, the Mother Superior of the Carmelite Convent and the Prioress of the Benedictine Nuns. Just to mention a few of the founders and leaders of the communities that have built their houses in this vast area known as the Fazenda Uirapuru. This is the name of the land given by Benedito Macedo, a businessman who dreamt of helping to find a solution to all the social problems of the region.
Renowned for its natural beauty, Ceara State is not dissimilar to other Brazilian States with its serious social inequality, which brings poverty and poor health and education provision as a consequence. A breeding ground for drugs, prostitution, violence and desertion. ‘Cammino’ is a group based at CEU which looks after ex-prisoners; ‘Sole Nascente’ helps those suffering from AIDS discover the possibility of a future; victims of abuse regain their dignity at the ‘Casa di Santa Monica’. Young people discover the beauty of contemplation following the way of the Carmelites or the Benedictines. The long list continues. “We are all here in answer to a double call”, Mother Bernadette, Superior of the Carmel, explains, “Firstly the call of our own charism but also to be a living image of the Church of unity, to witness the fruitfulness and richness of communion among the different charisms.”
And this is what shines out in the testimonies that are given in the Auditorium, packed with the residents of the CEU, together with the Archbishop of Fortaleza, Jose Antonio Aparecido Tosi Marques. A long-awaited meeting, marked however by a suffering: two days earlier Frei Hans, the first to start off this experience of communion, and among the first to invite Maria Voce, had a heart attack. He still wanted to give a welcome to the two guests however, with a brief video message. This was followed immediately afterwards by Moises who in his address defined the CEU as a “fruit of a plan of God”, “a spiritual lung” for the city of Fortaleza.
“Here I have witnessed something really great”, Maria Voce said afterwards visibly moved. Just as Frei Hans had mentioned in his video message she recalled a historic fact which gave rise to the path of communion among the movements: their meeting in St Peter’s Square in 1998. The President of the Focolare Movement recognized in CEU “a realization of that invitation to unity launched by Pope John Paul II and of Chiara Lubich’s promise of commitment to it.” And here she underlined another aspect of the novelty which CEU represents: the fact that many communities, each one with its own charism, find in the spirit of unity of the Focolare Movement nourishment for their own community and want to participate in it also and above all to live the not so easy path of communion among the different charisms. And this was the reason for the invitation.
“In this experience”, Giancarlo Faletti added, “there is a special strength, the strength of unity.” And he defined the CEU experience as “a model for the Church”. But the last word goes to the Archbishop of Fortaleza: “This is a path of unity which God wants for the good of our Church and of society”, he said. And he prayed to God for “great strength for what you are doing”.
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Website: www.focolares.org.br/sitenacional
