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1 Apr 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Located in an area where there are evident signs of both poverty and development, the Mariapolis has a distinctive social feel that is highlighted by the school for children and teenagers, and a business park inspired by the Economy of Communion.
Since the 1960s Chiara Lubich saw the permanent Mariapolises as miniature “cities” that would show that a better and more united world is possible. Mariapolis Santa Maria is one of these twenty little cities spread around the world. Chiara Lubich had visited this site during her third visit to Brazil in 1965.
The school, named Santa Maria, has been operating for nearly 50 years. Ten of its current teachers and workers are ex-students. Others have entered into professions and some hold positions of responsibility in society. The values transmitted to them have remained with them: the culture of sharing, the art of loving and an education to peace. Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti were warmly welcomed at the school by the smallest members of the school orchestra performing Talents at the Service of Peace.
The majority of families have low incomes. The school is economically supported with national and international solidarity through the Focolare’s New Families projects and AMU. The first classes of reading and writing were offered to the workers at the Mariapolis, then to their children by request. Now the educational approach of this school is spreading to other schools of the region and in other educational environments.
Ginetta Business Park is located just a few kilometres away. There Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti were welcomed by administrators of the park, business people, shareholders and researchers of the Economy of Communion in Pernambuco. They described their successes and challenges. Giancarlo Faletti recalled that Chiara’s initial inspiration took place in Brazil in 1991. Maria Voce expressed gratitude for the commitment that was undertaken in a spirit of complete generosity. Then there was a visit to the buildings that house two of the businesses; the first dedicated to the manufacturing of bags and accessories, the other to the manufacturing of furniture.
The Mayor of Igarassu, who called the Mariapolis a “landmark” of his city because of the school and business park, gave the keys of the city to Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti, on behalf of the citizens, as a sign of gratitude and desire for an even closer bond.
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30 Mar 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Journalist and art critic Mario Dal Bello used an interesting approach to explain the major points of the Focolare Spirituality and the thought of its founder, Chiara Lubich. In his Dialogue on Art & Beauty he examines a series of European masterpieces to describe the ideal of unity, since “there is a very strong common link between this art and this spirituality,” claims Dal Bello, “and it wasn’t by chance that while admiring Michelangelo’s Pieta, Chiara Lubich prayed God to send artists into the world who were saints. Because what is sanctity if not the perfection of love, and transmission of the beauty of God who is Love? ” The event was offered by the city of Udine in honour of Chiara Lubich in the 70th year since her birth and the 6th anniversary of her Heavenly birth. It was a reflection on her words: “Beauty is harmony, and harmony is highest unity.” “Many seek to explain art, but that is an impossible feat,” admitted Dal Bello who explains art for a living. “It is ineffable, like the Spirit. It draws us for no reason, like falling in love.” Therefore Dal Bello began with a Christ by El Greco, “from the gaze that one feels for a beloved with which one is bale to grasp the face of God.” This is seeing God in the other and grasping the love there which is one of the key points of the spirituality of Chiara Lubich. And if the Good Shepherd, indeed the “beautiful shepherd,” as Dal Bello points out, “loves his sheep, then we must also love our neighbour. And this was illustrated in the magnificent mosaic of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna. Here Christ is shown surrounded by the flock. He is Risen and clothed in light. He points to the jeweled cross he is holding, which is a symbol of the Resurrection.” By virtue of this mutual love Jesus is present wherever two or more are gathered in his name. This is shown in Rembrandt’s Supper at Emmaus, in which “Jesus enters into our everyday life, to the point that the others don’t even realize it, not even that he breaks the bread.” And this is a presence that makes a change in the community; it makes a difference as can be seen in Raphael’s Transfiguration, in which there is a strong contrast between “the superior level, with Jesus, Moses and Elijah clothed in clear colours and an inferior level where the Apostles are left confused, where darkness prevails.” 
To illustrate love for Jesus forsaken on the Cross, which is another aspect of Chiara’s spirituality, Dal Bello examines The Crucifixion by Dali: “Christ is seen from above. He seems to bend over humanity and draw everyone to himself. It is significant that we don’t see his face: because we are all in his face.” Another central figure emerges – but only to the eye of the expert – from the Final Judgment by Michelangelo: “If you look carefully,” Dal Bello points out, “Mary watches an angel who is raising the souls of the saved, with a Rosary. Mary appears as the one who takes Christians to Heaven and, indeed, the Focolare Movement is also called the Work of Mary.” Finally there is the Ghent altarpiece by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, where the Heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation with the entire Church gathered around it, is represented by a contemporary city. This recalls the commitment that focolares are called to bring to the local communities in which they live.
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29 Mar 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“What most impressed me was that wall. The true poverty is on the other side of it. The true wealth is on this side, for love is the true wealth, the ability to give and to share. On that side of the wall, there is self-interest and competition. . . .” Focolare president, Maria Voce, spoke these words before leaving the island of St Terezinha, Brazil. Focolare co-president, Giancarlo Faletti added: “Today we were at school. You were our teachers. It was a gift from God. Thank you!”
The wall of which Maria Voce speaks was constructed to interrupt the view of the poverty stricken quarter so near. But the poverty is still there and the wall remains a sign of the social segregation.
What are the signs of wealth that Maria Voce refers to? “This place had been called Hell Island because of the poverty and degradation of the people living here. The Gospel message that the people of the Focolare have been living and sharing with us for fifty years, supporting us, has freed us within,” says Johnson, who was our guide through the area. “It has opened new horizons for us, changing us into protagonists in the transformation of the quarter and our social standing.
Gradually a community with a deep civic awareness formed. An association of islanders was established as they took responsibility for their development. The country’s democratic openness made new systems of participation possible with the city, as well as public financial resources. There were many achievements: electricity for the area, paved roads, a school and health centre staffed by teachers and medical workers from the Movement. Several times Johnson proudly repeated: “We obtained it all through the power of dialogue, with the power of the community, without seeing a single politician.”
The final stop on the visit was to the Centre for Children and Teenagers that is open after school hours, providing a safe haven from violence and drugs on the streets. Here they are offered a solid human and spiritual experience, through a variety of sport and musical activities. The centre is administrated by the AACA, an association supported by many, Brazilian Focolare families and families around the world. The guests were welcomed with a song from the little ones: “Oh, my God, I know life should be better than this, and it will, but this doesn’t stop us from singing: it’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!”
“This is a place in which you can see the good fruits that are produced by the seed of the Gospel,” Maria Voce said to the workers at the centre. “When we leave we will not only be bringing all of you with us in our hearts, but also your example that is an incentive for the entire Movement all over the world.”
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20 Mar 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
February 22, 2014. An idea that is growing day by day: “if, with the passing of weeks, the study experience we are living at the Sophia University Institute, increasingly corresponds to the questions we are asking about our future, about the future of our people, why can we not imagine that this experience could find a home on the African continent as well?” Today’s date marks a step. Today, students who come from the sub-Saharan area of Africa, enrolled in degree and doctoral programs at the IUS, have given themselves an appointment to not only share reflections, but to share a project as well. Martine Ndaya from the Congo thus describes the road taken: “To come and study at Sophia was not an easy choice to make… And yet, just a few months since entering the classroom, I can say that this interdisciplinary experience and the multicultural co-habitation is meeting with and answering my deepest expectations.” Pulcherie Prao from the Ivory Coast adds: “We are often confronting one another, exchanging impressions and difficulties, and we often meet again together to talk about the challenges we all face ahead. For this reason, someone asked the question: Is there a way for Sophia to come to Africa?” There have been numerous higher formation initiatives taken in recent years in the various regions of the continent, but they are not all able to give a response to the actual problems dictated by demands for peace, development, and participation in the various areas. In Africa, as well as all other places on this planet, society is not spared from violent processes in which consumerism and materialism lacerate the moral and cultural fabric. A program of formation inspired by Sophia’s experience could represent, both on the level of research, and as a cultural and ethical commitment, not only a space of communion between African peoples, with all of their diversities and beauties, but also a place open to young people of other cultures to be enriched by the sense of community of which Africa is a testimony, by its models of widespread participation, its courageous paths of redemption. 
“We put ourselves on the line first… – continues Melchior Nsavyimana from Burundi -. Sure, we are talking about a project that does not materialize from one day to the next, but as many leaders such as Nelson Mandela, have said, education is the most powerful motor for development, it is the most useful instrument to answer the suffering that is devastating the lives of many people.” Sophia in Africa: a dream, yet at the same time, a process that is beginning. While dialoguing, various opportunities have come to the fore that could be used to open the way without under-estimating difficulties and objective obstacles. An all out exploration of the different possibilities is needed, and it would be useful to engage many in gathering willingness, availability, means, and resources so as to weave synergy. For now, the promoting group at the IUS has decided to meet periodically to keep interest alive and to bring the program forward. Other steps should follow this first one: “We will let the providence of God guide us, as we have full trust in Him”; for this reason too, at the end of the evening, the celebration of the Mass was one of the most meaningfully charged, moments. A festive dinner followed, coloured by numerous ethnic platters, and immersed in a joyful, communicative atmosphere. The African continent, under many aspects, has been defined as a prophecy for the third millennium. “If here at Sophia – concludes Pierre Kabeza from the Congo – today, it is us who live such an experience as this, of discovery and of sharing, it is up to us then to take the initiative to give it to many others.”
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18 Mar 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“Tacloban, a city of 60,000 inhabitants in one of the many Philippine islands which was largely unknown to a large part of the world until last 8th of November, when it sadly became famous because of the Supertyphoon Yolanda that hit it with all the strength of its 320 kilometer per hour winds, causing more than 10,000 victims. [On February 25] after three and a half months, we went there for a few hours to share the experience of suffering, of giving, of heroic generosity… of those people who did all they could to find water, food, clothes, gasoline, for themselves and for others; people who won over fear with faith, people who are proud to have survived…”. (continued in The kites of Tacloban) “The metropolitan city, called Metro Cebu, is the second in the Country, bested only by Manila. The Sacred Heart School Ateneo de Cebu is a private Catholic school of the Jesuits that welcomed us for another incredible project: “Spark for Change”. The characteristic was the participation of the students of a public school, who for the first time entered into a private school: it was beautiful to see them playing together in the courtyard of Sacred Heart School, as if they all belonged to just one school. Here is one of the more meaningful impressions of one of the teens: “I was a lost person… when I was able to get rid of my burden, I understood in a marvelous way what life is and what love is: it is not only being admired but it is sacrifice and determination to work for the good of the others”.
Video Choreography in prison in Cebu
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16 Mar 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Chiara Lubich dreamed of unity in the world, the discovery that even amidst differences of culture, ethnicity and religious tradition, all people are brothers and sisters who can live for peace and universal harmony. This was the goal for which she lived and worked and it was the specific purpose of her charism and of the Focolare Movement which she founded. A foundational moment in the Focolare’s journey was the award ceremony in London, England, where Chiara Lubich received the Templeton Prize for progress in religion. There she had the strong sense that the audience, although from so many different faiths, formed a single family. This intuition sparked the Movement’s dialogue with people of all religious traditions. The Focolare’s spreading around the world facilitated the development of interreligious dialogue with orthodox, conservative and reformed Jews; Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Hindus; Mahayana and Theravada Buddhists; and followers of traditional religions in Africa and other aboriginal cultures. There are also contacts with Taoists, Shintoists, Sikhs and Baha’i. This dialogue focuses on the centrality of love which is summarized by the Golden Rule found in all the main religions and cultures of the world: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” 
This dialogue has led people to a deeper relationship with God (the Absolute); to a rediscovery of their own religious or traditional roots; to an attitude of openness that leads to trust, understanding and friendship. The experience of the Focolare in this field has shown that our diversities can be gifts when we pursue what unites us. And the appreciation of one another’s gifts has led to symposiums and studies; efforts to bring brotherhood into places where violence and intolerance prevail. It has contributed to the healing of the social fabric, easing tensions and integrating communities that are in conflict. There have been many significant examples of humanitarian projects carried out in common. On March 20, 2014, there will be an event at the Urbania University of Rome, dedicated to Chiara Lubich and Religions: Together for the Unity of the Human Family. The gathering will highlight her efforts for interreligious dialogue, six years after her death. The event also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate.
