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Mar 18, 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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Mar 16, 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.
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Mar 11, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
With the elderly in a rest home; with inmates at a local prison; in a social assistance institute and with handicapped peers in a special education centre. These are not places that young people would normally go to spend their time. But last February 8, 2014, a group of a hundred Youth For A United World from Caldas da Rainha. the western region of Portugal wanted to send a signal to the city, to shake off some of the widespread indifference. The starting point was a meeting at the Parish Community Centre where they identified their goal: to give a witness of brotherly love and the conviction that living for a united world can be the answer to many of today’s challenges, inspired by the witness of young people from around the world. Then they split into groups and visited several places in the city where there was a need of help, or where they could draw attention to a need. At the request of the request of the Municipality they repainted the walls of a youth centre. They offered a smile, tickets and coffee to unsuspecting passers-by. It was a unique experience for the citizens of Caldas da Reinha who immediately welcomed the enthusiasm and conviction of the young people. “If everybody did a little something right there where they are, everything could change,’ declared Assistant Mayor Hugo Oliveira. 
One young man who visited some prison inmates recounted: “I went expecting to give, and I was the one who received.” Some of the inmates expressed their desire to join the young people in creating a more united world. Following their visit, the inmates wrote: “I’ll try to forgive. . . .” “I’ll enter into contact with my family again.” It was an intense day which didn’t go by unnoticed and which involved so many people. But the challenge has only just begun say the young people: “We want to continue this path of universal brotherhood in the places where we live, beginning with small gestures, in our families, relationships with friends, at school and at work.” Then the biggest challenges!
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Mar 10, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
This year too, the anniversary of the Servant of God Renata Borlone (Civitavecchia 30/5/1930 – Loppiano 27/2/1990) was a moment of reflection on the life of a Christian and the enthusiasm for bringing the peace and joy of Christ everywhere.
The main appointment, the Holy Mass celebrated in the Sanctuary of Maria Theotókos, in Loppiano (Italy).
“The joy of the Gospel – as Pope Francis affrimed in the Evangelii gaudium – fills the heart and the entire life of those who meet Jesus”, and this was the experience of Renata.
A joy that springs forth from a soul who since adolescence had searched for God and for the beauty of His creation and who, having come to know the Focolare Movement, didn’t spare her energies and enthusiasm in bearing witness daily to love and in contributing to build that unity of the human family that Jesus had asked the Father in his prayer before the passion.
“The joy – Renata wrote in her diary – coincides with God… to possess it always means to possess God”; and still: “Joy in living for the others”, a joy that “cannot be conditioned by anything, by anyone” because “God loves me, even if I am incapable, even if I have made a mess in my life and I continue to do so”, but also that joy which, paradoxically, is “squeezed from suffering” and “drawn out from pain”.
In the twenty three years that she was co-responsible of the Little City of Loppiano that now bears her name, Renata Borlone bore witness with coherence and humility, in front of thousands of people who spent time there for their formation or even for just short periods, of the joy of the life of the Gospel, giving her essential contribution to the new sociality that the Little City is committed to generating, by being always at the service of others and living with exceptional faith the serious illness that would lead to her death. “I am happy, too happy – she would repeat in the final instances of her earthly existence. I would like to bear witness that death is Life”.
And continuing to intertwine the words of the Pope and Renata, one is impressed by how much joy can be not only a fruit but may also cause change in the world and in overcoming difficulties. Pope Francis recently said in a homily at Saint Martha: “You cannot walk without joy, even in the midst of problems, even in difficulties, even in one’s own mistakes and sins there is the joy of Jesus who always forgives and helps”
And Renata wrote: “If I had to say something, I would emphasize that the joy that there is in Loppiano is born from the decision that each one makes to want to die to him or herself. I would say that also in this way the unity of peoples is already done, because the the oil that comes from squeezed olives is oil, and you can no longer distinguish one olive from another…”
Suffering and joy, therefore, challenge and conquest always to be renewed and never closed up within oneself: “May the others be happy, so that our Heaven here on earth may bring joy to the others”, “I did not give myself to Jesus so as to be happy, but so that my giving would find its meaning in the joy, in the happiness of others, of all those whom God will put beside me”.
Francesco Châtel
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Mar 9, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
In 1966 some doctors and nurses from the Focolare entered into contact with the Bangwa tribe of “Fontem, a village immersed in the vast palm tree forests of west Cameroon. The aim was humanitarian: to help a population that was stricken with malaria and other tropical diseases with a mortality rate of 90%. Together with the Bangwa and many others, a hospital, school, church and a number of houses were constructed and the first Focolare town in Africa was begun. Chiara Lubich visited Fontem in 1966. Many years later she would recall that visit while speaking to 8,000 members of the Movement who had gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April of 1998:«I was in Fontem when the little town didn’t exist yet; now it’s very big – I don’t know how many houses there are… At that time, there wasn’t anything, there was the bush where this tribe lived. Well, I can still see this tribe in front of me on a large clearing of land celebrating my presence. … Of course, they celebrated in their own typical way; also present were the many wives of the Fon, the king, who performed a number of dances for me, and so on. There in that valley, with all those people who had come to celebrate my presence because I had sent the first focolarini doctors, I had the impression that God was embracing this large crowd of people, who were not Christians – the great majority were Animists. I thought: “Here, God is embracing everyone, he’s embracing everyone. It reminds me of what happened in the Cova da Iria in Portugal[the miracle of Fatima], the time that the sun came down and embraced everyone. God is here and is embracing everyone». Upon returning from the first trip, Chiara responded in this way to the focolarini at the school of formation in Loppiano, Italy: “We westerners are completely backward and unable live in today’s times if we don’t strip ourselves of the western mentality, because it’s half a mentality, a third or fourth a mentality with respect to the rest of the world. In Africa, for example, there is such a unique culture, so splendid and deep! We have to reach and encounter of cultures. We won’t be complete unless we “are humankind”. We will be humankind if “we have all the cultures inside.” During another visit to Africa in 1992, talking about inculturation Chiara stated: “First of all, the most powerful weapon is “making yourself one”. This means approaching people being completely empty of ourselves, in order to enter into their cultures and understand them and allow them to be expressed, so that you can embrace them within you, and have them within you. And once you have embraced them, then you can begin a dialogue with someone and maybe even pass on the Gospel message, through the riches he already possesses. Making yourself one demands inculturation, entering into the soul and the culture, into the mentality, the traditions, the customs of others – to understand them and allow the seeds of the Word to emerge.” 
Another moment that marked an important step for the Movement in its push towards dialogue with people of other belief systems was in 1977 when Chiara was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion: “We were in the Guildhall of London … I was speaking … in that large hall, and present there were people of many different religions…. I had the same impression there; it was as if God was embracing everyone”. 2000 Chiara visited Fontem for the last time. She was enthroned by the people, through the Fon, as Mafua Ndem (Queen in the Name of God). It was the first time that a foreigner, woman and white ever became part of the Bangwa tribe in such a way. At her death in 2008, she was given a royal funeral in Fontem. During the course on traditional religions, which preceded the funeral celebration and organized by the first Bangwa focolarino, the focolarini were admitted to the “sacred forest” (Lefem”), which is a strong sign of belonging to this people. During that week, Focolare president Maria Voce was also recognized as “successor to the throne”. In Africa courses on inculturation continue to promote deeper understanding of different cultures. 
In Latin America at Escuela Aurora, in north Argentina, an effort to educate and recuperate traditional cultural and religious traditions of the people of the Andes, in the Calchaqui Valleys:In Bolivia and Peru at the Mariapolises with the Aymara people, and in Ecuador with the Afro people of Esmeralda. In New Zealand, with the Maori people. 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.
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Mar 7, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
The focolarini from Florianopolis write: “Last February 23, 2014 a simple ceremony was held in the presence of Archbishop Wilson Tadeu Jönck and members of the local Focolare community, during which we officially transferred the men’s focolare to the slum in Morro, favela Monte Serrat on the outskirts of the city.”
“For us who live the charism of unity,” says Lucival Silva, “we feel the importance of being there to offer our contribution, along with those from the local Church who are already working in Morro, seeking to build bridges that unite the people of the city who are often separated by walls of indifference among the middle class, the rich and the poor.”
There was joy in the eyes of the focolarini involved in this adventure, and in the local community of the Movement. It was like reliving a piece of the history of the Focolare when Chiara Lubich and the first group in Trent began by serving the poor, which led them to realise that “every person is a candidate for unity.”
Father Vilson Groh, a priest volunteer from the Movement has been living and working on a network of projects in Morro for many years: public administration and the business world; projects that open young people to new opportunities in life. One of the focolarini named Francisco Sebok works with him in a project that helps young teenagers and young adults to get out of drug trafficking, in one city quarter that is dominated by drug traffickers. Fabrizio Lucisano has already been working for some time as a doctor at the health unity in Morro; and Keles Lima has begun to teach at a school for children. The team also includes Lucival Silva, Miguel Becker and Arion Goes both married focolarini who live with their families.
The house they are renting blends in with the surrounding dwellings and has that touch of harmony which is a characteristic of focolares. “Everyone liked it,” says Francisco; “indeed, with just a few things we tried to arrange it with good taste. It has two rooms, a lounge, a kitchen and bathroom. The owners are building a second floor. In a few months it will also be rented so we can have a more reserved space for our small community and leave the downstairs for the use of the locals.”
Archbishop Wilson Tadeu Jönck blessed the new focolare and celebrated Mass in the local community chapel with Fr Vilson.. The archbishop expressed his hope that “the life of the focolarini would continue to give witness to holiness because God is holy.”
Everyone felt the joy of walking with the Church today, which through Pope Francis “continues to invite us to go out and meet humanity,” Keles added, “close to the people especially those who are most poor and in need.”
“We are well aware that we will never resolve Brazil’s social problem, not even of one city,” Lucival explained, “not even of this favela; but this experience can be a sign from our Movement to the Church and to society, to say that we want to walk with everyone, rich and poor, in order to contribute to the realization of Jesus’ testament: “that all may be one”.
Fabrizio recalled: “In 1993, Chiara Lubich had named the men’s focolare in Florianopolis “Emmaus” and she wrote: ‘Where Jesus was among the disciples. . . . Emmaus is the symbol of Jesus in the midst who illumined the scriptures. . .’ We’ve placed these words of Chiara at the entrance of our focolare so that we will always remember this.”
