Jerusalem: the Mount Zion Award 2013
Margaret Karram (centre) and Yisca Harani (right).
MariTè: Unity in Music
Singing of the hope and desire in the new generations to roll up their sleeves and become involved in building the future while not falling short of their ideals has been the main work of MariTè, a young “Soul and Afro-pop” singer and self-taught guitarist. She is Italian, born of Congolese parents and the music section winner of the Saint Vincente 2013 Beauty and Voice Prize. She responds to some interview questions by Africa News: Tell us something about your music. The musical trio that I sing with offers a blend of Soul and African music, Afro-Soul. Now I’m moving toward Gospel music. I direct a thirty-voice choir, and I’ve returned to my old love Rhythm and Blues, but the African influence is always there. Is there something in particular that inspires you? I draw inspiration from everything around me. I’m a song writer and my lyrics express the things I live. But I also gather inspiration from everyday life: a news headline that has struck me, meeting someone, etc. What are the most common obstacles that you encounter in your musical career? It’s not always easy being a woman. You can find worthwhile opportunities for more visibility, but often for something in return. Refusing on the grounds of my personal values is always a challenge. At times it’s painful, but I also see these moments as moments of strength: showing that it is possible to sing, play and dance while not making compromises. 
What is your message to other young people born in Italy of immigrant families? I deeply believe that the second generation is the bridge between their country of origin and that of their birth. It’s important to study and grow in order to give a valid contribution to the land of our origins as well as the land of our birth, and to open ourselves to the second generation, who are an integral and vibrant part of the country. When I think about this and the fact that I am part of the second generation, I feel so proud. I love both my countries, and I feel honoured to wave the flag of both cultures. On behalf of the Focolare Website, we asked MariTe another question: How does living the spirituality of unity influence your understanding of art and how it is expressed? I’ve known Chiara Lubich and the Focolare Movement since I was a child. When I was 20 years old I attended a convention for artists at the Mariapolis Centre in Castel Gandolfo, which was very illuminating for me. I wrote to Chiara to thank her, because I felt that I had understood my mission. My music and my life are a gift given to me by God, and I would like to place this gift at His service in spreading the message of unity. I sing loudly about the hope that seems to be hidden by superficiality today. We young people cannot allow ourselves to crumple; we are the ones who will create our own future. We have to roll up our sleeves and get it done.Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooCiwDvV2ss
October 31st: Reformation Day
On October 31, 1517 in the university city of Wittenberg, Germany, theology professor Martin Luther presents 95 theses on indulgences “out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it.” This date marks the beginning of the Protestant Reform and the division within the Christian Church of the West.
500 years have passed and that moment in history is no longer considered simply a dark moment. On the contrary, we now celebrate this anniversary with 50 years’ experience of theological dialogue among Lutherans and Catholics. On October 21, 2013 a delegation from the Lutheran World Federation was received by the Pope, to whom they handed over the latest results of that theological dialogue with the meaningful title: From Conflict to Communion. The Lutheran-Catholic Interpretation of the Reform in 2017. The Holy Father underscored the commitment to progress in spiritual ecumenism that constitutes “the soul of our journey towards full communion,” and “it permits us to have a foretaste of some of that fruit already now, even though imperfectly.”
How can we transmit this necessary something for a life with God, for which it is worthwhile to struggle and fight? How can we transmit to our contemporaries the traditions that they might be the supports of an intense Christian life, without digging ourselves into new trenches? These are some of the questions posed by the document From Conflict to Communion. We begin with Heike Vesper, Lutheran focolarina from Germany, now residing in Italy where she works with Centro Uno, the Focolare Movement’s secretariat for ecumenism.
“For 35 years I have been living the spirituality of unitytogether with Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran friends. This has brought me into contact with other Churches and their life with God. It’s been extraordinarily enriching. I am surprised by the greatness of God and the action of the Holy Spirit that my Church alone could never fully express. I was around twenty years old and had known the Focolare Movement for several years when I felt that God was calling me to give witness to the unity that was possible, precisely in the diversity that went along with community. Despite the fears and differences I saw with respect to Catholics, I felt the courage to respond to God’s call and entered the focolare community in Leipzig. The experience of these twenty years was exactly what the Pope underscored on October 21st when he met with Lutherans: “In the measure to which we humbly draw near in spirit to the Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are sure to draw nearer to one another also; and to the measure in which we invoke from the Lord the gift of unity, he will surely take us by the hand and be our Guide.”
There were also difficulties, perplexity concerning some forms of Catholic traditions that were unfamiliar to me. As I began again, I always felt that I had to look at what we had in common and I often discovered this in the most unexpected places. This would encourage me and allow me to be guided by Jesus, by Jesus in the midst [see Mt 18:20].
The first of Luther’s 95 thesis on indulgences states: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17 ), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” This means being able to forgive. God continually gives me a new chance, because on the Cross, Jesus also takes on all of my failures and those of every person. That’s my penance: being able to forget, to be reconciled!
The document From Conflict to Communion concludes with 5 ecumenical imperitives that invite Catholics and Lutherans to reflect on prospectives of unity, to give visibility to the Body of Christ. This confirms my experience in the Focolare Movement:
- The first imperative: “Catholics and Lutherans should always begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division in order to strengthen what is held in common even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced.”
- “The second imperative: “Lutherans and Catholics must let themselves continuously be transformed by the encounter with the other and by the mutual witness of faith.”
- The third imperative: “Catholics and Lutherans should again commit themselves to seek visible unity, to elaborate together what this means in concrete steps, and to strive repeatedly toward this goal.”
- “The fourth imperative: “Catholics and Lutherans jointly should rediscover the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for our time.”
- “The fifth imperative: Lutherans and Catholics should witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world.”
Drawing closer to the Word of God I’d like to be able to experience and affirm with Martin Luther: “Then I felt literally reborn and brought through the thrown-open gate of Heaven itself. The entire Scripture suddenly acquired a new face for me. Later I read The Spirit and the letter by St. Augustine, where, against every hope, I discovered he also interpreted God’s justice in a similar way, as the justice with which God clothes us when he justifies.”
Schönstatt’s 100th Anniversary
Fr Joseph Kentenich
One session entitled Schoenstatt in dialogue focused on paths for the future while keeping in mind the primary objectives: reviving missionary joy for the evangelisation and bringing the light of the Covenant of Love to the world. Ample space was given for several Movements of various Churches to share the testimonies of their involvement in the Together for Europe network to which Schoenstatt has belonged since the start. The 1999 visit of Chiara Lubich, Andrea Riccardi and several leaders of the Focolare and Saint Egidio Community was remembered. On that occasion the two founders, along with Schoenstatt Father Michael Marmann and Sister Doria made a pact in the name of their respective Movements, to love and esteem one another. 
Longstanding friendship between Focolare and Schoenstatt. One of the most memorable moments of this friendship was in 2001, in Swizterland when a group of Schoenstatt priests, along with Father Kentenich’s successor, Father Marmann, posed a series of questions to Chiara about one of the main points of the spirituality of communion, Jesus forsaken, and about the “crisis in the ministerial priesthood.” How do we get out of this crisis? “Priests must become better Christians,” Chiara suggested, “because being a Christian means living the Gospel, and because this is how the Holy Spirit works. . . With the Gospel, the Church is revived. It is revived in the laity, in the priests, in the bishops and in the popes. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s way to emerge from this crisis is to begin living the Gospel authentically and completely.”
Families with Pope Francis
The families came from around the world for their appointment with Pope Francis on October 26- 27, 2013, for an event that was part of the Year of Faith. The title of the meeting had been promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Family: Family, experience the joy of faith. It was a festive St. Peter’s Square that welcomed 100,000 people from 75 countries. Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandchildren, countless children . . . all listening to pope Francis, amidst the applause, song and hundreds of colourful flying balloons. Families from several parts of the globe shared their stories. Among them: a family belonging to the Focolare Movement’s New Families, a movement that collaborated with many others in bringing about the event. Three European couples expressed their intention to marry “despite everything;” a married couple with their son in their arms, announced the arrival of a second child; a family shared its courageous choice to join the missions; another well-known family on the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy assisted in saving several Eritrean refugees; then, one Nigerian shipwreck survivor on the same island; another family was forced to flee because of the war. . . “Life is often tiring, many times it is tragic. . . ,” commented the Pope after hearing them speak. But what is really burdensome is the lack of love.” The pope invited families not to believe in the ‘throw-away’ culture,’ that chops life into pieces. “Christian spouses are not naïve,” he pointed out, “they know the problems and the dangers of life. But they are not afraid to assume their responsibility.” There are three key words that should never be missing in a family, said Pope Francis: please, so as not to be intrusive; thank you so as to communicate love; and sorry so as to be able to forgive and begin again each day (see full text). Nineteen songs composed by young people who took part in the Family Talent Contest and 4,200 drawings by children in the Present Your Family to the Pope project. A gesture of support for the families of Syria also went out from St. Peter’s Square with the collaboration of Caritas Italy and Caritas Syria. Holy Mass was celebrated on Sunday, October 27, 2013 amidst an atmosphere of deep recollection and prayer. The Pope invited all to rediscover the dimension of simplicity of joy in prayer. “Pray in the family, for one another,” he said. Regarding faith: “Let’s not keep it of ourselves as if it were our bank account,” but share it through our witness and openness to others, urging us to go out to the peripheries (complete text of Pope Francis’ homily) The event had been preceeded by the 21st Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family (October 23-25, 2013). “The family is founded on the indissoluble matrimonial unity between a man and a woman, and it is open to life, it is the engine of the history and of the world,” the Pope affirmed, but “but we should want to be near to couples in crisis and near to those who are separated.” This is the reason and goal for the 2014-2015 Synod on the Family, “not to redefine the theology of matrimony and the family,” specified Bishop Paglia, “but to welcome and listen to families, living in various and complex situations.” For more: www.familia.va
Video on CTV Romereports http://youtu.be/AIo6T_uCNg0
Youth: A Radical Choice
“Rather than sharing my personal story – Stefano Isolan, a young Italian shares – I would like to talk about the community that raised me.
In 1986 my parents, farmers for generations, moved to Loppiano putting themselves at the service of the little city of the Focolare Movement. I was only three years old. We found ourselves immersed in a very welcoming reality, both on the part of the focolarini as well as the neighbours who introduced us to the Tuscany farming culture. Thanks to them my love for this earth grew throughout the years up to the point of pushing me towards embarking on the study of agriculture.
Working in the Loppiano Farm was a big gift: an enterprise that puts love and respect for the earth at its center, the cooperation among the workers and shareholders, with the aim of generating good and healthy products.
In Loppiano I saw people from all over the world come and go. It became natural for me to have friends of different cultures and religions. I experienced firsthand that, by giving space to the love that God has placed in the heart of every person, a united world is possible.
In the meantime, I had developed many friendships at Incisa (the nearby town) and in Florence, I started dating a young girl and I participated in the life of the parish. Together with the parish priest we experienced the authentic and fruitful love of the Gospel. A love that shows us the road that God has thought of, for our full realization. From this group in fact, beautiful families were formed, three vocations to the religious life, and one to the priesthood: tangible fruits of the Love of God among us. I felt myself to be a part of a community that has given me so much and for which I felt the need of giving something in return. I committed myself to associationism, in particular in the Workshop for Peace.
In the Spring of 2004, I was invited to run as a candidate for the Town Council of Incisa. After days of reflection and consultation with the young people of the Focolare with whom I shared everything and also with my friends in Incisa, I answered positively to that which seemed to me a way of giving back the good things that I have received. They were five years lived in close contact with the people. In the midst of sacrifices, successes and some failures, we worked – each one according to his or her own beliefs – to make our Town more livable for each and every person. A concrete example was that of the segregated rubbish collection. With the committment of the council and the all the citizens we became one of the most virtuous towns in Tuscany. I cannot also forget the big aim of uniting the town councils of Incisa and Figline, the result of years of collaboration and consultation with the citizens.
Bolivia 2012: Stefano with his sisters
And thus, my natural family, the Focolare Movement, the parish, the community of Incisa, the nature itself which surrounded me, started to become always more, one reality. I wanted to put myself at the full-time service of this big family. But I didn’t know how. Gradually an idea started to form within me: answer to the love I have received with Love. I felt the call of God to the priesthood which, for me, meant directing my life to His service, and as a consequence to the service of my brothers and of the whole humanity. Certainly it was not easy to leave all my activities. And it was even more difficult to leave my people and my land to enter the Seminary. But God himself made me experience the words of Jesus: “Whoever leaves father. mother, fields, for my name with receive a hundred times more …” (Mt 19,20). And it was really like this. Even if I entered the Seminary in 2007, I was able to conclude my term as Town Councilor up to the end of the legislature in 2009, and in 2014 I will be ordained a priest.
I would like to bear witness that it is worth it to live of one another, to work to make our world more beautiful, it is worth it to love, there where each one of us is called to do so. And I cannot but thank God for this cannot every morning and every evening!”.
(Experience shared by Stefano Isolan on September 15, 2013)
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