![A preschool called Arcoiris, ‘doing good’ in a Venezuelan suburb]()
1 Jun 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Colinas de Guacamaya is a rundown district of Valencia, an major industrial city of Venezuela. As in other parts of the world, many parents have nowhere to send their children during working hours.
Several years ago, Ofelia, a Volunteer of the Focolare Movement, started Arcoiris preschool in the garden of her own home. Here children receive personal attention and are given the basics to be properly prepared for primary school.
There are about 40 children who come to the kindergarten and their ages range from four to … fourteen! Indeed since, for a whole host reasons unconnected with their own choices, many children do not attend normal school, the decision has been made to offer them the chance to carry on learning within a preschool environment.
Some time ago there was a shootout between the police and the organized crime gang in control of the district. It was not the first time; six people had already been killed. But this time it was right next to the preschool.
Ofelia said, ‘To stop the children being frightened we got them to sing. Then, when their mothers, full of worry and fear, came to collect them I spoke to each of them, trying calm them and explaining that they had to keep control of themselves for their children’s sake. I invited them to pray together for the violence to end.’
And Ofelia went on to say, ‘The next day the children and I cast the “cube of love” and when the face turned up that said “love everyone”, the children asked, “What, gang members too?” and “Even the police?” We then asked the children to pray freely and what they said was beautiful in its innocence. A four-year-old girl asked that there should be no more guns in the world and a boy asked God to help him love more and to change the hearts of the criminals.’
Another area of work for Arcoiris is the relationship with the parents. It is very important because the children are in the preschool only for a few years and so their experience, however positive and rich in values, is temporary. Their parents, on the other hand, have a long time to form them as persons.
This year the preschool looked at the theme of ‘How can we communicate with our children?’. In the various workshops activities for the parents were run by the teachers themselves, who had generously accepted to spend a whole Sunday dedicated to this. They were aware that they were making a real investment in the future of their students.
Arcoiris is a small seed of hope in a violent suburb of Venezuela.
![A preschool called Arcoiris, ‘doing good’ in a Venezuelan suburb]()
31 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
It was July 1991. Chiara Lubich was travelling in Brazil. She was struck by the ‘crown of thorns’, the slums or the favelas, surrounding the huge cities she visited. In response to the people’s conditions of poverty, she launched a project: the Economy of Communion. When she returned to Italy she spoke of this inspiration to several business people. Her words, recalls Luigi Delfi who was present, ‘challenged entrepreneurs to embrace the philosophy of sharing a third of their profits with those who are most poor. This intuition of hers was, for me, overwhelming.’
Luigi had had a thirty-year experience as a designer in a firm making lighting equipment. He saw a secret harmony in it because ‘to have a good light you need prisms that are distinct from one another but at the same time solidly united.’
Chiara’s proposal seemed to Luigi like a personal call. ‘It immediately grabbed me,’ he said, ‘because I come from a family that knows the value of sacrifice.’ Luigi became one of the founder members of ECIE, the first Italian business to follow the principles of the Economy of Communion.
An association at a distance grew up with Chiara, consisting in letters asking advice and swift replies on how to proceed. ‘Every step I took with the new business was considered with her,’ he affirmed. Chiara taught him how not let his characteristic of being like a small volcano of light be suffocated by egoism and how to give himself to others as he continued to be creative and effective.
Over time his firm became the most important international supplier for the motorcycle industry of lighting equipment, with contacts from Japan to the United States. Luigi’s wife and his daughter, Erika, joined his team.
The challenge is still there, especially in the current economic crisis. ‘This is the reason why today the Economy of Communion as proposed by Chiara,’ Luigi said in conclusion, ‘is increasingly necessary and is a call to each of us in the first place as persons, because it makes us able to offer our own contribution within the economic sphere.’
Source: ‘Da una scintilla un vulcano di luce’ (‘From a Spark a Volcano of Light’), by Mariagrazia Baroni, Città Nuova, 25 May 2013, pp. 38-39.
![A preschool called Arcoiris, ‘doing good’ in a Venezuelan suburb]()
30 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Leonardo Barquilla, Jesús Lozada, Augusto Blanca
It was entitled “Misa trovera del Abandonado”: it’s composer, Dr Jesús Lozada, Cuban poet and writer, wished to express with the rhythms of trova and with deep and inspired texts, his filial love and gratitude for Lubich. The trova is a traditional Cuban rhythm, associated with the figure of the trovadores, travelling musicians. Through his writing, Lozada expressed his understanding of Jesus’ cry on the cross: ‘Why have you forsaken me? ‘. This is one of the pillars of the spirituality that derives from the charism of unity, and that can “enlighten economics and politics, theology and philosophy, science and art”.
Augusto Blanca, a noted Nueva Trova composer and songwriter, set the words to music, while Leonardo Barquilla did the musical arrangement for the choir and orchestra.
This was the basis that lead to an experience of artistic sharing, wherein Lozada involved some of the most significant musical personalities on the Island. They were engaged in several days of work, to give the best of themselves, guided only by a great love and devotion.
The concert was held on the 24th May in the beautiful Dominican church of San Juan Letrán, in the Vedado district. The audience – more than 300 people – included the Apostolic Nuncio in Cuba, Archbishop Bruno Musarò, representatives from the ecumenical sphere, delegates of some embassies, and many artists. The event’s multifacetedness was grasped by Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement, who in a message send “wished all those present to experience that atmosphere of true fraternity that Chiara had always promoted and in which the Focolare Movement is engaged. Thus, even through music, we can help forge bonds of esteem and collaboration throughout the world”.
The program displayed an ensemble performance by 16 musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra directed by maestro Leonardo Barquilla, together with the international renowned Exaudi choir, directed by the soprano Maria Felicia Pérez. Her voice, one of the most beautiful of Cuba, was moving in the interpretation of “Maria de la soledad”, which expressed the pain of a mother on the death of her son. A rousing standing ovation sealed this artistic fellowship; the musicians involved expressed their determination to continue the artistic sharing embarked upon.
Cuban journalist, Germán Piniella, commented in one of the leading newspapers on the Island: “The merit of this first mass composed by a Cuban trovadore, is the ability to move both believers as well as those who are not. After all, both can share the artistic sensibility in front of an artistic fact of this significance, following the saying that “giving is better than receiving”; something that every honest mind can accept”.
![A preschool called Arcoiris, ‘doing good’ in a Venezuelan suburb]()
29 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
The commitment within the Constituent Assembly that would have decided the fate of post-war Italy, a commitment to peace and the support for the most needy, the commitment to ecumenism: these are some of the affinities between the two figures of Giordan and La Pira deeply linked by harmony and friendship, which were highlighted at the conference “Igino Giordani and Giorgio La Pira: virtues and politics” held on the 25th May in Florence. There were about 250 people, including some of Giordani’s family members and many young international students from the La Pira Centre, dedicated to the mayor who governed Florence from 1951 to 1964. The centre, which was entrusted by cardinal Benelli from its very inception to the Focolare Movement, has become an important place for dialogue and fraternity within the Tuscan capital city.
Giordani was one of the most important politicians and intellectuals of post-war Italy, but also “co-founder” of the Focolare Movement. He is known within the movement as “Foco”. He did his utmost to promote a politics based on service to the community and fraternal dialogue. “It’s an initiative that could undoubtedly appear today as daring,” said Alberto Lo Presti, president of the Igino Giordani Centre, in his speech. “Though, of course, – he continued – it wasn’t to a lesser extent during the parliamentary experience of Giordani, at the height of the cold war. What led him to such daring was the encounter with the ideal of unity of Chiara Lubich on the 17th September 1948. An ideal that Lubich gave to the world, and that Giordani knew also how to convey within politics”.
The promotion of peace and European integration were among the cornerstones of Giordani’s parliamentary career, as analyzed by Prof. Bagnato, professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Florence: “The essence of his pacifism – he recalled – lies in his vocation to dialogue on an international level, as well as on the internal and relational one”. It’s a vocation that led the Honourable Giordani to promote numerous initiatives (such as the first bill for the objection of conscience and a parliamentary understanding to defend peace), working both with members of the party, as well as with those who were then diametrically opposed.
The event, which saw the participation of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, opened with the greetings of the Archbishop of Florence, cardinal Betori. What followed was a succession of presentations by various scholars – from Prof. Luppi, professor of Contemporary History at the Sophia University Institute, to Prof. Monticone, historian and former national president of the Catholic Action. The event also hosted the Florence May Festival Orchestra.
At the end of the event, one of the young students present shared: “I find completely relevant and necessary, now as never before, the desire that marked Giordani’s way of understanding politics: ‘There is a need for saints in Parliament! “.
![A preschool called Arcoiris, ‘doing good’ in a Venezuelan suburb]()
27 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
After attending the deeply moving meeting of the Movements, new associations and communities with Pope Francis at Pentecost, Focolare President Maria Voce and Co-President Giancarlo Falletti travelled to the south of Germany.
On 24 May, in Freiburg, they met Archbishop Rober Zollitsch, the President of the German Bishops’ Conference. Archbishop Zollitsch was interested in the work and spread of the Focolare Movement in Germany and in the world. He encouraged the Movement to give its contribution to the Church and to society.
In that very friendly atmosphere Maria Voce spoke of the commitment of the international community of the Focolare in the field of ecumenism and interfaith dialogue. She explained to the Archbishop that in countries where they are, the Focolare centres always try to meet local needs. ‘For that reason our little town in Ottmaring has an explicitly ecumenical character.’
The Archbishop heard about the priests who live Focolare spirituality and he emphasized how important it can be for all priests to be involved in a living spiritual community. He was delighted with the faith formation courses that the Movement offers in the south of Germany to young people: ‘In a society where there is often a lack of courage in making decisions and taking commitments, it’s important that young people have witnesses to faith in their own environments.’
The Archbishop also said how impressed he was by the previous day’s meeting in Stuttgart of bishops from various churches and representatives of the Movements in the ‘Together for Europe’ network. Among those present at the meeting was Nikolaus Schneider, the President the German Evangelical Church. The warm relationship among the Movements and the communities that organized the meeting, one of which was the Focolare Movement, had struck him: ‘They told us about the pact, the covenant of mutual love that they made during one of their first meetings. And you could feel that this love was alive among them, that this pact shapes their relationships even today.’
The Focolare’s strong point, in the Archbishop’s opinion, was in managing to motivate people ‘not only to live and confess the faith, but also to share their experiences with one another, to speak of their faith. We lack this in Germany! Indeed, here the faith is often reduced to a private matter.’
He concluded by expressing his hopes and an observation: ‘The contribution of the Movements is an enrichment also for our parishes. The Movements, like the Focolare, can inspire a great many persons to live a genuine and active life of faith. They are a gift of the Holy Spirit for our times.’
By Andrea Fleming
![A preschool called Arcoiris, ‘doing good’ in a Venezuelan suburb]()
24 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
It is the School of Civil Economy, called SEC in Italian which stands for ‘Scuola di economia civile’. Among its founders are some of the most important bodies in Italy: Associazione cristiani lavoratori italiani (ACLI, Association of Italian Christian Workers), Banca Popolare Etica (People’s Ethical Bank), Cooperazione Trentina (Trent Regional Co-operation), Economy of Communion (EoC), Federazione delle Banche di credito cooperativo (Federcasse, Federation of Cooperative Commercial Canks), the Sophia University Institute and the Polo Lionello Bonfanti (Lionello Bonfanti Business Centre). They officially established it on 19 May 2013 in Loppiano, near Florence, Italy.
Silvia Vacca, a young entrepreneur from the north of Italy, in the last few months has been in the front line in setting up SEC. She is about to become president of its administrative council. In an interview on the Economy of Communion’s website, she said: ‘It is a school that is also a research project that hopes to promote a civil and civilizing market, one that puts, at the centre of its economy activity, the human person with all his or her needs, aspirations and possibilities for flourishing. This kind of market is one where people interact for their mutual benefit and looking towards the common good, as opposed to a utilitarian approach or looking only to maximize profits which is the pattern that has spread across the world and that has led to the current crisis.’
It is, then, a study centre engaged in innovative research that redefines market relations against the background of the failure of individualistic capitalism, a failure that is no longer a theoretical proposition within academia but daily experience for many.
Its research programme is directed by Stefano Zamagni, Luigino Bruni and Renato Ruffini, who for many years have been promoting civil economy. They are flanked by a teaching community drawn from well-known scholars from the major Italian universities.
SEC’s proposal comes from the need to create awareness of a number of economic principles, especially those that touch upon the human person and the common good, in those areas of life that, because of their legal requirements or their openness to these principles, are in harmony with its principles. It offers education and training aimed in the first instance at people, currently or about to be, in positions of leadership within institutions, associations and businesses. SEC aims also at schools and intends to run study programmes for teachers and people in authority in education.
Courses begin in the autumn of 2013, following the official launch of SEC on 20 September during ‘LoppianoLab’ which takes place every year in Polo Lionello Bonfanti (Lionello Bonfanti Business Centre), which is home to its administrative centre in Loppiano.
