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16 Dec 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
Luca Pani (Cagliari)
With some members of Youth for a United World, we have begun a special experience in the Buoncammino prison in Cagliari, Italy. We were offered the opportunity of presenting an hour of catechesis to the inmates at the jails. We divided up, some in the left wing, some in the women’s jail and some in the high security section. This was an opportunity for us to dedicate some time to these persons, “other Jesuses”, who never come your way because of their condition, and whom you never have an opportunity of ever meeting under normal circumstances.
Stepping into a jail is stepping into a society that is completely different from the one we live in, a small world in miniature, with its own rhythm, customs and problems. An inmate begins to lose contact with the outside world. Oftentimes relations with family and friends become clouded and some inmates sink into solitude and depression. But within this world you find yourself surrounded by people whose lives are connected . . . new friendships are formed, new relationships. And even though there is a long term sentence, they no longer find life outside but within the bars of the jail.
When you listen carefully to an inmate, stories, problems and lives are presented to you that are not like your own. And you begin to see how important freedom is and how difficult it is to really live it within this world.
Inside I found nice, normal, perhaps clever people . . . but thinking about it, you also find such people outside of jails. They ask you, “Why did you come into this jail? Who made you do it? Why aren’t you outside running around with your friends? You certainly have nicer things to do than this?” The answer was simple. I told them that if I were an inmate, I would like it if someone came to visit me just to break the monotony.
Then I discover that gratuitous love is not a given. On the contrary, it is practically inexistent for some of them. A gesture of courtesy or love should at least be followed with some respect if not gratitude.
When I returned from the Genfest that was held in Budapest, Hungary, I was carrying a thought in my mind, something I had heard during the fest: “If you don’t change your world, who will do it for you?” Finding myself among these inmates, after that extraordinary experience of universal brotherhood, I was a bit surprised. Everyone fell silent as my friends and I told the inmates about the various events: the bus ride, the food, the experiences. They listened and intervened with interest. We were so tempted by the desire to share with them the experience of the United World Project, and we asked them: “According to you is a united world where disinterested love reaches beyond cultures and religions, possible? Then a very lively debate was begun.
We don’t know what will come of this. We don’t know whether one of those young men among the inmates has decided to cooperate with justice after meeting us, or how it will turn out. This experience has borne some fruit in my own soul, and it has revived my convictions as a youth for a united world. This is one fragment of the united world that is becoming something real.
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12 Dec 2012 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
Willie, speaking to 12,000 young people at Genfest 2012 in Budapest, said: ‘Violence has taken hold of Mexico because of drug trafficking. Fear, hatred and lack of trust have spread over many of our cities. Families have been threatened and had to hide or flee to other cities. There is gang warfare among groups wanting to control areas of the city. Many innocent young people die in bars and clubs and in other public places. ‘One of the young people killed was my cousin Mauricio. He was on his way back from the opening of a new bar when he and other young people were killed by a group of “druggies” who shot into the crowd. ‘It was a terrible shock for me and I was dismayed and angry. Two days later, in a family reunion, a relative came in telling us he was pleased justice had been done. The bodies of 10 young people had been found – thought to be those guilty of the shootings. I felt even worse about this because, however bad the provocation had been, it was obvious that revenge and hatred could not put things right. ‘I could choose between starting to hate or breaking the cycle of violence by forgiving. I chose to forgive. Even though I would never see my cousin again, I could go on building relationships of fraternity with everyone around me. ‘I was part of a group of Youth for a United World, who supported me in this tough moment, and with even greater focus and commitment we carried on doing what we were doing to spread a culture of non-violence. We are sure that together we can stop the hatred and bring our country back to the atmosphere of peace, harmony and hospitality that has always been characteristic of the Mexican people. ‘Our first appointment was “the celebration of friendship”, a party aimed at kindling new and positive relationships. With the funds we raised, we helped a young guy who had been paralysed after an accident. Another thing we did was to go to the football stadium and distribute stickers and posters with the message: “Peace comes from Love.” ‘But apart from all these initiatives, we believe most of all that the little acts of peace in our daily life create, in silence, an atmosphere of fraternity even Torreón.’ Genfest 2012
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10 Dec 2012 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
With interactive presentations and designed to be fast, the new website of Mariapolis Lia, the Focolare little town in the midst of the Argentine Pampas, looks completely fresh.
The new layout allows anyone browsing the site to find out about what is happening in the little town, its programmes and its various activities. The photo galleries are constantly updated and allow a virtual visit everywhere in the Mariapolis.
The menus open up to show the little town’s origins, its various schools where people come to experience gospel life 24 hours a day, its workplaces, resistances and the Economy of Communion project in the industrial area at beginning of the town called ‘Solidaridad’.
Part of the website is dedicated to the numerous groups who visit during the year. It has photos, accounts of people’s impressions and testimonies of what they have experienced, during their time at the Mariapolis, of the law of mutual love.
Last April, a Focolare audio-visual group (Centro Santa Chiara) made a video documentary about the little town, its development and numerous activities. It has interviews with the people who live in the Mariapolis, among whom are many young people from various countries who come to spend shorter or longer periods at there. The documentary is accompanied by a photo brochure and leaflet explaining in greater depth this ‘miracle occurring the midst of the Argentine Pampas’.
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8 Dec 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
For the ancients the Christ was a king. But Christ is a king outside the accepted schemes. He was born to a daughter of peasants, in a stable amongst cattle and shepherds. While other sovereigns loomed from above and looked down from their thrones dominate and rule, he came from below, from the bottom layer, to serve: under all, the universal servant. And in this service did his kingship consist. It’s all so charming and lovely this romance about the birth of a baby boy in the heart of a windy night – in the heart of the mists of time – a child who has been sent for safety. Because the world was in need of being saved. It was full of evil, infused by a sickness, a fever in which humanity just fell apart. Jesus brought health, restored life and defeated death. When the Saviour appeared a great light lit up the night. The night was still there, but so was the light. It is forever Christmas in Christianity. You never yield to death; you begin again. And Christmas amid her tears, brings joy even today. God comes down among us and we ascend to God. He is humanized and we are divinised. His Heart is the meeting point. From his birth a new people was born, as the angel had proclaimed to astonished shepherds: Do not be frightened. Behold I bring you great tidings of great joy that shall be to the entire population. The entire population, joy: no one is excluded – no one of any class, race, language or colour – for wherever discrimination takes place, there death has its impact. The Church is there for Christ because just as he was born for everyone during that night in Bethlehem, every day he is reborn for everyone anew. And he asks that we do not refuse him but open to him the hospitality of our hearts even though they may be squallid as stables. He will take care of transforming them into temples filled with angels.
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5 Dec 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
The 30th of November was a day of feasting in at Patriarchal Basilica of the Phanar in Istanbul, the celebration of the Solemnity of St. Andrew the Apostle, Patron of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. “The exchange of Delegations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople [. . .] testifies in a concrete way to the close bond of fraternity that unites us. This is a real and profound communion, though still imperfect, which is not based on human courtesy and co-existence, but on the common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” These are the words that were written by Benedict XVI in his message to His Holiness Bartholomew I, underscoring how the full communion is a gift from God and assuring the Patriarch of his unity of prayer as well as that of all the Catholic faithful. The president of the Pontifical Counsel for the Promotion of the Unity of Christians, Cardinal Kurt Koch, had guided this year’s delegation of the Holy See. In his address the Patriarch highlighted the importance of moving as brothers towards Christ as he delineated today’s ecumenical journey. His message was neither simplistic nor did it limit itself to being optimistic. It was an invitation to seek the path that must be taken in the present moment with a realistic reading of the past, and a desire to sincerely find the ways for drawing closer to each other. In this undertaking he indicated dialogue as the means par excellence for dispersing fear, suspicion and prejudice, dialogue which has as its goal “the Eucharistic Communion to which we all aspire.” [It is] a dialogue that facilitates mutual understanding in order to “arrive at the fullness of truth” (Jn. 16:13). There was also an appeal for “Good Samaritans” to be neighbours for humanity that suffers today in various ways due to many “crises”. [It was] an appeal that we should be neighbours “together” so that we can be united in proclaiming the Lord’s power and mercy. After he emotionally recalled his attendance at the 50th anniversary celebrations of Vatican II that had opened new paths, and the upcoming anniversary of the 1700 years of the Edict of Milan, he joyfully announced that the work that is underway for the Pan-Orthodox Council is coming to a close. 
On Saturday morning (1 December 2012), Cardinal Koch and Metropolitan Gennadios from Sassima met with some representatives of the local Catholic community, talking informally about the ecumenical journey between the two sister Churches, tracing the challenges and the prospects in the process towards full unity since 50 years after the Second Vatican Council. In the dialogue that followed Metropolitan Gennadios noted how the social priorities that are the consequence of the crisis, had given secondary importance to the ecumenical dialogue. His twenty-year experience at the mixed theological commission leads him to foresee a renewed impulse for finding solutions together and, in this way, giving a common life witness. Cardinal Koch referred to a painting that portrays the embrace between the Apostles Peter and Andrew that hangs in the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. He underscored that the embrace between the two of them is a sign of His presence. He concluded by asking everyone to pray for unity, recalling that Jesus had not commanded it but asked it of the Father as His gift to us.
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1 Dec 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
“I work in the Customs Authority and I’m coming close to the end of my career. A long journey of 29 years! There were joys and sorrows, but especially difficult choices. Since the beginning of my career, as a woman and even moreso as a Christian, I had scruples of conscience. How could I listen to the voice of God and follow it in an environment of easy money and comprimise that seemed inevitable? The answer was given to me in 1984. That year I met the Focolare Movement, and I was struck by these simple and happy people. They possessed a freedom and joy that I had never experienced. I wanted to know more. The secret turned out to be love for God and for others.
This encounter has transformed my life. I began to realize that the most important thing in life is to love. You profession doesn’t matter much. The task you’ve been given is a great opportunity to love God and your brothers and sisters. This changed everything! My colleagues and clients were no longer barriers, but they became partners with whom I could build unity.
The continual effort to go beyond my own limits and those of others, in order to go against the current, has always been accompanied by the joy that you experience after rendering some service. It is a feeling of freedom each time, that I was able to renounce my own interests as well as the easy money.
In 1999 I was awarded the Excellence Award by the Cameroon Women Customs Officers Association. The Word of Life for that month was: “Let you light shine before others, so taht they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in the heavens” (Mt. 5:14-16).
With this award I felt like I was being called upon in person: “Hang in there, don’t give into your doubts and discouragement, improve each day.”
At the end of my career, I experienced that no profession is the antechamber of hell! I saw that our specific roll in society as Christians is to do everything we do with a new spirit, with complete adhesion to God’s will. He has always accompanied us with His grace.”
(Jeanne – Cameroon)
