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Oct 16, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
“I’m an African studying in Northern Italy. Some time ago I read an article in a magazine in which the author spoke of a “night” that had fallen over Western culture, causing it to lose authentic Christian values. To tell the truth, I didn’t really understand the meaning of the text until something happened that opened my eyes. It was a Saturday afternoon. Some guys who live nearby invited me to to go out with them for an evening together. They wanted to do something different. There were six or seven of us. At first we went to a dance at a local place. At first it was fun, they told me that the music was in my blood and that I really knew how to dance. But I soon noticed that the people around me were dancing without any respect for themselves or for others. They weren’t dancing for the sheer enjoyment of it, but in order to taunt each other with mixed messages. I heard the subtle voice within me telling me to go against the current by dancing with dignity and with love that was sincere.
A few hours later, my friends wanted to go to another place. I went along, after all, they were my friends, and I accepted their proposal. We reached a place and went in. Without any time to realize where I was, surrounded by such loud music, psychedelic lights and an acrid odour that was filling my nose, I found myself feeling quite shocked. This wasn’t a normal disco, there were young women there prostituting themselves. I felt disappointed and angry. Without saying a word I turned around and walked out. One of my friends followed me. He insulted me, calling me backward. I didn’t answer him. A few moments later another friend came up to me, not to insult me but to agree with me. Finally another friend slipped out of the place and he also agreed with me. Without saying a word about my Christian beliefs or that I believe in God, they all saw and understood. A few months passed. I never thought about the incident again. One day one of the guys came to me and apologized, telling me that he didn’t want to go to places like that. This experience helped me to more radically understand why it is necessary to risk and say “no” to certain things.”
This story of Yves from Cameroon, is one of 94 stories published in “Good News” recently published in Italian by Citta Nuova, as a positive contribution to the New Evangelization. It has a preface written by Maria Voce. The protagonists of these stories are young people, families, professionals, workers, directors, consecrated religious and priests who face daily challenges with the help of the Gospel. A people that believes, lives, moves and engages others, with due respect for the beliefs and experience of all, with the awareness that every human being brings something good to the great human family.
Do you have some good news to share?
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Oct 15, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
In this humanitarian crisis, a million and a half Syrian refugees have had to flee their homes.
Having no other choice than to leave house, work and friends would be quite traumatic, but a million and a half Syrians have had to flee from the “hot” regions of their land and head toward less dangerous ones. And according to the latest UN numbers, 311,000 have sought haven in countries along the border: Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. There is no way to predict when they will be able to return home or what they will find if they do.
There is no foreseeable solution to the conflict situation that has put government forces and opposition forces on opposite sides. On the contrary, there is fear that the crisis will extend to the international level.
And yet, the wind of the Arab Spring had raised hopes in the power of nonviolence and in the push towards a peaceful democratic reform in the country where peaceful coexistence among different religious groups has never aroused serious problems. Then everything fell.
While still new diplomatic solutions are being sought, and hoping that the true soul of the Syrian people can emerge and fulfil its aspirations of peaceful coexistence without fragmenting the country, attempts are being made to assist the population.
The Focolare in Lebanon is on the front lines in aiding the refugees. There the communities have responded generously to this emergency situation, placing everything they could at their disposal: money and goods. Some Syrian families have been given lodging at the Mariapolis Centre in Ain Aar, while others are being hosted in other parts of the country. “They would like to return to Syria,” they write from the Movement in Lebanon, “but the situation doesn’t allow it. Therefore we’ve enrolled the children in Lebanese schools as we wait to see how things evolve. The refugees give what they can, but the cost of living in Lebanon is five times higher than in Syria, and their economic resources quickly run out.”
© Photo UNICEF HQ
Meanwhile, in Syria, the progressive loss of work for the closure of many factories, the collapse of trade and rising prices of basic commodities, especially oil and gas, makes life a drama for many families and their future very disturbing. Therefore it is important not to leave the population alone and without help, but to offer every possible aid.
United World Association (AMU), an NGO inspired by the spirituality of the Focolare Movement, coordinates funds and emergency assistance in collaboration with local groups. At the moment the funds that have been gathered are used to provide basic supplies (food, housing, health care fees) to for refugee families and families that have fled within Syria. In Lebanon refugee children are being enrolled in Lebanese schools.
Anyone wishing to make a financial contribution to assist the Syrian people, may do so using the following bank account details:
ACCOUNT NAME: Associazione Azione per un Mondo Unito
BANK NAME: Banca Popolare Etica (Rome branch)
IBAN: IT16G0501803200000000120434
SWIFT/BIC: CCRTIT2184D
Description: “Aiuti alle famiglie siriane” (Emergency aid to Syrian families) or “Scolarizzazione bambini siriani” (“Syrian children schooling”)
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Oct 11, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
Leyland is a charming city of Lancanshire, near Preston (UK), which grew quickly after 1950 because of the expansion of the automobile industry and others. Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists and other Christians have lived together in this area for more than three hundred years. “In the 1980’s,” John recounts, “some people from St. Mary’s parish attended a Mariapolis and were so well impressed by it that, afterwards, they invited more parishioners to attend. In order to pay for the registration fee they sold sandwiches after Mass! Some people were curious and offered their talents organizing celebrations, music nights, quiz games, and theatrical performances that all helped to gather funds, but also brought the people of the parish together. And so each year the number of people attending the Mariapolis increased and when they returned to the parish they tried to live the spirit of unity that they had experienced at the Mariapolis, in the parish.” 
Leslie continues: “Evangelization is not a theory, but a way of life that engages everyone: those who go to church regularly, those who go seldom and also those who are not interested in religion at all. Each person is appreciated for who he or she is and is involved in this joint venture like Julie who does not talk and finds it hard to move around. She helps with the cleaning at the parish and offers hope and encouragement to the people who work with her. Julie, who found the faith a few years ago, is truly a symbol of what is happening here: welcoming everyone, welcoming the poor and needy, caring for the sick, the elderly – all in a spirit of joy. The Church is open to everyone. It once hosted a Hindu funeral, because the family could find no other place to have it. Many of their family and friends attended, and they were all very struck by the welcome they found.” “This year, there were two hundred Confirmation candidates,” John explains, “and preparations for the Sacraments required a huge amount of work, but the unity among the animators allowed us to overcome all the obstacles. As a service to the local population we have special ceremonies for pre-school children in wheelchairs and for those who take care of them. In this way we meet many people who do not attend church. We join with the St. Vincent de Paul Society in caring for the elderly, the sick and the lonely, visiting them and bringing them material assistance that is often the fruit of the communion among nearby parishes. Recently the Newman Fund was instituted, sponsored by our parish with the goal of helping people in need. This help covers the cost of school transport for some of the children who live in this area. It also administers the communion of goods and the distribution of furniture and clothing to families in need.” 
John continues, “The pastoral council is attentive to the local population and supports people’s participation and the communion among all, with the help of many volunteer animators. They also collaborate with ten other churches nearby. The ecumenical group that began spontaneously is very active. When the wife of a lay Methodist preacher died, the first one to call on him was our parish priest. Many of us Catholics attended the funeral in the Methodist church. These kinds of relationships are the order of the day now.” “On the exterior of our church,” John concludes, “there is a Latin phrase that says: ‘Where charity and love are, God is there’. It’s quite a programme! Indeed we would like our parish to be a spark of light for the world around us.”
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Oct 7, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
I am Nacho from Argentina and I am 25 years old. For many years I played with one of the best football teams in Argentina. My life was organized around sport and I was going to play professionally. I was engaged to a girl who since she was little lived the same ideal of life I have, one based on Gospel values. We dreamed of getting married and having lots of children. I had many plans for how my life would be with her.
But while I thanked God for having been with me throughout my life and for what I was living with Lucia, I felt as if God was saying inside me, ‘Nacho, are you willing to follow me, leaving all behind and consecrating your life to me alone?’ I immediately felt I wanted to say, ‘Of course I am.’
I asked myself what giving ‘my all’ could mean and I understood that God was asking me to follow him by leaving my present family: father, mother, brothers and sisters and, above all, leaving my possible future family. I talked to Lucia about it. It wasn’t easy for either of us but, with tears in my eyes, that day I had confirmation of the decision I was about to take: to follow Jesus as a focolarino, in the path first trodden by Chiara Lubich.
It’s not easy to explain what I experience living out the things Jesus has promised, that is, that no one leaves house, father, mother, children and does not receive back in this life a hundredfold what has been left. This is my experience day after day, for example in giving some of my time to someone in need and feeling this person truly my brother or sister, sharing in suffering or in joy. Some days ago I got back home dead tired from work and all I wanted was to have a rest. Another focolarino was making the evening meal asked me to give him a hand because he was late. I began to help, just like that, forgetting my tiredness, and I felt the joy of being able to live for him.
Having these small experiences, I’m able to discover even more of myself. I see that my limits become a springboard for growth and my horizons are widened, especially when it comes to other cultures. Living together with people from other countries I feel that the only real barriers are the ones inside us. And this makes me overcome the fear of the unknown, of what is different from me, because I’ve understood that diversity doesn’t so much create division as serve make us more complete.
Now I’m in Switzerland finishing my training as a focolarino. I don’t yet know which focolare in the world I’ll go to, who I’ll be living with, but I feel that God calls me personally to build up fraternity in the world, embracing the whole human family with a free heart, and I want to spend my life for this ideal .
From Genfest 2012
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Oct 2, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
Brulica la vita at the Loppiano Farmstead (Fattoria Loppiano), in Tuscany’s Chianti hills, has been teeming with life during this harvest season. Also in the surrounding areas which have historically been the location for other important farmsteads that over time have made this place flourish agriculturally and in the development of the local community. The arrival of the Focolare in Loppiano, in the mid 1970’s was a noticeable boost in the development of the region, also with the construction of the Cooperativa Loppiano Prima, in 1973 which, in nearly forty years, has had surprising developments. “The Loppiano Farmstead was begun in 2004 in order to put the well-known Cooperativa Loppiano Prima on track with new Italian legislation on agricultural cooperatives,” recounts Giorgio Balduzzi, who is the general director of the Farmstead. “The Cooperative sold its strictly agricultural activities to a new company formed by the worker-members. Thus was born the Loppiano Farmstead of which the Cooperative is a majority supporting member.” Beginning with the numbers: the farm consists of 200 hectares of land, distributed among vineyards, olive groves and arable land used for certified organic planting. Products include those typical of the Tuscan hills: Chianti wine, vin santo, grappa, cereals such as barley and durum wheat pasta. In addition there are 5,000 olive trees of different varieties, which yield extra virgin olive oil obtained by cold pressing. 
In recent years, some apartments have been renovated to be used for agricultural tourists. With their local Tuscan décor, they offer warm and welcoming accommodations for visitors to the farmstead. Aside from the guest lodgings, the farmstead also offers other amenities: pool, mountain-biking, private tennis lessons and tours of the farm with opportunities to enjoy its tasty products. Staying overnight on the farm allows for more daytime activities at the “teaching farm” for student guests from primary and secondary schools, universities, families and groups from other European countries. Staying overnight at the business company will enable a guest to take part in activities in the “production, sales and profit, but also the foretelling “Economy of Communion” with its emphasis on fraternity and reciprocity. How do these words come together in reference to the experience of the Cooperative and on the Farmstead? Giorgio Balduzzin continues: “At the basis of it all is the will to bring about a new way of running a business based on listening to one another and understanding, welcoming the ideas of others even when they are different from ones’ own; showing respect for others and accepting diversity as an enrichment of thought, having a collegial outlook for the good of the business.” This challenge is not something that is taken for granted. There are difficult moments as well, “moments in which we have to remember the reason why we are working together, respecting and coordinating our roles, the hierarchy; setting as our target every morning fraternity, which is the foundation of our choice in life.” Despite the present crisis, the peace for moving forward is the fruit of important experiences, which have been aimed at appreciating and valuing people’s talents, personal relationships and the goods of the business. Thanks to this open sharing of problems, a vital and propelling energy is injected into the group which makes each worker be part of a united body, capable of finding innovative solutions that look to the future, and are faithful to the Gospel in the concrete events of each day. Compiled by Paolo Balduzzi
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Oct 1, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
‘The spirituality of unity or of communion gave me the chance to understand and live with greater self-giving the sublime vocation of baptism, my consecration as a friar, as a priest and a bishop.’ These words, summing up his work for God and the Focolare contribution to it, contain the spiritual memorial of Msgr Lucas Donnelly, the bishop of Deán Funes in Argentina who died on 31 August at the age of 91. For twelve years he lived in the Focolare little town (Lia) in O’Higgins, which is 250 km from Buenos Aires. A lover of classical music, especially Chopin, he was for many a real witness to the love of Christ in the last and difficult moments of his life. ‘I am losing my memory,’ he confided, ‘but I find tremendous comfort in prayer and meditation.’ He was born in 1921 of Irish parents, the last of six children. When he was still a child he felt the longing to give himself totally to God. For his consecration to God he chose the Mecedarian Order with its specific vocation to free people from every kind of contemporary slavery. He became master and guide of his community during the closing years of dictatorship in Argentina. Bishop Donnelly showed a pastoral respect for each person’s freedom of spirit. He was also a man of great intellectual clarity. He understood ‘that an important change was about to happen in the Church … that would come about under that form of and be sealed by the Second Vatican Council. I always like experiencing new things, without losing sight of the most important,’ which is to say, love for God. At the end of the 50s he met the Focolare Movement and got know its founder, Chiara Lubich, personally. He did a great deal to make the charism of unity known to many and to develop the branch of the bishop friends of the ‘Work of Mary’. In 1980 he was made bishop of Deán Funes and he was ordained bishop by Pope John Paul II. He said of the Pope: ‘I had a deep relationship with him. Every time I went to Rome I met him personally. I was presented to him in twenty audiences. After a year at Claritas, the international centre for religious at Loppiano, near Florence in Italy, he became a bishop citizen of the Focolare little town called Lia in Argentina, where he lived for twelve years. When he went there, Chiara Lubich wrote to him: ‘Welcome to the first little town that has the joy and honour of welcoming as one its inhabitants a successor of the Apostles, a bishop who has given so much to the Church.’ In a passage of his spiritual memorial Bishop Donnelly told of his experience there: ‘In this centre I have come to know what love means as a living experience, what it means to live with “Jesus in the midst” in every moment and circumstance of daily life. Like this I have been able to understand better the mystery of Jesus Forsaken, the key to unity with God and among people, and I have discovered my brothers and sisters as a sure path to union with God.’ Today many people remember him. He was a hard worker in the little town and, at the same time, a quiet presence pointing others to follow Christ, fulfilling perfectly what Chiara Lubich had written to him twelve years ago: ‘With the your presence and your wisdom, Jesus in the midst will grow in the little town and will shine out still more splendidly.’
