Together For Europe, in Portugal

24 Jul 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

This was the message that was launched by representatives from Movements and Communities of Europe, as well as leading figures from the institutional and political landscape who met in Brussels on 12 May 2012. One hundred and fifty European cities were linked up via satellite or internet with the Square Meeting in Brussels for the Together For Europe event, which gathered together 300 Movements and Communities from different Churches. There were many stories of reciprocity shared by those present. There were experiences of incarnating the Gospel with social consequences. Zoom on Portugal for knowing the country better, will welcome the visit of Focolare president Maria Voce and co-president Giancarlo Faletti on 15-22 August 2012. Five Lusitanian cities are involved in the events that are being presented as an occasion for knowing one another better and building relationships of mutual respect and friendship. The story from the communities. Lisbon. A hundred and ten youths spread out through the city, to all the tourist spots, distributing flyers with the 7Yeas and descriptions of projects for building a more inclusive Europe, which were being done by seven Movements: Schonstatt, Emmanuel, Cursilhos, Equipas de Nossa Senhora, Verbum Dei, Metanoia and Focolare. In the afternoon there was an event in the Auditorium with 350 people for an open dialogue with several personalities who gave presentations and testimonies on the progress made so far. Porto. There were year-long preparations, in which working together became a true experience of fraternity. The testimony offered by the Bishop of Port, Bishop Clemente, was quite touching: “The best guarantee for the future is this Christian inspiration, in which we, together with other men and women, can be active protagonists.” Coimbra. Families as active builders of European unity. Two hundred and fifty people of all ages, from small children to grandparents take part in a walk from Parque Verde to the University, in conclusion to the transmission from Brussels. The characteristic highlight of this year’s edition was the award ceremony for the “At the Roots of Christian Europe” Competition that was geared toward schools and included music, photography, poetry, filming and drawing. Funchal, Madeira Island. This was the first time that the city of Funchal took part in the “Together For Europe” event. Nine Catholic Movements were involved: ACI, ACR, Cursilhos, Equipas de Nossa Senhora, Equipas Jovens de Nossa Senhora, Focolare, RnS, Schonstatt, and Verbum Dei. There was a link-up with Brussels from the University of Madeira and, in a side event, a collection of food staples for the Diocesan’s Caritas campaign “Funchal, a city that supports”. Faro, nell’Algarve. Faro (Algarve). Located in the southernmost zone of Portugal, Faro has a large multi-ethnic presence and known for its lack of religious practice. The course taken by the six Movements – Cursilhos, RnS, Fraternal Gatherings Movement, Boy Scouts, Liga de Acao Missionaria and Focolare – had a particular highlight. A hundred and fifty people attended the moment of prayer between Catholics and Orthodox. On 12 May there was a boy’s relay race and a food bank and, at the opening events, some words from Bishop Quintas. An invitation to “Together For Europe” at one of the most popular national TV programmes “Pros e Contras”  to take part in a debate entitled, “What are civic organizations doing for the crisis in Portugal?”

Crisis & Hope. The Finance Commission of Rome

20 Jul 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

The great financial crisis that exploded in 2008 had very serious consequences for businesses, families, and associations. Though there does not seem to be a way out of the situation, this crisis also rattles consciences and along with the desperation and waiting, it also moves thinking and creates new ways.

One group of workers from the world of finance and banking in Rome have discovered this for themelves. Daria, Domenico, Paola, Rosapina, Sandro, Gabriele and Assunta have been friends for a long time. They have also been working together professionally for some time but, most especially, they have been belieiving in the values of the Gospel and they think that they can be lived out in banks, post offices, credit and insurance agencies, in their fields of work. With the outbreak of the crisis they have each received requests for help to renegotiate a loan, to read a bank document, to make a more sensible investment.

In time, the group gave itself a name, “Finance Commission” and linked itself to the New Humanity Movementof the Focolare in Rome. Their meetings became an occasion for sharing their experiences and for discussing the problems and the crises of conscience that each day every member of the group was asked to face. It gave them a new sense of professional commitment in a work environment that is difficult at times.

One significant fruit of this dialogue has been the “Risparmio & Finanza” (Saving & Finance) Newsletter whose scope is precisely that of providing “professional” assistance to people in the area of economy and finance.

Each newsletter gives an overview of the current financial situation without a lot of technical language and offers a discussion of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church; it announces what is new on the markets, as well as news relating to financial products. “But first of all, the newsletter is an occasion for dialogue through an email address. This work has made us realize that sharing problems and decisions is critical because in our work we often lose the sense of the “common good” because it is subsituted by what we are expected to do.”

The wide diffusion of the magazine through the internet and social networks has allowed us to extend this experience and share it with other business operators and professionals in several regions of Italy: “We’re creating a network community from which there emerges ever more strongly the need to establish a relationship of truth, where communion becomes a concrete work method, which accepts the other with all of his problems and situations. And this enables us to find the most appropriate solutions.”

One example is what Giovanna and Carlo share,whoare from Rome: “Thanks to this online community we were able to help several people in need, with several small no-interest loans that were always repaid with punctuality. The nice thing is that when we were in need, we were offered the sum of money that we needed. It was a matter of 20,000 Euros that we were able to repay with tranquility and it saved us all the time and bureaucracyof doing it through a bank. We can assure you, in our own small way, that the “Give and there will be gifts for you” that the Gospel speaks of is really true and that Providence never makes you wait.”

Evangelizing Ourselves and Others

17 Jul 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

“In 1978 I left for the mission in the Congo. It was a hard moment for me. Africa, the rainforest, a new world to be discovered and loved.” This is how Sr Valeria of the Sisters of St Joseph Cuneo begins her story. She was speaking at the “Charisms for the New Evangelization” Convention being held in Turin on 17 March 2012. Sr. Valeria’s story is intertwined with that of Sr Nicoletta from the same Order. Arriving in Lolo – a small diocese on the outskirts of the rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Sr Nicoletta “discovered a place inhabited by simple folk” mostly fishermen and farmers.

On the other side of the river Sr Valeria had already begun a series of meetings for a group of New Families of the Focolare. Their “serenity, involvement and unity” fascinated Sr Nicoletta and she decided to invite Sr Valeria and the families to Lolo, so that they could share their experiences there as well.

“Then I felt I was also being strongly invited to live the Ideal of unity,” Sr Nicoletta recounts. Families in Lolo began to meet, and the monthly commentary on the Word of Life was translated into the local language. It’s power was stronger than that of many of the ancestral traditions that divide the life of men and women.

Despite the difficulty, the two sisters were also able to find time to meet and share with each other recounting the fruits of living the Gospel. The Bishop as well as their General Superior encouraged them to take things forward. In 1988 the first Mariapolis was held in Lolo with over a hundred people.

Today, even though the mission has been closed down, the Bishop has notified us that many of those families are now very actively involved in the diocese.

Since a few months the two sisters have been living together in the same community in Italy: “We help each other in living the Ideal of unity as it sheds new light on the charism of our founder, Jean Pierre Medaille. All the way back in 1650 he invited us to live the communion with God, among ourselves, and with each neighbour; a communion founded on the Word of Jesus: ‘That all may be one’ (Jn. 17:21).

“This is the New Evangelization:” explains Sr Valeria, “loving and allowing our life to say to everyone: ‘God loves you!’” She also shared about a group of teenagers from the middle school who meet once a month to move along a Christian journey together based on the Word of God. They are brought ahead on this journey by Sr Valeria, another Sister of St Joseph, a Daughter of Our Lady Help of Christians, and a Cottolengo Sister. “There’s much communion among us – she concludes – and the beauty of each charism is brought out.”

Alzheimer’s Cafè

14 Jul 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

«Some time ago I accepted a proposal, which was also a challenge: to become a caregiver to my aunt suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Caregiver This is how I started to take care of her daily, by helping her with the meals and with the cleaning, besides offering her company.

Being near to her I have lived and am living with pain the slow and progressive deterioration of her identity. I accept her relying on me. In moments of lucidity, she asks me to be the one to understand each of her losses. By going through the sufferings, I experienced personally the void the solitude, the fears and the inhibitions. I have also discovered “the emptiness” of the institutions. In this situation I was strengthened by thinking of Jesus Crucified and Forsaken, who continued to love also in the suffering.

Three years ago, I asked the geriatrician, a specialist in Alzheimer and who takes care of my aunt, to deal with this disease together with me in a different way. Through this comparison patient-doctor-doctor-family, the desire to create an Association was born and which will be able to give a collective response to this suffering. At first there were only two of us: the doctor and myself. Then I contacted some friends and ten of them joined. Se we legally constituted an association: “New Humanity – “The house of dreams”. In fact there is the need of dreaming, but if one dreams on his own it is easy that the dream remains a dream. If you are in many, learning to share the sufferings and the needs, then that dream becomes a reality.

The purpose of the Association is to keep alive the attention on the problem of dementia and how to deal with it: Alzheimer is a disease, which we live as a real challenge to accept and to win, with the collaboration of all the protagonists: patients, families, society and Institutions.

Our first task is a course for volunteers and the relatives of the patients with the title: “The Alzheimer’s disease and the other dementias”. Free contribution is given by physicians, psychologists, and hospital volunteers during the meetings and in which thirty persons participate,

At the end of the course, the idea of opening and “Alzheimer’s Café” was born: we wanted to live as a family together with the patients, not in the solitude of the four walls of the house, but in a coffee shop, a symbol of social life! Thus we accompanied them in the bar to share a hot chocolate or a fruit juice. Currently we accompany 35, of whom 20 are suffering from Alzheimer. One of them had not been out of the house for three years and another one did not want to participate because he did not have shoes, he accepted when we told him that he could even come in his slippers.

The news of this initiative soon spread in the city. Shortly after, even the Bishop wanted to pay us a visit to share the festive evening of our first anniversary of the Association, with us. He was interested in our activities even the Department of Social Services, who for a long time had sent us a car with a driver to transport our friends to meet at the Alzheimer’s Café.

In the summer of 2009, we had another idea. In the nearby town of Foggia there is an Institute for promoting horseracing. So we organized a visit to the old coach house and the stables. We have asked the parents of the patients to bring their wedding albums. The time was in fact the one in which coaches were used even for weddings. It was a success and the joy was great. We wanted to repeat the experience with a novelty the following year: we adopted some donkeys who were destined to be put to sleep, to stimulate the relational capabilities of the patients.

Our Association also organizes annual courses for the training of health professionals and support to the patient’s relatives. These courses are increasingly improving and are an occasion to spread the Ideal. Currently we are in 70, between patients and volunteers and we are self-supporting.

Amongst the therapeutic proposals, then we take advantage of aromatherapy and music-therapy. The whole town knows about our experience and like us many are available if we need help. We even thought of offering our service to the town community by giving a training course to foreign caregivers entitled: “Taking care of lost memory.

Read more: Association “The house of dreams” – San Severo (Foggia) – Italy

www.lacasadeisogni.biz

A Mariapolis in Macedonia

12 Jul 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

On 28 June 2012 – 1 July 2012 a Mariapolis was held in the hills that overlook Kicevo, halfway between the capital city of Skopje and the historic city of Ohrid in the south. The guests were welcomed at a unique hotel, a centre for meetings of artists, which was decorated with different types of artwork both inside and in the beautiful outdoor park.

There were some eighty people, especially from the Republic of Macedonia, but also from Kosovo and Serbia. The majority were Catholic and Orthodox family groups, and many Muslims.  

Their four days together were devoted to the Word of God and the dialogue among religions. Dialogue was the keyword at this Mariapolis, as was underscored by Bishop Anton Cirimotic from Skopje, and by Cristina Lee and Roberto Catalano from the Focolare Movement’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. The dialogue that the Focolare promotes is founded on its spirituality and the centrality of love. And this finds an immediate echo in other religions and cultures, thanks to the Golden Rule: “Do to others what you would like done to you.” This often requires one to take the first step towards others, without expecting any return, an up to the point of giving one’s life.

One day was dedicated especially to the family, with a series of experiences that highlighted the challenges of a globalized world as well as local ones. The family here still holds on to significant values. Together with his wife, Professor Aziz Shehu shared what the spirit of communion signified for him as an academic. Aziz is the father of Le Perle Kindergarten, and he told of how this pilot experiment had made a great contribution to Macedonian society at a time when it was so necessary to work together for true integration.   

Another day was devoted to the youth: a presentation by the young people, followed by spontaneous impressions that were shared on the spot and sometimes quite personal. The young people were accompanied by a choir that formed the background to the whole presentation. There was a dance expressing authentic relationships despite diversity, which had been the experience of the Mariapolis.

One young Catholic woman confessed that she had undergone deep change during the days of the Mariapolis. Her Christianity was they type that allowed her to exclude Muslims, atheists and even Orthodox. But at the Mariapolis she had discovered that persons of different faiths and cultures could live together and that each person with his faith helps to bring some light. “I understood that God sends the sunlight for everyone. Not only for us Christians, and so I should act accordingly.”

Many of the other impressions made the same point: a small girl from Kosovo who came with her mother and brother, only spoke Albanian. She told the audience that she didn’t think she was going to have an experience like this and to be accepted as she had been accepted. A Muslim ministry official said that he was deeply struck by how dialogue was actually lived and now was leaving the Mariapolis convinced that this is the only solution to the problems in Macedonia.

An Orthodox woman artist said she felt perfectly at home in this environment. So too for a young teenager girl who shared how she had discovered that openness to tohers helps us not only to be better Muslims or Christians, but also true men and women.

The departure of the eighty people who attended this summer gathering in Kicevo leaves one with the certainty: This experience has given them the sense that unity between diverse types of people is possible. The left with an increased awareness of being actors in building dialogue in their land.

Prescribing medicines isn’t enough

11 Jul 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

«I’m a doctor and I work in a state hospital. One day the police brought us a man with two bullets in his leg. This was the type of patient that no one in the clinic wants to deal with: a thief caught in the act.

He had been seriously wounded during a clash with the police who had brought him to us.

He was motionless on the bed with no one to assist him; not even his relatives showed up, according to the custom when a person has been thieving.

In most hospitals in Africa it’s the job of the relatives to bring food for the patients, to bathe and dress them, to help them with their daily material needs. In the absence of relatives the patient is totally abandoned. The medical staff is only obliged to provide medical care.

Moreover, the other patients and the medical personnel were not very happy to have this evildoer around. And so he was finding it diffult to find something to eat and, confined immobile on his bed, the smell around him soon became unbreable.

I complained to the Commissioner of Police that they had dumped such a person on us without anyone to help him. “That’s the job of the medical personnel!” was his rude reply. It came to my mind that in other countries caring for the patient does involve the healthcare staff. I explained to my colleagues that perhaps we should take an interest in this patient, but was unable to convince them.

I tried to make the other patients aware that they needed to accept this patient, though I wasn’t very successfully to tell the truth.

At one point I asked myself: “I would exhort others? And myself?” What am I doing for him? Yes, I prescribe medications for him to take. I give him a place on the ward. But this is only what I’m obliged to do. Now I have to do what I would ask others to do, to go beyond the minimum requirement.”

I removed him from his bed and bathed him. “Oh! I haven’t bathed in two months!” he joyfully exclaimed. “How good to feel the rays of the sun on my skin!” Then I paid one of the hospital workers to wash the patient’s clothes. Together with another colleague we changed his mattrass, since the one he had been using was in horrible condition. Finally, I left a bit of money for the patient himself, in case he was needing something.

This gesture of mine bore fruit. The workers, for example, began to take away the rubbish from his bedside. It raised compassion in the other patients also, who now share their food with him.

After a while he was able to leave the hospital. He was cheerful and in high spirits. He told me that he was going to give up thieving. He even followed my advice to go first to the police in order to accept the judgement of the court. He felt that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions.”

Dr. H.L. (Burundi)