Germany – at the heart of Europe
10 November 1989: the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Today, after its reunification in 1990, with its 81 million in habitants, Germany is the most populous country of the European Union of which it was one of the founder members. Its GNP makes it one of the richest countries in the world and, in the wake of the Second World, it has developed a solid Parliamentary democracy.
Both its dramatic experience of nazi dictatorship and its forty-year East-West division have deeply effected its people. Since Germany is also one of the lands of the Reformation, with a strong presence of Protestant Churches together with the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches, Germans have lived the pain of the division of the Churches. They are now discovering the richness of diversity and see the unfolding of a more effective witness to Christian life.
There are about 30,000 people who say they are friends of the Focolare Movement in Germany. About 5000 thousand of them, adults, young people and children, meet regularly either according to age or vocation or linked to common interests or specific topics. The first contacts with Germany go back to 1955. A little later, the Catholic bishop of Meißen, Otto Spülbeck, and Cardinal Alfred Bengsch of Berlin asked the founder of the Focolare, Chiara Lubich, to send focolarini to East Germany. The lack of doctors in the DDR make it easier for foreigners with a medical background to enter the country and so 8 focolarini who were doctors, German and Italian, went to Berlin and Leipzig. With them came Natalia Dallapiccola, a focolarina who had been with Chiara Lubich from the beginning of the Focolare in Trent, Northern Italy. From Germany Focolare spirituality spread also in other countries in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
In a country so much involved with the beginnings of the Reformation, it is natural for ecumenical dialogue to be of primary importance for the Focolare.
A characteristic of the Focolare in Germany is that right from the start there were meetings with Evangelical Christians (the bruderschäfte [fraternities], the nuns of Mary from Darmstadt). In the 60s there were numerous meetings with important people and members of various Churches. From that time to today, Christians of different Churches have found their place in different groups within the Focolare. They find there an inspiration for their lives, and an encouragement to work for and to deepen unity among Christians.
On the basis of these relationships between Christians of different Churches, common initiatives have taken place and there has been real development at a community level. Among these there is the Centre for Ecumenical Life at Ottmaring, near Augsburg. Its founders and leaders are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Brethren of the Common Life and Focolare members. Ottmaring has become one the Focolare’s ‘little towns’ with a profoundly ecumenical character. It has had the blessing of both Lutheran and Catholic authorities and it now has 120 people permanently committed to it and linked to it in a variety of ways.
In the summer months, European young people take the opportunity to share for a time in the life of the little town. In 1999 the ecumenical experience of Ottmaring led to the initiative ‘Together for Europe’, a network of movements and Christian communities that includes Evangelicals, Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Free Church members.
There are other meeting centres of the Focolare in Germany in Solingen and Zwochau.
A further point of commitment for Focolare members is dialogue with believers of different religions and with people of no religious faith. Shared efforts for peace, justice and in social initiatives have provided common platforms for this dialogue.
In the history of the Focolare other people, together with Chiara Lubich, have given an important contribution to the Movement’s development. One of these was the German bishop of Aachen, Klaus Hemmerle (1929-1994).
He gave a decisive boost for the development of a theology developed from Chiara Lubich’s charism and he regularly took part in meetings of the interdisciplinary research centre called the ‘Abba School’. He also gave life to an ongoing ecumenical spiritual development involving bishops of different nationalities and Churches who take their inspiration from the spirituality of unity.
On the tenth anniversary of Klaus Hemmerle’s death, the Focolare in Germany set up a prize for persons who display a spirit similar to his. It is given every two years to those who have been ‘bridge-builders’ in dialogue among the Churches, among religions and among people of other kinds of convictions. The first to receive the prize was Patriarch Bartholomew I.
“Ciao 
Modern scientific theory considers “disability” as something that represents the socialisation of problems and needs. Since this is known and accepted, it must be loved by society by altering its structures to accommodate Jesus present in every person. This brings about the necessity for town planning and architecture – which I like to describe as mother sciences – to bring back Jesus in “his city,” the place where personal relationships exist.
In ancient times Paraguay was called ‘The Enormous Province of the Indies’ and it came into being from two sources: the troubled arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the native Guaraní people. It has two official languages: Spanish and Paraguayan Guaraní. It covers 406,752 square km and is divided into two regions: the Eastern desert and the rich vegetation of the subtropical West. It has 6 million inhabitants. There is no sea coast, but it is crossed by two huge rivers: the Paraná and the Paraguay. Beneath the ground lies the guaraní aquifer, the largest known freshwater reservoir on the planet. Its capital Asunción has 600,000 inhabitants and is a cosmopolitan city still small enough to be comfortable.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Paraguay was formed as the principal crossroads between other regions of the continent. Asunción was called the ‘Mother of Cities’ because Spanish caravans set out from here to found other cities.
The life of love for one another spontaneously gave rise to the wish to help people in need. In 1966 the first initiatives began and spread from the capital to other cities. Young people too felt drawn by this radical ideal. In 1970 forty girls went to the ‘Gen holidays’ in Argentina. Two years later other young people joined in as well. Chiara’s appeal ‘to die for your own people’ inspired them to put in common their material and spiritual goods ‘so that no one should lack the necessities of life.’ In June 1981 a women’s focolare house was opened in Asunción and in February 1988 the first men arrived to set up a focolare house. Various vocations began to develop among people: men and women volunteers, priests and seminarians, monks and nuns, young people of every age, adherents and sympathizers.
It all began in 1983 in response to a request by the local Church. A few members of the Focolare Movement started going to the ‘Barrio Republicano’, a district on the edges of Asunción where there is a huge rubbish tip. The constant humidity and the waste matter that every day is thrown there caused a great deal of illness, especially among children. The families were living on the edges of the river Paraguay in huts of cardboard, sheets of plastic and old corrugated iron. Frequent floods often swamped the whole area, forcing people to be constantly on the move. ‘Faced with such a dreadful situation we wouldn’t do nothing,’ said someone who experienced it all first hand. ‘We knuckled under and started looking for a solution to sort both the health and the housing problems. We looked for a place where the most disadvantaged families could go.’ Small savings were shared and together with other contributions they managed to buy some land a Capiatá, 24 km from Asunción. Roads started to be laid and work began on the first batch of houses, a well was dug and a cistern of drinking water was installed and, finally, electricity was connected. 
Between 1992 and 1993 the first 20 families moved in and the district of ‘San Miguel’ officially began. In the meantime UNIPAR (Unidad y Participación: Unity and Participation) Association was formed, a non profit organization that coordinates the various activities working for the area. Currently there are about 70 families and about 300 inhabitants. The San Miguel Clinic was set up to cope with the health problems. It is a surgery that deals with a side range issues, including the most common infections, nutritional education, campaigns for vaccination and prophylactic medicine, dental treatment and maternity and paediatric consultancy. In 2002 a nursery school was started and in 2004 a primary school. It is recognized by the government and its specific aim is to provide an education for peace, fraternity and solidarity. The Ministry of Education considers it a ‘model’ school, and has sent teachers from the region to it for further professional training. The project ‘Health-Education-Food’ was set up both to give continuity to the activities begun and to guarantee children’s ongoing support and education. The Associazione Azione per Famiglie Nuove (Action for New Families Association) gives support at a distance to this. Much else has been established to benefit the people of San Miguel and the surrounding districts: a free library, a book and stationery shop selling at affordable prices, adult literacy classes, professional consultancy of many kinds (legal aid, child protection, behavioural therapy, ophthalmic programs and the distribution of spectacles, and so on). It is a decisive and coordinated action that brings together the inhabitants themselves, the local authorities, and national and international bodies. It has been a fundamental approach, right from the beginnings of San Miguel, to encourage small-scale productive activities and to give families economic autonomy. Through the years AMU (Associazione Azione per un Mondo Unito: Action for a United World Association) has contributed to the development of these activities and still today it is involved in Paraguay in supporting micro-enterprise. These projects have solid foundations and realistic prospects because of the skills of Paraguayan people. It is sufficient to consider that in Paraguay there are the greatest number of Economy of Communion businesses in the world – more than 600 of them!