Lebanon: Moving Toward the Genfest – Let’s Bridge!
“Hi to all! We want to let you know how special this year is for the young people of our country. We are sharing wonderful moments in preparation for our long-awaited Genfest. Last September we agreed to set our sights on a unity that would gradually envelope all of us, our friends and also our great Focolare family. And we see it happening. 
To raise funds for the journey – which is very costly – and also to have opportunities to spend some time living together and starting already to build some “local bridges” (in accordance with the title of this year’s Genfest), we’ve come up with a schedule of many activities, some of which have already taken place and others that are still being prepared. “Unight”: An evening with a hundred youths at a pub in Beirut, including a presentation on the Genfest event. “Unight Your Talents Show”: A talent show with songs, dances, musical numbers, theatre, storytelling and creative performances. There were 550 of us on March 3, 2012 for a two hour show in a large hall at the university. Fundraising: We began a taxi service for accompanying people to the airport and other places. We also began a babysitting service. We set up a refreshment stand at the Mariapolis Centre. We make and sell jewelry and special occasion cards. These are not only opportunities to raise funds for the trip to Budapest, but also occasions to know one another better and to “build bridges.” “Unite in Depth“: March 23-March 25. Three days of preparing for the Genfest through deepening and strengthening our faith. Eighty young people have already signed up, including 20 from Syria.» We have encountered many difficulties along the way: The young people from Lebanon are in suspense becuase the airline from whom they purchased tickets for their flights to Budapest has gone out of business. Together with them we continue to believe that with the help of everyone and with the help of God, a way will be found to overcome even this obstacle.
Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti were welcomed by a colorful carpet of flowers from ancient religious tradition and by a festive atmosphere at the Our Lady of the Focolarini Mariapolis Center in the Guatemala capital. This is the first stop on an extended visit to Latin America. They have come to visit “the family of Chiara” that lives in this corner of the world. It has been an intense journey in which they have met civil and ecclesiastical authorities and representatives from various lay organizations who are members or friends of the Focolare. It has been a story of life and relationships that have been sown and nourished by Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity. Some have travelled from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Belize. The ancient cultures of the region are living on in them: Maya, Garifuna, Garifuna, the Incas and Mestizos. A set of dances is offered by children and teens who attend the Fiore Educational Centre in Guatemala City. One moment of the program is dedicated to Fiore Ungaro, a focolarina who first brought the spirituality of unity to these lands. Today the education center has 210 students with 28 teachers and staff. It is a concrete answer of love by the people of the focolare, because as in all Latin American countries, education is perhaps the decisive battlefront in which the wounds of this society will be defeated. The Bishop of Escuintla, Victor Hugo Palma Paúl was also present at a meeting with representatives from ten Movements who are members of the “Comisión de Movimientos Laicales y Nuevas Comunidades” (Commision of Lay Movements and New Communities), an agency of the Bishops Conference of Guatemala. He welcomed Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti: “The Focolare is one of the most vibrant schools that we have.” “Your charism is one that enflames, welcomes and warms the Christian life, placing the accent on unity.” Forty focolarini and focolarine live in this Central American country. They come from Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia and Italy. They are the “heart” of the Focolare Movement and a true reflection of it: different ethnic groups, professions, political, social and economic sensibilities. Maria Voce listens and, at the conclusion of the meeting, shares an idea: Unity should pass through a “culture of trust”. “It is a matter of having absolute trust in the other, in the sister or brother. The other wants what I want – unity. Let what you do not be done to be admired, to assert yourself or so that you may stand out. Let it be done for the sake of unity. Each of you works in a different way, but let each one work for unity. To trust in God and in the other, therefore, is an imperative. It means believing that God is at work. He doesn’t need perfect people, but only those people of whom he has need.” There was folkloristic costume and dance, engaging rhythms and sounds. Six hundred people gathered in the Mariapolis Centre hall. They were all members of the Focolare community living in these lands. This history of the Focolare in Central America goes back to 1954 and it is extraordinary because of the war, the economic difficulties, and the great distances. Yet it is a story that expresses gratitude to God. “Your peoples,” Maria Voce concluded, “seem to me to have a destiny: that of showing what the world would be if account were taken of the value of each human being. Everyone’s experience is necessary to others in order to construct a mosaic of unmatched beauty.” During a meeting with more than 200 youths between the ages of 15 and 25, a deep relationship was established in which, amid the exuberant joy of being together, there also emerged the difficulty of going against the current when it came to making certain choices: “You’re not alone,” Maria Voce told them, “each time that you find yourselves before a choice you must make, remember that you’re not alone, but that all the youths who have made the choice for a united world are with you.” 
Chiara Lubich, when visiting Mexico in 1997, took up the theme of this encounter between the two cultures, which was brought about by the Guadalupe event. “Inculturation,” she said during that visit, “is not merely making yourself spiritually one with another culture, perhaps uncovering and strengthening the seeds of the Word that are present in it, but it is also humbly and gratefully assuming that something true that is offered by the culture of our brothers and sisters. Inculturation involves an exchange of gifts. This is what Our Lady of Guadalupe wants to tell us.” The Focolare Movement has been present in Mexico since 1980, even though it was visited in 1975 by focolarini from Colombia. Today there are centers of the Movement in Mexico City, Netzahualocoyotl, Guadalajara and Acatzingo (Puebla) where there is a Mariapois Center and a Mariapolis town, El Diamante, which was founded in 1990. The Mariapolis is the heart fo the Movement in Mexico and is a place of Christian witness for the more than 20,000 visitors who go to it each year, showing that in a nation so rich in cultural, social and ethnic contrasts, inculturation of the Gospel life is possible if founded on dialogue and mutual giving and receiving of the gifts of the various cultures. The communities of the Movement, including some 15,000 people who have embraced the spirituality of unity, are scattered throughout the Mexican territory, from Mexicali (on the border with the USA) to Merida (in the southeast). They pursue an open dialogue with several sectors of society, trying to bring a contribution of unity. They have already been involved for years in building relationships among ecclesial movements and new associations in the Catholic Church. In August 2011 the first “Juntos por México” (Together for Mexico) gathering was held, which involved 350 leaders and representatives of the some 8 million lay Catholics in the whole country. And many foresee this to herald the opening of new paths of communion in the Mexican Church that could lead to major involvement by lay people in the various fields of society. In the civil society, in collaboration with the Mora Institute of the City of Mexico, one highlight has been the monthly lecture series on “Brotherhood in Politics” with the involvement of politicians who adhere to the Spirituality of Communion, and people engaged in civil service. This was an important event in the formation of a civic conscience. Finally there were the Bioethic Seminara (Seminar on bioethics) held in several cities, which were the initiative of the “Netemachilizpan AC” Association of Bioethics and Human Rights together with the “New Humanity Movement” of the Focolare. Hundreds of people attended, drawn by the topics that were discussed. The presentations that were given in line with the thinking of the Church and supported from a medical and scientific point of view, were a light for all who attended. There was a large crowd of young people from the La Salle di Neza University who say that the seminar helped them find answers to their uncertainties. The group of experts who run the bioethic courses, work at the Chamber of Deputies to support and write laws that favor life. Focolare Mexico website: