![China – Europe: «A new silk route»]()
18 Mar 2007 | Focolare Worldwide
It is now China’s turn – Europe and China are engaged in an accelerated process of nearing one another. The aim of this seminar is to offer journalists a meeting place for these two different worlds. The interdependency category, from which the seminar’s works emerge, wishes to portrait in a particular way those aspects that favour the authentic meeting between peoples and cultures, overcoming disinformation, communication difficulties, trivial stereotypes and unjustified pre-comprehensions. The initiative is part of a framework: “Interdependence meetings – among persons, peoples, states for a more united world.” The 2006 edition of this meeting was dedicated to the rapport between the western and Islamic world. There are many issues to debate on: development of legislative system, art and cultural traditions, religions, mass media, civil society, human rights, freedom of speech, ecological problem. In this meeting European scholars journalists connected in various ways to China and Chinese representatives, protagonists and witnesses of its millenary civilisation, come together to confront their views. 
Among the questions to be dealt with – In which way does present-day China manage to keep together the multi-millenary tradition and the strong wind of change? Is there room for religions and spiritual life in a China that is passing from communism to liberalism? Are we acquainted with our Chinatown? Is there a successful integration experience in Italy? A growing civil society – “The signals originating from the Great Wall – as Michele Zanzucchi wrote in his recent reportage on Città Nuova (n.4/2007 issue) – are evident. Though at times contradictory, however, they are always stimulating. One thousand and three hundred million persons belonging to 55 different ethnic groups, united in one country since 221 BC, form a nation with an incredible economic and social power. In this very moment of maximum economic development, there is the growing internal demand for democracy and respect of human rights. This demand does not arise through politics but thanks to that civil society that grows impetuously. Maybe one would have to look into this world with greater attention in order to understand where China is leading to.”
16 Mar 2007 | Focolare Worldwide
Chiara M. in an excerpt from her diary from a few years ago, writes: “I am groping about in this painful darkness, so alone and full of spiritual tears, a silent cry that reaches out beyond the infinite galaxies, directed to heaven with a resounding echo. But where are you? Why don’t you say something? What are you busy doing while I cry out my pain, my powerlessness, my solitude? Just clench your teeth, I told myself, and believe beyond all of this that you feel. Believe beyond that which is unbelievable, beyond the impossible, lose everything. Nothing, nothing should remain. I felt my soul crying. I had nothing left, a nothingness that was filled with everything, God alone.” After finishing my studies I began to work in a hospital in my native city of Trent, in northern Italy, as a professional nurse. I really loved everything: traveling, playing the guitar, photography, reading, studying languages, getting to know different peoples and cultures, climbing the mountains, or contemplating the beauty of the sea, singing around a camp fire, or watching the play of sunlight through the forest. I had made plans to go to Fontem, in the Cameroon, our little city. I wanted to grow, to be enriched with different cultural and human experiences. But I had not calculated on the unforeseen. I had an adverse reaction to a medication, rather unexplainable, so serious that I had to be hospitalized in the very department where I worked. That’s where my Calvary began, made of tests, hospitalizations, going to specialists in different cities, different clinics, cures or attempts at cures of all types, hopes, expectations, disappointments, hopelessness, but above all, a lot of pain, so much pain that not even morphine has ever been able to fully take away. My physical deterioration began slowly and continuously like a slow drip. I remember the moment that I placed my guitar in its case for the last time. I cried because I understood that it would be for the last time. My hands hurt too much and I knew that every decline in health was irreversible. Then another time, due to a very serious medical mistake, I almost lost a leg. And that time I really thought that I would not make it on my own. Something that one of my friends in the Movement said helped me not to give in to total desperation. “You know what this pain is – we can carry it together; but if you can’t make it, don’t worry, we will carry it for you.” In that moment what was happening to me physically didn’t change in any way, but inside I felt the strength of unity. There were moments when it was truly difficult to say yes to God. I had to say yes to giving up my profession which I dearly loved, to being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. If I just stop and think about it, it seems crazy to say yes to him constantly, tenaciously, and continually. Only someone who is crazy can throw him or herself into the unknown, trusting only in him, giving him the full go ahead, letting him do whatever he wants. And yet, oddly enough, every apparent jump into the unknown, into the darkness, became a plunge into the light; and my partner never ceases to surprise me. A year ago, he also gave me the possibility of writing a book entitled “Cruel Sweet Love,” in which I tell this experience of mine. Every day, I receive e-mails, letters from people who open up, who share the deepest part of themselves and begin to hope again, thanks to this total yes that I have said to him, to my partner.
![China – Europe: «A new silk route»]()
9 Mar 2007 | Focolare Worldwide
![](//ldap.focolare.org/layout/fotodefault/070310-03.jpg")
In 1964, the first group of people from Paraguay participated in the summer meeting (the Mariapolis) of the Focolare Movement in Argentina, accompanied by a priest from Asuncion, who had met the Movement in Rome. After the experience of those days, they returned home with their hearts set on fire. From that moment on, they started meeting regularly in order to share their experiences on the Gospel which they tried to live. In 1968, the Mariapolis in Paraguay was organised by the same Paraguayans with the help of those persons who regularly followed-up the community. In July 1981, Chiara Lubich sent a group of focolarinas and the first Focolare of Asuncion was started. Shortly afterwards, the focolarinos also followed and the communities (present in about 30 different cities) spread all over the country, experienced a new development, thus creating a network which became ever more tightly knit, year after year. By and by, various branches (families, youth, etc.) were born. Even expressions of the Movement which are more committed in the social field, as well as, the Political Movement for Unity, were developed. The commitment to favouring the social development of the country is very much alive. In the economical field, the first production enterprises, inspired by the Economy of sharing, came about. A share of their profits is assigned to social development. Others like “San Miguel di Capiatà” are committed to give their support to the birth of a new quarters on the suburbs of Asuncion, where twenty years earlier some families were evacuated from a permanently flooded degraded area. Besides, there are many members of the Movement who animate the local parish communities. Most recent developments: the new Mariapolis Centre “Mother of Humanity,” formation house of the Movement members, open to all; the inauguration of the Paraguayan New City Publishing House, official organ of the Movement; and the “Youth Home,” in the vicinity of the Mariapolis Centre.
![China – Europe: «A new silk route»]()
9 Mar 2007 | Focolare Worldwide
In accepting the “Thomas More 2006” award – received on her behalf by Esperanza Aid and Mauro De Souza, co-directors of the Focolare Movement in Paraguary – Chiara Lubich sent a message, wishing the University a year rich in initiatives. She trusted that these University-promoted initiatives, abounding in Christian values and profoundly human, may contribute towards a universal brotherhood. Before the handing over of the award, the motivation was read: “To Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare Movement, Work of Mary, for her great commitment in favour of unity and ecumenism. For the contribution of her charism in proposing the so-called Economy of Communion, while confronted by the many inequalities thrashing today’s humanity. For the construction of peace in a united world.” Chiara is among the personalities awarded by the “Thomas More Institute,” Faculty of Juridical Sciences and Diplomacy of the Catholic University of Asuncion, on 27th December, along with Msgr. Elio Sgreccia, President of the Pontifical Academy for life, José Antonio Fortea, Spanish theologian, who visited Paraguay this year, and the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference that celebrated its 50th anniversary. Paraguay is a country rich in history, marked not only by wars, conquests and revolutions, but particularly by the encounter, not without sorrow, of the native Guaranì and European cultures. Two languages are spoken in Paraguay: Spanish and Guarnì. It was in 1964 that the first group of Paraguayans first participated in the Mariapolis in Argentina. Today the Focolare Movement in Paraguay is made up of persons committed in various fields of renewal of society and the Church, in order to sow the seeds of brotherhood in every environment, in a land rich in potential. Just one example: the life witness of a committed politician: Cesar Romero.
11 Feb 2007 | Focolare Worldwide
G. and I had been married for 17 years and had four children when I felt her attitude toward me change dramatically. She was often out of the house because of her job as a social worker for a government program that took care of abandoned children. After a few months, I found out that she was having an affair with one of her colleagues. It was a terrible blow: I saw our whole relationship fall to pieces, my family, my life. I felt betrayed, my pride was deeply wounded and I was desperate in seeing everything that I had built over the years go to ruin. After a while, my wife decided to abandon our family. One day, while I was at work, she came home to get her things and she got into a fight with our oldest daughters who were then 15 and 17 years old. I had no other alternative but to give in to her decision, even though it caused us a lot of suffering. I prayed and implored God, saying: “Help me! Give me the strength and the grace to overcome everything!” I had absolute faith in his love. It was not easy. I had even asked my sister to help me and she had encouraged me to reflect on how much Jesus had not merited the suffering that he had to go through: he had been betrayed from men, and had suffered humiliation and cried the Father’s abandonment. Recognizing and loving Him in this deep suffering, I kept on my feet day after day, and I made a real and total choice of God. In fixing my thoughts and heart on God, my suffering found meaning; and my initial feelings of hate were being replaced by sentiments of mercy. I had finally made it to forgive my wife. Together with other people with whom I used to shared the christian commitment, I found the strength to go ahead. Constantly embracing Jesus forsaken helped me, even in the separation that I lived with, to remain faithful to the commitment that I had taken on with the sacrament of matrimony, and so to also live chastity. After a year of being separated, day by day the spirituality of unity brought greater light in my life with the children and I was thus able to follow them in their various experiences as they grew. In order to have more time with them, I left my job as an engineer in my company which took so much of my day, and I began a small business. I made this choice, even if the previous job was well-paid. I knew that our economic resources would reduce, but I went ahead without fearing this change. Looking back now on what God has worked in me and in my children, we are deeply grateful to him. (V. T. – Brazil)
27 Dec 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
«The Gospel message, lived out by persons who have shared everything with us and together, they have searched for us every means of support, has opened a new horizon, that has helped turn our life into a “holy journey”, and it has made us “subjects” of the transformation carried out in our social environment.” I was born and I presently live on an island which is now called St. Terezinha, on the outskirts of Recife, a city located in North East of Brazil. More than thirty years ago, this island was called the “Island of hell”, because of its serious degraded condition. Since then, the Focolare Movement carries out activities to promote the social situation of this community as well as its spiritual and cultural aspects. From this experience which we have lived out together, an Association of the inhabitants of the island of St. Terezinha has come to life and I have been the president of five consecutive mandates. The target has been to bring the inhabitants to live this communitarian experience, thus becoming protagonists of their own development. We have chosen one Gospel sentence as a motto: “First of all, look for the Kingdom of God and its justice…”. Entrusting our strength to God, the Gospel became like a compass in our life because at that time we were living in a country run by a capitalist system and still under a military regime. Therefore, almost all the communities were oriented toward parties which had opted to struggle, as the only way to overcome these social inequalities. We, instead, were always open to dialogue with the public administrators, notwithstanding the current practices, exposing clearly our positions as a community. Conquests and steps ahead followed: land reclamation of an area which was previously always flooded due to the rain and the high tide; the construction of houses, also with the support of the State, thus solving the problem of lack of habitation; the institution of a primary school, with a strength of over 600 pupils, to combat illiteracy. In order to stop the infant mortality rate we have opened a clinic in collaboration with the Recife Municipality and the support of German organizations. We have also opened a centre for under nourished children. In order to combat unemployment, we have setup an enterprise dealing in concrete construction material, thus employing 7 fathers. Through the initiative of “adoptions at a distance”, a support association also emerged, through which, infants and adolescents are occupied during their free off-school hours, in human formation and civil education. Respect and acknowledgment from competent authorities reached us without delay: they did not know of the evangelical experience that lied “behind the scenes”, instead, they considered us as an organized community and capable of struggling. It is love that spurs us on and invites us to grow and improve. We cannot be contented with what we have lived the day before. With the advent of democracy new systems have emerged, such as the “Balance Sheet & Budget-Participation.” The community, represented by its own elected members, discusses with the Municipality, the use of certain financial resources that are decided by the Mayor and committee. The city is divided into 6 areas, or “Political-Administrative Regions”, and representatives are elected as delegates for the “Balance Sheet & Budget-Participation”: all in all, they are 470. In the course of an assembly, I have been elected region delegate for these negotiations, not only as a representative of my community but also of various villages in the zone. Even throughout the exercise of this mandate, I had the opportunity to force myself in seeing Jesus in the other person, in accordance with the words of the Gospel: “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” It is easy to put into practice with persons who belong to my community, however far more difficult, with someone who does not always act according to the aspirations of the less fortunate. My duty was to work for my community, but at the same time, I had to maintain a rapport with them, and not only out of diplomacy. One day we were at a reunion and we were discussing the allocation of funds. The delegates present at this meeting wanted to include only those localities of the participating delegates present at the reunion. Keeping in mind that we have “to love another person’s homeland as our own”, which in this case means, to love the other person’s community like our own, I said that it was not right to sacrifice a community just because its representatives were not present. I added that we should not only look at our needs but also at the needs of others, and they accepted my proposal. On another occasion, for which I happened to be absent due to my work, it was brought to the attention that the funds allocated to a square in the Island of St. Terezinha, were not sufficient. Even though I was not present, the other delegates allocated a part of their resources to our square. This work has reaped various fruit: we have managed to asphalt the main roads of the Island, besides the construction of a square; we have obtained equipment for our Health Centre and sponsorships for our cultural shows. Then, in other villages and communities of the zone of Recife, we have succeeded in launching various works of construction, together with other delegates of “Balance Sheet & Budget-Participation.” (J. – Brazil)
![](http://ldap.focolare.org/layout/fotodefault/070310-03.jpg")
In 1964, the first group of people from Paraguay participated in the summer meeting (the Mariapolis) of the Focolare Movement in Argentina, accompanied by a priest from Asuncion, who had met the Movement in Rome. After the experience of those days, they returned home with their hearts set on fire. From that moment on, they started meeting regularly in order to share their experiences on the Gospel which they tried to live. In 1968, the Mariapolis in Paraguay was organised by the same Paraguayans with the help of those persons who regularly followed-up the community. In July 1981, Chiara Lubich sent a group of focolarinas and the first Focolare of Asuncion was started. Shortly afterwards, the focolarinos also followed and the communities (present in about 30 different cities) spread all over the country, experienced a new development, thus creating a network which became ever more tightly knit, year after year. By and by, various branches (families, youth, etc.) were born. Even expressions of the Movement which are more committed in the social field, as well as, the Political Movement for Unity, were developed. The commitment to favouring the social development of the country is very much alive. In the economical field, the first production enterprises, inspired by the Economy of sharing, came about. A share of their profits is assigned to social development. Others like “San Miguel di Capiatà” are committed to give their support to the birth of a new quarters on the suburbs of Asuncion, where twenty years earlier some families were evacuated from a permanently flooded degraded area. Besides, there are many members of the Movement who animate the local parish communities. Most recent developments: the new Mariapolis Centre “Mother of Humanity,” formation house of the Movement members, open to all; the inauguration of the Paraguayan New City Publishing House, official organ of the Movement; and the “Youth Home,” in the vicinity of the Mariapolis Centre.