15 May 2005 | Focolare Worldwide
A time for fraternity at Loppiano, the “young” city Often defined as “a laboratory of fraternity,” Loppiano – the little town of the Focolare situated in the province of Florence, Italy – with its citizens coming from every nation and race, served as a backdrop to the celebration of May 1st. Since this tradition began 35 years ago, it has seen the participation of a total of over 150,000 young people. Fraternity was the program of the day, all lit up by a radiant sun. The over 5,000 young people who arrived from all over Italy, from Western and Eastern Europe, from Algeria, Africa and Asia, were distributed in four different workshops: that of sports entitled: “Fraternity: a game that requires teamwork”; that of the media: “Fraternity Online”; of Politics: “Liberty, equality … and fraternity?”; and lastly, that of art, entitled “FraternArt.” The workshops offered a forum for the exchange of experiences on how fraternity is practiced in different countries. The telephone link-up with the Holy Land in the afternoon gave a planetary dimension to fraternity’s journey in time. Fraternity – motor of a world at peace, a united world Chiara Lubich sent a message to the young people gathered at Loppiano and at the little town “Arco Iris” in Lisbon, Portugal. In her message she wished that everyone may respond to the challenge of fraternity, “the motor of a world at peace and a united world.” “In a world restlessly searching for God, that believes only in the things it can touch, it is possible to make room for Jesus himself, drawing him to us, to the point that he makes himself present in our midst.” How? “By practicing the art of loving 100%, until the presence of Jesus in your midst is felt everywhere, there where you find yourselves and where the Risen Jesus will fill you with his gifts – a joy you have never known before, a peace you have never experienced, an abundance of light, so that you can bring the world together in unity.” Lisbon: the worldwide web of unity Lisbon was the venue of the youth meeting on May 1st. They were about 1,000 coming from Portugal, Spain and Timor. The program of the day was all said in the title: www.deunidade. In the Iberian peninsula, memories are still vivid of the March 11 tragedy in Madrid, but the experiences of those who lived through the difficult experience of post-March 11 brought to light that it is possible to forgive; in fact, this is the only way to build true fraternity among people of different religions. And this is true not only in one’s own country but throughout the world, which can thus be enveloped in a net of love. Special guest at the meeting: Imam Allal Bachar of Spain.
20 Mar 2005 | Focolare Worldwide
A group of Focolare youth from Singapore – made up of Europeans and Indonesians – went to the province of Aceh, in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Here are some excerpts of their travel journal:
Our trip’s aim was to see the needs of the stricken areas personally, so as to understand what the local members of the Focolare Movement could do concretely for the victims of the tidal wave. It was an unforgettable experience. We had gone there to give, but we received much, much more. Seeing us return, some people had the impression that we were coming back from a pilgrimage to a sacred place.
Ours was a varied group: Singaporeans, Indonesians, a few Europeans; Christians, Muslims, and persons without any particular religious affiliation. We went together to that mosaic of cultures which is Indonesia.
The king’s granddaughter
At Aceh, a local couple joined our group to be our guides; the woman was Indonesian and the man British. The woman’s grandfather was the last king of Sigli, a province situated in the eastern part of Aceh. It was providential that they had joined our group because they opened many doors for us.
On our way to Aceh, A., whom we familiarly called “Princess” – being the king’s granddaughter – told us something about her family. “Aceh has had several sultanates or kingdoms until half-a-century ago. My grandfather ruled over one of them; he was the “Rajah” (king) of Sigli. He was assassinated in 1950 when Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch and formed a single nation of the archipelago’s 16,000 islands.”
From then on, an armed group called GAM (Movement for a Free Aceh) became organized. It fights for the independence of the region through continuous guerrilla warfare. The frequent conflicts between the regular Indonesian army and the armed guerrillas create insecurity and tension among the people. Aceh has therefore come to be considered as a danger zone, more unknown than loved, more an object of prejudice than a sign of common nationality.
During our stay there we discovered, instead, that the inhabitants of Aceh are truly our brothers, endowed with great spiritual riches.
A meeting with suffering and life
We met a host of people: children, religious, teachers, policemen, people who live in the tent cities. We met the fishermen, who more than others, suffered from the disaster because the tsunami had destroyed their boats and fishing nets. As we listened to their life stories and heard of their necessities, we felt an overwhelming sense of dismay in the face of so much suffering and so much need. But we went on peacefully, bearing in mind that Jesus in our neighbor might one day say to us: “I needed a boat and a fishing net to start life over again, and you got them for me.” The people’s generosity was surprising: they set aside their own sufferings to take care of complete strangers. A young boy cut down some coconuts from the tree to offer each one of us an exquisite drink.
Weeping together
In Kampung Cina village, we met a young Muslim woman who was going there to see her house for the first time after the disaster. It was razed to the ground. He had lost her husband and her 8 children! In tears, she told us that as she was fleeing with her few month old child in her arms, she suddenly saw her two other children in danger and went back to help them. Just then she heard the cry of her baby, whom she lost hold of, being carried away by the water. Another huge wave came and carried her two other children away. As the water flowed back to the sea, she lost consciousness and when she came back to her senses, she found herself on top of a coconut tree. We listened, unable to move: it was impossible to utter even a single word. Not knowing how to comfort her, we embraced her and wept with her.
When we entered the worst-stricken area and the surrounding villages, we encountered absolute desolation! Houses completely emptied by the water’s violence, mostly destroyed and covered by mountains of ruins, from which victims were still being carried out.
When it was impossible to retrieve a body, a flag was placed as a sign that someone was buried there; it was a sort of makeshift funeral, a sign of respect for those lives that should not simply be forgotten.
Along the road going to the center of the city, about 3 kilometers away from the sea, two huge ships (350 tons each) were rigged out to serve as hotels. They will remain as a monument in memory of this tragedy.
The sharpest suffering, however, was seeing the extreme tip of Banda Aceh, where the fury of the sea lashed out in all its vehemence, striking from all directions and devastating everything. The area is a peninsula surrounded by water. All that remains was the flooring of the houses, together with a heap of ruins. There was no sign of life.
We traveled for two hours in silence by car. Maybe you could consider it a prayer, a meditation, a sharing in a suffering that could only be expressed with “why?” We recognized all this as a countenance of Jesus forsaken on the cross – of him who took upon himself all the sufferings, divisions and traumas of humanity. This assured us, even though it was a mystery, that beneath it all was his personal love for everyone.
Rolling up our sleeves
We then tried to get to work: one of us is employed in a company which manufactures fishing nets, so could do something about the fishermen’s problem. We made our calculations – how much materials were needed to make so many nets; how much did it take to make the wooden boats, possibly equipping them with an engine as well; how many bicycles would be needed to get the children to school; how much was needed for school supplies; how much money was required in all?
Now we have come back, better equipped to organize the distribution of the goods we had collected, since we knew the needs and the faces of the people behind these needs (we had come in contact with 953 fishermen).
We felt we had built a family with everyone, made up of people of all different backgrounds. And this was just the beginning!
We had the impression of watching the miracles of the solidarity which the tsunami awakened all over the world. We witnessed the generosity of various groups, non-government organizations, faith-based organizations and so on. There is a place for everyone who wants to help! The motto of Indonesia’s coat-of-arms is: “Unity in diversity.” It seemed to us that this immense country, after the terrible trial, was closer to unity.
20 Feb 2005 | Focolare Worldwide
You can never be the same after such an event. At nights I am awakened by thoughts of these brothers and sisters of mine in the southern part of the country. I know these regions – pearls of beauty. Now it all seems destroyed: things and people. Within me, the age-old question surfaces over and over again: “What is a human being?” “What sense does life have?” Throughout the country a cry rings out: “Why… why did all this happen?” This pain cuts through the air, like the terrible stench of decomposed corpses. You can hardly take a step without seeing one. Buddhists and Christians agree that after the catastrophe the biggest job now is spiritual in nature – to respond to the sense of bewilderment gripping the hearts and minds of many people. Fortunately, after a long period of scarce blood supply, now donors are flooding the hospital corridors. There are even too many. Twice my friend and I were turned back. I keep having sleepless nights: the cry of suffering people, and the thousands who run to their aid are in my ears. Once, when I got home, I found a small white box lying on my desk. In it was the money a Political Science student and his friends had collected. Remorsefully, I remembered that not long ago I had judged this boy as “insensitive” to the needs of others. Then a teen-ager arrived with a sack full of his clothes “for our people in the south.” So did another family. Everybody is in a rush to give aid, everybody wants to do something. One of our friends asked me to lend him my car. He was going to give away some of his extra clothes, and he couldn’t manage all the packages on his motorcycle. Yes, this was his chance to give wings to his life. The whole country has changed, the people are transformed. I’ve lived with the Thai people for 20 years now, but never have I seen them like this, so ready to give and working at it all together. I am grateful for the chance to be here, to mourn their dead – which now are mine – together with them and do something together with numerous others. Everyone and everything has been mobilized: even the helicopter of a Thai princess, which will transport the Swedish child who was miraculously saved. The princess herself lost her son in the waves. I also recognized a popular actress at work in the middle of the relief packages and medicines to be distributed. From the sparkle in her eyes, one can see that love lights us up and transforms us from within. A wealthy businessman used his motorized parachute to fly over stricken areas and inform others of bodies washed up on beaches since recovering decomposing corpses was the immediate need. Therefore, the country is moved not only by economic bulletins; it is also moved by the scenes of so many of its own people dead and also those who came only for a vacation and lost their lives here. We are all human beings and we are all brothers and sisters: here is the answer that springs forth from within during the tsunami aftermath. The solidarity you breathe in the air as you walk through the streets is stronger than the blind, absurd hatred that stories of war repeat constantly. People are interested in the thousands of stories of solidarity “to the point of giving one’s life”, during and after the onslaught of the waves. An English girl is mourning a Thai stranger wearing an orange shirt, who saved her life by letting her hold on to a tree, while he himself got lost in the water. People now look at one another with new eyes. Distances and differences have disappeared. We are no longer dazed by success, health and prosperity. It could have been me in their place! In the final analysis this, I feel, is the meaning of life – a meaning underscored by this tragedy – suffering, borne generously in the service of others, unleashes love. This is why I an confident that one day “That all may be one” will be a reality.” (L.B. – Thailand) translated from Città Nuova n�2/2005
20 Feb 2005 | Focolare Worldwide
Adoptions-at-a-distance, building projects and economic support are simultaneously on the move in order to guarantee prompt aid in the face of the emergency, as well as to provide the necessary support for the economic and social recovery and development of the devastated areas. Thanks to our Muslim friends, in Indonesia, roads have been opened so that aid can reach the people. Prompt interventions As of February 1, a total of € 280,000 has been collected from all over the world, even from the poorest areas, making it possible to mobilize initiatives in India, Indonesia and Thailand. India In Madras, Tamil Nadu, a young woman, together with her brother and friends, has organized an aid network for the local population. With the donations received, she is supporting 14 children under 2 years of age plus a few very needy adults, and has acquired medicines for a hospital run by the Franciscan Sisters of Madras. Now she is working at purchasing fishing nets for 333 families of Nagercoil, and school items for 250 children. She writes: “In Nagercoil, some families earn their living by producing fishing nets, but they have lost almost everything. Each fisherman’s family would need 5 kilos of fishing net and if these are available we could help the families both of those who produce and those who use the nets. The fishermen are Catholics, Hindus and Muslims. They live in Kovalam village of Tamil Nadu, which is about two hours away from Madras. The Bishop of Kovalam’s effort to provide help has done much, but 333 families still remain unaided. A cardiologist from Madras has already donated a large fishing boat, and if the families have the nets, they could get back to work. “These families do not so much need the daily ration of a plate of rice from the government, which they have to travel a long way to procure, as the kind of aid that will enable them to work again. Yesterday, my brother and his friend went to see how things are going and to bring the first batch of nets from Nagercoil to Kovalam (700 km). Trucks transporting gasoline provided them with free transportation. A total of €7,200 is needed for the fishing nets.
“There are two Catholic schools in the area, and the children who were traumatized by the catastrophe need help to be able to go back to school as soon as possible and return to normal life. We were able to find a uniform, shoes, a small blackboard and a notebook. We need supplies for 250 more children. The total cost to cover is about a thousand euros.”
Indonesia The initiatives include: supplying nutrition and schooling for 400 children of Aceh and Nias who have been brought to Medan, as adoption-at- a-distance procedures are being finalized; assistance to E., a Muslim, who brings aid to a Muslim refugee camp in Aceh; the first “aid camp” in Sumatra. Two youth groups from Singapore have decided to spend their Chinese New Year holidays in Sumatra to assist tsunami victims and deliver the donations sent by AMU. Their service will be under the guidance of a Methodist pastor in Aceh, and a Catholic priest in Nias. An initial funding of €36,000 was made to meet the costs of these projects. Thailand We have decided to collaborate with the project of the Thai Bishops’Conference which aims to boost the local economyby providing fishing boats to the fishermen struck by the tsunami. €50,000 euros have been allotted for this purpose. 
19 Feb 2005 | Focolare Worldwide
A sailor’s life R: “Because of the war, when I was 5, I lost my father, my house and a comfortable life. I suffered from the injustices my family had to endure, which nurtured resentment and rebellion within me. I started to dream of a life of freedom in a world where there was true brotherhood. At 20, after finishing nautical school, I took off on a ship as a naval cadet. On board, however, I discovered that reality was very different from my dreams. The relationships among the crew members were difficult, so I became tough, too. For me, God was far away and indifferent to our condition as human beings. I felt terribly alone. Once, when I was on leave, I met M., and an unexpected horizon of happiness opened up for me. We decided to get married and I left the seaman’s life. We had great expectations for our life together but they were soon unfortunately drowned in incomprehension and in our incapacity to accept each other with our limitations and differences. We ended up in conflict. So great was our disappointment that hope gave way to confusion and separation. It was a total collapse. I felt oppressed by a sense of failure, anguish and despair. A friend of mine brought me to the Focolare Movement’s little town, Loppiano, in Florence, Italy. There I discovered a new countenance of God. I found out that He is near, that He is Love! “There is hope, then!” I told myself. I experienced a profound sense of gratitude and joy. I wanted to share this with M., but I did not know how to reach out to her. In the meantime, I kept in touch with other people who shared this spirit; I began to believe that brotherhood is not a utopia..” Love is the answer M: “In the darkness that enveloped me, I too came to know the ideal of unity, that love which I thirsted for but whose source I did not know. The words of the Gospel: “Love one another as I have loved you,” had such an impact on me that it revolutionized my whole life. In Jesus I discovered that love meant a total gift of self.” A new love blooms R: “When I received M.’s letter telling me of her joy for this discovery, I thought I was dreaming. I discovered that she was in a hospital. After four years of separation, I went to see her. My visit was unexpected, all it took was one look. “I will give you a new heart,” Scripture says; we were both ready to start again but our love for one another was now very new. We were ready to love as Jesus loved. For us too, the Gospel’s promise came true: “Where two or more are united in my name, I am there in their midst.” Jesus, the Risen One in our midst has become our light, joy and strength throughout the following years of married life. His presence has become the essence of our relationship with our 6 children (who are grown-ups now), and with many other families and people, as well.” Translated from Storie di fraternità – spazio al dialogo tra vecchi e nuovi cittadini, in www.loppiano.it.
