Oct 28, 2020 | Non categorizzato
The meeting will be held online from November 19th to 21st. Maria Gaglione, from the organising team, collected the stories of the participants: economists, researchers, scholars and university professors, entrepreneurs, students, activists and changemakers from 115 countries around the world. 
“It is essential to train and support the new generations of economists and entrepreneurs” to adopt a new model of development that “does not exclude but includes” and does not generate inequalities. Speaking to economists and bankers, the Pope highlighted the urgency of an “ecological reconversion” of the economy and stressed the decisive role of young people. He invited them to discuss these issues in Assisi (Italy), where St Francis “stripped himself of everything to choose God as the guiding light of his life, he made himself poor with the poor (…). His choice of poverty gave rise to a vision of the economy that is very up to date”. The meeting, entitled Economy of Francesco, will be held online from November 19th to 21st. Maria Gaglione, from the organising team, collected the participants’ stories: “The young people who responded to the Pope’s call are economists, researchers, scholars and university professors, entrepreneurs, students, activists and changemakers from 115 countries around the world. They are themselves “builders” of a fairer, more fraternal economy, aiming at inclusion. The universities, businesses and communities where they operate are “workshops of hope”, as the Pope defines them. Their motto is “No one left behind”, because they want an economy that leaves no one behind. In this way, they resemble St Francis who chose a new life to dedicate himself to those who are the least”. Saint Francis preferred giving to the logic of profit. What does it mean to make of one’s work and study a gift for others? “These young people choose to give their lives, their skills, their talents, to give everything a deeper meaning. Many, having undertaken a study or work activity, at a certain point choose to change their ways. Joel Thompson is an electronic engineer. Inspired by Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si, he decided to commit to environmental and social justice, and now lives and works in an indigenous village in Amazonian Guyana where he is involved in training in 16 villages. Diego Wawrzeniak is a Brazilian social entrepreneur and member of the Inkiri community. He has worked in the financial sector and after creating a startup he decided to join his community to develop a local bank and currency and now follows projects that combine innovation, entrepreneurship and local economy. Maria Carvalho, of Indian descent, grew up between Saudi Arabia and Canada and is involved in energy and climate policy in London. She says that St Francis’ message of fraternity inspired her life and that she chose to become a social scientist to fight poverty and inequality”. Because of the pandemic the event, planned for March, will be held online in November. What format will it take? The original method of the event is preserved – an opportunity to highlight the voice, the thought, the perspectives of young economists and entrepreneurs. For months, about 1200 young people from all continents have been working on the major themes of today’s economy, trying to reconcile apparently unrelated dimensions: finance and humanity; agriculture and justice; energy and poverty, etc. The November appointment will be the fundamental stage of a process that has already begun to report the experience and work of the past few months. The proposals and reflections will be given space in the various sessions of the online programme, where young people will be in dialogue with internationally renowned economists and experts. There will be links from the symbolic places of Assisi and moments in which young people will tell their stories. Art, poetry, meditation, local realities are also included in the programme. A large part of the programme will be available in streaming by connecting to the website www.francescoeconomy.org The Pope has told us that he will be present.
Claudia Di Lorenzi
Oct 26, 2020 | Non categorizzato
Pope Francis sent a message to the participants of the conference of EcoOne, an ecological initiative of the Focolare Movement. Pope Francis sent a message to the participants of the conference of EcoOne, an ecological initiative of the Focolare Movement, which took place from 23 to 25 October in live streaming from the Mariapolis Centre of Castel Gandolfo (Italy). “I offer cordial greetings to all taking part in this international Meeting being held as part of the year-long observance of the fifth anniversary of the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’. I express my gratitude to EcoOne, the ecological initiative of the Focolare Movement, and to the representatives of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Global Catholic Climate Movement who have cooperated in making this event possible. Your Meeting, with its theme “New Ways towards Integral Ecology: Five Years after Laudato Si’”, addresses a relational vision of humanity and care for our world from a variety of perspectives: ethical, scientific, social and theological. In recalling the conviction of Chiara Lubich that the created world bears within itself a charism of unity, I trust that her perspective can guide your work in the recognition that “everything is connected” and that “concern for the environment needs to be joined to sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society” (Laudato Si’, 91). Among such problems is the urgent need for a new and more inclusive socio-economic paradigm that reflects the truth that we are “a single human family, fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, children of the same earth which is our common home” (Fratelli Tutti, 8). This solidarity with one another and with the world around us demands a firm willingness to develop and implement practical measures that foster the dignity of all persons in their human, family and work relationships, while at the same time combating the structural causes of poverty and working to protect the natural environment. Achieving an integral ecology calls for a profound interior conversion on both the personal and communal level. As you examine the great challenges facing us at this time, including climate change, the need for sustainable development and the contribution religion can make to the environmental crisis, it is essential to break with the logic of exploitation and selfishness and to promote the practice of a sober, simple and humble lifestyle (cf. Laudato Si’, 222-224). It is my hope that your work will serve to cultivate in the hearts of our brothers and sisters a shared responsibility for one another as children of God and a renewed commitment to be good stewards of his gift of creation (cf. Gen 2:15). Dear friends, once again I thank you for your research and your cooperative efforts to seek new ways that lead to an integral ecology for the common good of the human family and the created world. In offering my prayerful best wishes for your deliberations during this meeting, I cordially invoke upon you, your families and your associates God’s blessings of wisdom, strength and peace. And I ask you, please, to remember me in your prayers”.
Focolare Communications Office
Oct 26, 2020 | Non categorizzato
The restrictions that have been imposed due to the pandemic, particularly the lockdowns, have often caused or increased tensions in personal relationships. Forgiveness is needed. But forgiveness requires strength, courage and practice. Families often fall apart because they don’t know how to forgive. Long-standing hatreds maintain divisions between relatives, social groups and peoples. At times, some people even teach others not to forget the wrongs done to them and to nurse their desire for revenge… Blind resentment poisons the soul and corrodes the heart. Some people think that forgiveness is weakness. It isn’t. It’s the expression of extreme courage and of true love in its most genuine form, because it is the least self-interested. ‘For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?’ Jesus said, because anyone can do this. But you must, ‘Love your enemies’ (Mt 5: 43-47). We too are asked to learn from him and have the love of a father, the love of a mother, a merciful love for whoever we meet during the day, and especially those who make mistakes. The New Testament asks even more of those called to live a spirituality of communion, in other words Christian spirituality: ‘Forgive each other’ (Col. 3:13). Mutual love demands almost a pact among us: to be ready to forgive one another always. This is the only way we can contribute to building universal fraternity.
Chiara Lubich
Taken from the Word of Life of September 2002
Oct 23, 2020 | Non categorizzato
In this special year aimed at highlighting the principles set out in the encyclical Laudato si’, we come across Abdullah Al Atrash, a young Italian-Syrian entrepreneur in the United Arab Emirates. Though a non-believer, he is a member of the Economy of Communion of the Focolare Movement. The company he runs employs mostly Asian and African migrants, guaranteeing them a salary and social support measures, all while observing the highest possible safety for both employees and the environment, even during the pandemic. 
They are Pakistani, Indian, Nepalese, Filipino, Nigerian, Cameroonian, Senegalese. What they share in common is a past marked by severe poverty that forced them to leave their homeland and family to emigrate, and a present that seeks to keep them from experiencing exploitation and new hardships. They number about 212, the employees of MAS Paints, a paint manufacturer established in 1989 in Italy that relocated in 2000 to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Nine out of ten of the UAE’s 10 million inhabitants are foreigners. Abdullah Al Atrash, the company’s General Manager, tells Vatican News about his “colleagues and friends of the company” founded by his father and uncle. Hearing this young 42-year-old entrepreneur with a degree in economics and business from the University of Ancona and a Master’s degree obtained at the Adriano Olivetti Institute whose headquarters are in Italy’s Marches region, calls to mind the reflections on work contained in Pope Francis’s Encyclical Laudato Si’. There, the Pontiff highlights how work is a “necessity”, a “part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfilment” (no. 128). “Other than ourselves” “Underlying every form of work,” the Pope further elucidates, “is a concept of the relationship which we can and must have with what is other than ourselves” (LS, no. 125). Arriving in 2005 in Dubai, Abdullah observed, studied, and, in a certain way, made his own the world of migrant workers. “It was a trauma for me to see how these people were living. Everyone from poorer countries go to work in other nations, whichever one it may be. They then need to send a lot of money home to support a truly high number of relatives, because they all have an extended family system, that is, they help even their parents, siblings, cousins. So, I did a calculation,” he explains. “Based on that calculation, on average each one of them had to maintain 10 people, not only from the point of view of money to cover expenses, but money that truly makes a difference between life and death because in many of these countries the State does not help for various reasons: there is serious poverty, war, political instability, ethnic or religious tension. These people tend to put in long hours, doing jobs that are quite fatiguing, for really low wages. I saw cases in which people were working in construction earning a wage equal to about € 130 – € 150 per month, making it impossible for them to send money home.” A culture of sharing In his Encyclical Letter of 2015, the Pontiff points out that “helping the poor financially must always be a provisional solution in the face of pressing needs” (no. 128). He goes on to clarify that “the broader objective should always be to allow them a dignified life through work” (ibid.). An atheist, married to a Catholic and the father of two children, Abdullah, together with his wife Manuela, is involved in the Focolare Movement and its Economy of Communion initiative. It was founded in 1991 by Chiara Lubich to promote a type of economic culture marked by sharing, and proposes the living of a different lifestyle than that of the dominant capitalistic system. The life experience of this Italo-Syrian thus led him to the point of “being aware of the costs of life as well as the world in which they [the migrants] were living” and of adopting concrete measures for his employees. This was not easy, he confesses, but “I multiplied the base wage by 5 so that they could live with the utmost dignity. And I decided to pay not only their medical expenses of any kind, but those of the entire ‘extended’ family, as well as for the education of their children, supporting them up to university – because without education it would be difficult for them to find work.” 
The common good The predominant value, therefore, seems to be that social capital goes together with trusting and reliable relationships, respect for the fundamental laws underpinning civil co-existence, as Pope Francis emphasizes in his Encyclical, citing Caritas in veritate of Pope Benedict XVI. Abdullah tells how he “created a fund from the company’s profits” which are also used to help his employees. “A company’s profits,” he emphasizes, “must, in my opinion, be employed both to invest in the company’s growth and obviously for the owners’ needs. But they must also be equally invested in the company’s employees. In fact, the profits are a common good: a company belongs to everyone because everyone works there, and it must serve everyone.” “At a certain point,” he continues, “I realized that beyond these necessities, my employees also had the problem of housing in their homeland. I came to understand this as I would speak with them, as we talked about our lives together. I wanted to establish a human rapport with them, not only a business one. This is community. This made me understand that there were two ways they could build a house in their countries of origin: seeking a loan from the banks (who do not lend money to the poor), or – and this was so painful for me to learn – they have to go to loan sharks because usury is very common in these countries. Thus, they have to make tremendous sacrifices over many years to pay back the money. So, I tried to understand how many people were in their families, where they wanted to build their houses and, calculating the necessary amount, we granted a loan to be paid back freely over time according to their possibilities. It is an interest-free loan, even if an interest-free loan does not really exist because there is always inflation, especially in certain countries.” Production that respects the environment During the special year inaugurated by Pope Francis to reflect on his Encyclical Laudato Si’ that goes until 24 May 2021, we asked Abdullah how his own business succeeds at responding to the urgent challenge of protecting our “common home.” “We produce some paints that are absolutely non-toxic – so, they are not harmful and do not cause pollution. Other types of products are necessarily pollutants, take solvents for example, highly used even in the pharmaceutical industry. What’s important is that they do not cause harm to the environment because we are the environment: the Pope continually recalls this. I, as an atheist, understand that the environment comprises everything that lives.” “Therefore, in the company,” he continues, “we aim to protect the workers so that their health is 100% protected, investing heavily in safety measures, in masks, ventilation systems and machines that do not release substances such as solvents. Regarding waste, we have invested a lot in machinery that separates the solid, liquid and gaseous waste products. Subsequently, public companies, under the government, come to haul them away and transfer them to appropriate and suitable places where they are disposed of properly so as to avoid polluting the environment. The sea is under us: when you dig a bit under the plant, we find the sea!” 
The pandemic During the world-wide coronavirus emergency, concerns for the condition of their employees grew. “The onslaught that arrived here,” Abdullah recalls, “was strong. It hit Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, all the countries around us. The hardest period, when everything was shut down, was between March and April. With the first news of the virus, we prepared measures such as the adoption of glass dividers where employees work and in reception areas, the use of surgical masks, measuring body temperature, respect for the 2-meter social distance, Covid testing for all the employees, daily coordination with the local Ministry of Health. In addition, I rented around thirty studios for safe quarantine periods.” Co-existence What hits home is the word “co-existence” which Abdullah repeats a number of times in our conversation, including when he recalls his participation in the Pope’s Mass in Abu Dhabi on the occasion of Pope Francis’s journey to the United Arab Emirates at the beginning of 2019. “It was an extraordinary experience. I went with some colleagues and friends from the Focolare Movement. There were a lot of people, so many that I was outside of the stadium, on the lawn, where you could follow the event on the jumbo screens. I noted that the majority of those present were Catholics, but there even 5 thousand muslims, as well as some groups of Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. They transmitted the images of the moving embrace with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb. It was a liberating moment of an encounter between the Islamic world and the western world, with the Pope who had come here with such great humility: he thanked the country, the authorities, the people, in the spirit of co-existence, peace, tolerance. He wanted to say that living together is possible.”
By Giada Aquilino – Vatican News
Oct 22, 2020 | Non categorizzato
Maria Voce: “Immense suffering and unconditional collaboration by the Movement so as achieve clarity; the establishment of an independent inquiry after a meeting with some victims of a former consecrated member of Focolare”. “Faced with this immense suffering, we are convinced that the only path to follow is that of offering the victims full attention and recognition of the harm done. I wish here to reiterate the Movement’s full and unconditional collaboration, to shed full light on the facts and do justice to the victims.” This is what Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, said in a press release dated 22nd October 2020 on the case of violence against minors by J.M.M. a former consecrated member of the Focolare, who lives in France. A victim has made his case public, which goes back to 1981 and 1982 when – aged 15 – he was sexually molested. An independent body is being established through which the Focolare Movement has decided to initiate a special inquiry, after the meeting with some victims on 18th September 2020. On that occasion Jesús Morán, Co-president of the Focolare Movement, expressed his pain and shame for the abuses suffered “and also for the silence or lack of initiative sustained for years on the part of various people in positions of responsibility”. The composition of the independent body will be made public shortly. Its task will be to listen to the victims and to gather further testimonies, as well as investigating whether there were any omissions, cover ups or silences on the part of those responsible for the Movement. At the end of the investigation, the independent Body will make its final report public. In the interests of the completeness of the investigation and to guarantee full transparency, the two people co-responsible for the Focolare in France and one of the people co-responsible for the Movement in Western Europe offered their resignation from their respective roles on 21st October 2020. These were accepted by the Focolare President.
Joachim Schwind
Press release
