Easter 2019 Greetings from Maria Voce
https://vimeo.com/330953456
Right to the end
Holy Thursday: this reflection on today’s solemnity is taken from a homily prepared by the bishop, philosopher and theologian, Klaus Hemmerle (1929–1994), for Holy Thursday 1993. If the disciples see in Jesus the great and powerful God on high, they will not find him. They have to bow right down, And look into the dust; Jesus is there, washing his followers feet. Self-giving, humiliation, service, taking ordinary human needs seriously, becoming small, denying self, the harshness of being exhausted, being modest, being hidden: all this, which has nothing to do with divine splendor, is the splendor of the true God, is the inner core of our worship of God, is the Eucharist.
Klaus Hemmerle
(Klaus Hemmerle, Gottes Zeit-unsere Zeit, München, 2018, p. 65 – editor’s translation)
Getting ready for the centenary of Chiara Lubich’s birth
In preparation for what would have been Chiara Lubich’s 100th birthday in January next year, a delegation from the Focolare founders’ home region of Trentino, north Italy, visited the Movement’s international centre near Rome on 16 April. “We’re not here to ‘commemorate’ Chiara Lubich, or to turn her into some kind of monument, or consign her to history. That’s not what’s needed. We’re here to relive her message, link in with her legacy and communicate with her charism today”. With these words, Alessandro Andreatta, Mayor of the city of Trent, explained the reason behind the visit of a delegation from the Trentino region, on 16 April, to the Focolare Movement’s international centre at Rocca di Papa, near Rome, in the lead-up to the celebrations of the centenary of Chiara’s birth in 2020. The delegation included the President of the Autonomous Province of Trento Maurizio Fugatti, the President of the Primiero local community administration Roberto Pradel, the Director of the Trentino Historical Museum Foundation Giuseppe Ferrandi and Maurizio Gentilini, archivist and historian at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and author of a new biography of Chiara Lubich to be published in 2020. They were welcomed by Focolare President Maria Voce, Co-President Jesús Morán and other focolare members from different countries, together with the leaders of several local councils in the Castelli Romani area, where Chiara lived for over fifty years. The visit was an important occasion in which to consolidate the friendship and collaboration between the city of Trent, the Trentino community and the Focolare Movement. A host of events are being organised to mark the centenary year both in the city of Trent and the Primiero Valley, as well as in many other towns and cities around the world. The celebrations begin on 7 December 2019 with the inauguration of a multimedia exhibition entitled “Chiara Lubich: City-World”, a collaborative venture between of the Chiara Lubich Centre and the Trentino Historical Museum Foundation. “Through this initiative, we hope many people will get to know Chiara and her ideas,” explained Alba Sgariglia, co-director of the Chiara Lubich Centre, “as well as her spirituality, her work and her profile as a tireless promoter of a culture of unity and fraternity among peoples”. According to Giuseppe Ferrandi, organising the exhibition has been a rewarding if complex cultural challenge. “We’re trying to take the extraordinary legacy of Chiara Lubich’s life and words, and transform it into a format within the limits of our exhibition space but without limiting the communication of the content. As our title suggests, the idea of the ‘city’ is central to Chiara’s thinking and writing. For her, the city is a place where debate occurs enabling it to relate directly to the rest of the world. In this way, we are encouraged not to stay confined within the local but to open up”. Part of the exhibition will take place in the Primiero Valley where, from the 1940s onwards, Chiara Lubich and a small group of companions used to go every summer. Every year more people joined them, until several thousand people from all over the world were gathering there to share in the experience of a life centred on fraternity. After Trent and Primiero, the exhibition will be hosted by nine capital cities outside Europe. In each location, it will be further shaped by the culture of the place, in a vision opening up to the rest of the world. Throughout 2020, visitors are expected to come to Trent from all over the globe. There will be a series of national and international conventions and events taking place in the Trentino area and in other Focolare centres across all continents. The President of the Autonomous Province of Trent spoke of their pride at “Being here, today, to express this unity of intent. Trentino is a land of thoroughfares, of borders: Chiara Lubich knew what these characteristics meant and how to communicate with them. Back in June 2001, Chiara spoke to the people of Trent about fraternity from the point of view of the city. Her attitude was to respect all the different stakeholders who form a community, and she knew how to listen to them all. This is the way to interpret the interests and needs of the people for the best outcome”. In her concluding remarks, Maria Voce underlined the value of Chiara Lubich’s attention to the life of the city. “She was in the Primiero Valley when she understood God wanted her to go back to the city of Trent. Throughout her life, in cities around the world – a number of which acknowledged her as an honorary citizen – she experienced a strong sense of engagement which came from identifying particular problems and sufferings, embracing them and introducing seeds of life and love there”.
Stefania Tanesini
Venezuela: don’t lose hope
Continuous and long blackouts throughout the whole country paralyse basic services and business activities thus making life for people very difficult. A humanitarian drama is leading to deep social divisions. Rosa and Óscar Contreras, a family that belongs to the Focolare community relate how they manage to brave this desperate situation with faith and courage and continue to give their share towards universal brotherhood. Rosa related:“The situation continues to get worse. A few weeks ago, 105 hours of power cuts crippled our city, especially commercial and financial activities. To make matters worse, we lack also constant public services such as water supply, waste collection, telephone and internet services And then, national backouts continue to hit the country….” “In spite of everything we feel that life must go on”, Oscar said. Then he continued to explain, “We have reopened our factory, which produces wooden and acrylic goods and resumed our work. It is a great challenge to keep the business going when sales have really dropped, but we are try our best to comply with the commitment we have with suppliers and employees, without running the risk of bankruptcy. We aim at being creative and open to constant strategical change to be able to react against hyperinflation and complex fiscal policies. This led to a total change in the wage structure of our employees; we try to find new ways to improve their income, to encourage greater motivation and achieve better results. In the meantime unexpected circumstances do crop up. Until some time ago we were able to travel to visit people and be close to them, but presently we cannot do this anymore because our car has been damaged and we cannot afford the expense to repair it, besides being a long process because of power cuts. Meanwhile, our savings are running out, but God’s Providence does not abandon us; recently we have managed to buy a few necessary things to keep us going”. “We have never realized that there are so many unimaginable opportunities to live the Gospel radically”, continued Rosa. “Every day we come across so many relatives and neighbours who are in need and are desperate, that we are obliged to be attentive and share the little we have. Each time we ask what Mary, Joseph and Jesus would have done if they were instead of us. We are pleased to see that many of our neighbours have started to be more friendly. We think that this is the result of initiatives we have carried out very silently to help others and create relationships”. Oscar confided:“However, we must admit that we are really physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, but still we are certain that the Holy Spirit is with us and that, through us, He can fill others with the joy and hope we seek to transmit. Last week, even though we had no electricity, we thought of meeting some young people from the Movement to share experiences and reflections, and watch a film together. Many say that these difficult times are a favourable opportunity to generate more communion within the families. The absence of mobile phones, TV, schools, work and other commitments is providing space for more dialogue within family circles and for addressing questions that were never dealt with before. Many come together to pray and they share what they have with others. It is interesting to note the change of attitude when people come to purchase or get something; they do not only think about its use for their own family, but they also think about its usefulness for others”.
edited by Anna Lisa Innocenti
Jerusalem: a city for all
Hearing from those who live there gives hope for the most contested city on earth; a different vision from the one in the news. https://vimeo.com/319521993
Progress report on Fraternity
Roberto Catalano of the Focolare Movement’s Centre for Inter-religious Dialogue offered his insights into the context and geo-political events leading to the drawing up of the historic DOCUMENT ON HUMAN FRATERNITY FOR WORLD PEACE AND LIVING TOGETHER, co-signed by Pope Francis and The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb in Abu Dhabi on 4th February this year. How can we possibly identify universal fraternity as a primary objective of today’s humanity? Are we not in an age dominated by digital bubbles, with ever more divisive personal and collective boundaries, and new forms of economic protectionism and so on? However, the declaration signed in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and the Imam of al-Azhar places the values of fraternity at the heart of the geo-political and media agenda. With a clear and practical approach, the declaration proposes fraternity as the guiding objective, not only for the Christian and Muslim religions, but for the entire human family. Roberto Catalano outlined the steps leading up to this important document which is being recognized as a foundation step in dialogue towards world peace. How significant is the declaration signed by Pope Francis and Imam al-Tayeb in Abu Dhabi on 4 February this year? This document on fraternity represents a significant milestone and the text will remain as a reference point for the future. It’s impossible not to see how profoundly innovative it is. Once more we find ourselves before one of Pope Francis’ “absolute firsts”! Never before in the history of the Church has a pope co-signed a shared document with the leader of another religion. This document was signed in a very precise context, a meeting between the leaders of the Catholic Church and of al-Azhar, characterized by a mutual embrace, talks, and even walking hand in hand. The agreed text addresses not only religious leaders or interested parties but all believers and in fact everyone in the world. The United Arab Emirates can be seen as a cross section of the globalized world: the Arabian Peninsula is the heart of Islam, but there are a growing number of workers from other countries and cultures…. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the venue for the signing of this declaration, is on the Southern Coast of the Persian Gulf. All the Gulf States are significant due to their economic and geo-political status. In only a few decades, their oil reserves have permitted a dizzying rate of progress, facilitated also by workers from countries such as the Philippines, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Arabian Peninsula is the heart of Islam, but it also presents a true Muslim mosaic. Saudi Arabia dominates the region, as the image of Sunni Islam which identifies with Wahhabism, which on the international level supports the Salafi movement. Within this context, there is the emerging phenomenon of new Christian communities. Whereas the traditional apostolic Christian Churches of the Middle East continue to live through dramatic events which often cause them to flee the region, the area of the Emirates is becoming populated with a new set of Christians, a real cross-section of today’s Christianity. The majority of these Christians are from the Philippines and India, but also from other parts of the Middle East. We are living in a period of globalization, and the Church in the Emirates is a striking example of this. During Pope Francis’ recent visit to Morocco, the 800th anniversary of the meeting between St Francis of Assisi and Sultan Malik al-Kamil was celebrated. It seems this pope has embarked upon something of a “pilgrimage of peace”. Absolutely. And the Abu Dhabi declaration fits in with this anniversary, as a sign of the desire to be a “brother who seeks peace with his brothers” and “to be instruments of peace”. The Second Vatican Council Declaration Nostra Aetate states that “in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems” and so the Council strove to urge “all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve, as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind, social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom”. In 2006, a passage from Benedict XVI’s Regensburg lecture sparked controversy in the Muslim world. Many took offence at the quotation, even though it referred not to the Quran but to the relationship between faith and reason, and between religion and violence. It led to a period of stormy relationships, during which the University of al-Azhar cut off contact with the Vatican. In the years that followed, with great patience and diplomacy, these relationships have been rebuilt, in the spirit of Evangelii Gaudium, which after defining inter-religious dialogue as a “duty for Christians as well as other religious communities” (EG 250), affirmed the importance of Christian-Muslim relations. Finally, in May 2016 Imam al-Tayeb came to the Vatican. On his arrival, he made a significant comment: “We are taking up the way of dialogue once more and we hope it will be better than before”. The invitation and welcome was soon reciprocated. In 2017, the Imam invited the Pope to Cairo for an International Peace Conference. On that occasion the Pope strongly affirmed: “Peace alone is holy and no act of violence can be perpetrated in the name of God, for it would profane his Name”. He went on to propose three basic areas which, if properly linked, can “assist in this dialogue: the duty to respect one’s own identity and that of others, the courage to accept differences, and sincerity of intentions.” From then on, a deep spiritual understanding has grown between the two religious leaders.
Interview by Stefania Tanesini