Pope Francis to gathering of Christians and Muslims: “Go ahead with courage and through dialogue”
https://vimeo.com/148880588 ITALIAN with ENGLISH subtitles
Igino Giordani: Mercy in the Magnificat
“The Magnificat” Stained Glass Window, Community of Taizé
Environmental protection is also a matter of justice
Artisans of peace on the increase
All of us here are involved in helping refugees to integrate in our coundry,” they write from Germany. “Some of us give German lessons, some provide lodging, some give of their time to be with the refugees. We are currently waiting for the arrival of 9 unaccompanied minors from Syria and Afghanistan. They’ll live for six months at our centre in Ottmaring where they will be assisted by social workers from the city.” 
“Here in Dallas,” they write from Texas, “we held a peace march to raise funds for Syrian refugees.” “In Houston “We got together for a day of team building. With games, work groups, and so forth we learned how to be a team. On November 22 we held an interreligious prayer for peace. It was attended by Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Christians. The Archbishop also joined us.” From California they tell us that the benefit dinner for refugees from the Middle East included a hundred people from different cultures and Churches. After praying for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris, some young people presented several of their projects for refugees, from around the world, which are connected to the United World Project, an international platform for providing visibility to small and large-scale projects. Everyone agreed that through dialogue everyone can sow hope in their own corners of the world. A benefit dinner will also be held in San Francisco in December. “From October 30th, at Centro Luminosa in Spain, a community prayer service will be held every Saturday evening, animated by different groups of people each time: youth, families, priests. . .) It will be the starting point for becoming more actively involved in concrete efforts for peace. There was a very energetic response from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, following the November 20th event in the Square. The idea was to invite everyone – absolutely everyone – to learn more about building peace. The launching of the event which was covered by a local radio station, was then broadcast on social media. At 19:30 the Square began to be covered in colour and music. Banners, posters and fliers offered ideas on how to resolve conflicts through dialogue and thus generate peace: giving a smile, discussing without shouting, doing to others what you would have done to you, and so on. On stage there were songs, brief presentations and dances (one choir offered to sing because of an invitation on Facebook.) “The experience of today is only a first step, which confirms that when you are together small things become powerful. And so it is urgent that we get moving beginning with our daily life.” In Parana, Argentina, the local community organised two ecumenical evenings of prayer for peace and for the persecuted because of their faith, animated by members of the different Churches with whom they are in contact. With testimonies of refugees and the families that took them in, besides the heartfelt prayer, they wanted to give visibility to the amount of road we have already covered in learning about, welcoming and including others. From Tokyo, Japan, they report a large sum of money that was gathered at the “Syrian Cafe” (a place for encounter and dialogue), which will be sent to Damascus. And we add that in Asunción, Paraguay, on December 18-20 there will be a camp for peace, organised by Teens for Unity, one of the junior sections of the Focolare.
A new gate for Hope Park designed by Ave Art Centre
A new gate has been opened at Hope Park, Liverpool, to replace the tall walls that have historically separated the colleges of Hope University , England. The new architectural structure joins two university schools, one Roman Catholic and the other Anglican, which comprise the first and only ecumenical university of Europe. The exhibition, which was inaugurated on 28 September, was organised by the Ave Arts Centre in Loppiano. The seven artists who work there aim to express, through their artwork, the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood which inspired Chiara Lubich. The partnership with the art studio was born from a visit by Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Dr. Phillay to the Internationanl Centre of Loppiano for a conference at Sophia University Institute. At the dedication ceremony of the New Gate, the Vice-Chancellor explained the inspiration for the shape and design of the gate which stems from the tradition of the Maori people in New Zealand, whose villages had “Waharoa,” an open gate that became a symbol of the village and a sign of openness and welcome to guests and visitors. “In the same way,” continued Dr. Phillay, “this new gate marks the entrance for students and professors into the ‘community of life’ of Hope University, focused – in accordance with the orientation of Cardinal John Henry Newman, towards a wholisitc cultural and human formation, capable of ‘accepting the value of one’s own academic discipline within the context of all the others.” Nunzia Bertali, from the Italian Consulate, officially inaugurated the New Gate by cutting the ribbon. She said: “What a great occasion and privilege to be asked to inaugurate the New Gate. I can only be proud of this link between England and Italy. It is a fantastic idea and great opportunity to link the two countries.” Watch the video. New Gate, inspiration at the service of unity Sculptress Erika Ivacson from the Ave Centre, described the New Gate in this way: “It is an arch, a bridge that is born from the encounter between two similar yet distinct elements. In the language of sculpture the two distinct forms have reached a harmony and a unity in diversity. Passing through the New Gate, anyone should find themself in a fulfilling experience that points to something greater, to belonging and identity. The Biblical texts inserted on the interior of the sculpture echo the message. And as the plaque at the side of the sculpture states: May passing through this gate each day be a living affirmation of the ecumenical foundations of this univeristy.
Mercy from the viewpoint of a nonbeliever
The Indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy has taken the word “mercy” far beyond Vatican walls, and to the ears of the secular world it can sound outdated and laden with religious significance. The nonbeliever tends from the start to not accept the mystical meanings with which this word is usually invested, especially now as it is raised to disturbing centrality in worldly society. The nonbeliever finds synonyms, or presumed synonyms, that would allow the word to be taken beyond the borders of Christianity: pity, compassion, empathy . . . in a growing confusion that the online dictionaries are not able to reduce. The first impulse is to identify it with “pity,” the sentiment of people with “compassion,” of people who emotionally perceives the sufferings of others as their own and would like to alleviate them (and, by the way, in Christianity the term “pity” is close to the term “mercy”.) Well, then, why not “empathy” which is not a feeling but an ability to fully understand the state of soul of others, to place oneself in someone else’s shoes especially after the discovery by neurosurgeons on the mirror neurons that tends to confirm that empathy does not have its origins in intellectual effort but in the genetic code of the species? Words such as pity, mercy compassion, like all respectable words, will have their positive and negative meanings. Just think of the derogatory meaning of phrases such as: “I feel pity for you;” or “I pity you;” “He needs to be pitied.” What about the misericorde weapon that was used in medie-val times to deliver the death stroke, the “mercy stroke”? You will say that “mercy” is compassion, yes, but “active” compassion that is substantiated by action, by works. And it may be that it represents a fundamental concept, which is key to the Christian life, as the Dr. Cardinal W. Kasper underscores. Well, then you would need to distinguish between a Christian mercy and a secular mercy based on humanitarian values which, while they march side by side and intertwine, nevertheless belong to two different orders that are to be re-spected in their nature. Therefore, it is not a matter of contrasting secular good works with Christian good works, but of “searching for that hidden harmony that brings relief to the world;” and harmony – like dialogue – “is not given in homogeneity, but it lives in diversity. . .” Mario Frontini