14 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
Pope Francis is putting all his energy into his travels, as he has always done. But this trip to Asia is forecasted to be a really demanding one. Besides institutional types of events such as the interreligious meeting in Colombo upon his arrival in Sri Lanka and the canonization of the Indian Missionary, Joseph Vaz, the Pope will have to face the sultry tropical climate, but above all, an entire population that is expecting a strong message of hope from the visit.
This will be for Francis, a full immersion in one of the many peripheries of the world, so dear to his heart and marked also recently by natural calamities that have inexorably impacted on the difficult social support path in those lands.
Expectations are high and the Pope Francis excitement is building up especially in Manila where more than the five million people who officially attended the Mass of the World Youth Day celebrated by Pope John Paul II in 1995 are expected to participate. The Filipinos have been snapping their selfies beside his life-size cutout image in churches and malls, while the children are preparing to dress up as Swiss guards to welcome the Pope.
During the Christmas preparations, the youth of the Focolare went to the Tacloban and Palo regions, where the Holy Father will pay a visit on day 17, to celebrate with the schoolchildren with games, songs and gifts for the typical ”Noche Buena” or Christmas Eve vigil. This initiative was conducted also in cooperation with the youth from various parts of the world, who are living a concrete community experience in the small town of the Focolare in Tagaytay.
This was their concrete answer to the invitation of the Archbishop of Manila, Card. Tagle, and the President of the Philippine Bishop’s Conference, Bishop Villegas, to prepare for the Pope’s visit by intensifying the works of mercy towards the poor and outcasts. This gesture was not something new for them. Since November 2013, that is, when the country’s historically strongest typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) wreaked its havoc, the Focolare has been organising a series of action aids for the struck population: from first aid to the distribution of food, clothing and prime necessities, repair of homes, moral support to families and those who had lost their loved ones, to the rebuilding plans with the construction of about 40 small houses. The specific program of the ”Start Again” project to help the schools, is still underway.
Besides this, the Focolare undertook to prepare the Holy Father’s visit to the Philippines through a word-of-mouth action and all the communities of Manila agreed to line the streets on January 15 from the airport to the city, to be with all the others in welcoming the Holy Father in person.
The community of Leyte took part in the Commission organizing the visit to the places where the typhoon had struck: to help in the security services during the Papal Mass in Tacloban, and also during the meeting at the Pope Francis Center for the Poor of Palo with about 200 aged people and poor children. A young Focolare member will entertain the participants before the Pope’s arrival.
But for the moment, the happiest are the survivors. Here’s what Farah says: “I am offering all my sufferings for the Pope’s safety and health.” Mark adds: “I am happy to be able to have a close view of the Pope. I feel so privileged. We are very grateful for his visit.”
About ten members of the Movement have been chosen as group leaders for the works of the New Evangelization Convention to be held from 15 to 18 January at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, with 5,000 enrolled delegates whom the Pope will meet on the 18th, before his departure.
Also on the last day, Pope Francis – who will start his trip to Manila with an encounter with families – will meet the youth gathered at the University’s sports field – and in the afternoon – will conclude his visit with a solemn Mass at Rizal Park.
Happy Trip Holy Father!
6 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
The star invites us to set out on a journey,
and wants to free us from the chains that bind
us down to our own selves, or to a pure and simple system.
It spurs us on, to undertake a journey to a place
we have never been to before.
This is what the star wants.
and the nature of this star is that it goes beyond, but also stops.
It crosses the desert and moves further, up to the most
remote places, but then it stops above a house.
And which house is it?
Could it be my school, for example, or my office,
or however, there where I usually work.
The star has stopped there and says,“This is the place: right here!”
And then, as I return home,
it stops above my home, my little world: that is where
the star has stopped.
In this place where I am right now
I have to find the precious things, the things that matter.
But I will find these precious things, the things that count,
only when I discover that the star has stopped also above my neighbour’s house.
That is where I will find Jesus.
(K. Hemmerle, The Light within things. Daily meditations. New City, Rome 1998).
3 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
http://vimeo.com/114750100
![Enzo Fondi, the final will of God]()
31 Dec 2014 | Non categorizzato
«A soul in love, » Enzo «lived constantly in God’s presence, always one with Him. Always.» This was how Chiara Lubich described Enzo Fondi, just after he passed away all of a sudden, silently and serenely on 31 December 2001. «Enzo Fondi has gone to Heaven,» Chiara wrote to all the members of the Movement: «It is a great joy, even if in my lifetime […] we have never felt such great pain. The joy is because we cannot only say that Enzo has died, but that he gently passed from one “room” to the other. When they found him after the Te Deum, the expression on his face was one of great peace, without the shadow of anxiety at all, giving us the impression that he was “received” by Mary, our Mother, whom he loved in a particular way, with such tenderness. In our hearts we had the common impression that if we have been deprived here on earth, of this “gigantic figure” of the Work of Mary, we have, on the other hand, a saint in Heaven. This was how we considered him over the last few years, when his illness had refined and prepared him for this step.»
As an enthusiastic promoter of unity, he was especially guided by one particular sentence of the Gospel: “As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you may they also be one in us” (Jn 17:21).
Enzo Fondi, a doctor from an affluent family, was born in Velletri in 1927. In 1951, he joined the first Roman focolare. He was a part of the first group of Focolarini doctors who, at the start of the 1960s, crossed the confines of the socialist block to work as an assistant surgeon in the Catholic Hospital of Leipzig in Eastern Germany. From then on the spirituality of unity spread throughout Eastern Europe. In 1964 he was ordained priest at the service of the Movement, and later was assigned to the United States.
In 1977, the year in which Chiara Lubich received the Templeton Prize for the progress of religion, Enzo was assigned the task of developing interreligious dialogues of the Focolare, and with one of the first focolarine, Natalia Dallapiccola, gave his fruitful contribution to this end. On hearing the news, our Muslim friends in Algiers wrote: «With great simplicity Enzo taught us all the rules of the “art of loving” and opened our eyes to the universality of Chiara’s work and to what degree the miracle of unity is daily within our reach!» For years, Enzo was in charge – together with Natalia – of the spiritual formation of the members of the Focolare Movement. There is, therefore, a big archive of his answers, writings, and talks, with which he helped many to acquire a deeper comprehension of the charism of unity.
«Enzo had spent his last years on a cross,» 
Chiara wrote again. A serious disease, in fact, had more than once led him to the brink of death. «But – we had the impression – that he had embraced Jesus Forsaken in such a perfect way. He was never impatient even for a moment, and never complained to his co-focolarini. The drama he was living was a matter between him and Jesus. Though rarely, he had confided to me about his physical condition, always with a smile on his face. And in this way, in the last period his life was an uphill, relentless climb, embellished with virtues, and God bestowed the grace of union with Him.»
This is testified to by Enzo’s last thoughts dated 15 December 2001: «My last will and testament. For me, it is the last will of God, the last thing he wants of me now. There will be no other. I must fulfill this last will to perfection, whatever it may be, and this is my last testament. I don’t know what will really be the last will of God I shall undertake in life. The only thing I am sure of is: for that last and this present moment, I will have the actual grace to help me do it, inasmuch as I have practiced in exploiting this grace, by living the present moment.»
A few days after December 31, he went from this earth accomplishing the final will of God.
![Enzo Fondi, the final will of God]()
30 Dec 2014 | Non categorizzato
“It was not a conference, but an experience and, to be more precise and in-tune with the event, I would call it an experience of tikkun, reparation, as explained in the Jewish tradition,” writes Roberto Catalano, from the Focolare’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue on his return from Salerno.
The three-days of “study, listening, prayer” (24-26 November), looked at several topics, from anti-Judaism throughout the centuries, to the recognition of Israel, the Holocaust, the improvement in Jewish-Christian relations since the Second Vatican II, and the Way to the Tikkun Olam. All the presentations were done in two parts: Christian and Jewish. An occasion, the first of its kind in Europe, which marked a step of “reparation of relations between the Jewish and Christian traditions that in these last two thousand years have experienced tragic moments,” writes Catalan. “The relations between Jews and Christians have for centuries suffered the consequences of these events that guided the history of humanity towards tragedies culminating in the Holocaust. Recently, as we know, the conciliar declaration Nostra Aetate and, then, people like John Paul II and Cardinal Martini, who is repeatedly cited by Jews and Christians alike, have taken up the threads of the relationship and have contributed to a decisive rapprochement by the Christians.”
Planned initially for bishops and diocesan delegates for ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, it was then opened out to all the coordinators of dialogue, and others, Jews and Christians, secular and religious. There were more than 400 present, including 50 priests: there were Christians mainly from Italy, and Jews from Italy, Israel, and the US.
“The conference of Salerno was an important step on this journey. We have spoken very clearly on one side and the other without ignoring history but being realistically optimistic. It was impressive to see Catholic priests, bishops and cardinals sitting next to rabbis. The Jewish kippah mingled with the red caps of the bishops. Fraternity was the queen of these days: the impression was to have begun a joint project. Speaking with Joseph Levi, the chief rabbi of Florence, we were saying that even just ten years ago it would have been unthinkable to hold an event like this.
The story goes on and, contrary to what the media would have us think or what still tragically happens in different parts of the world in these times, the tikkun of the world has begun or perhaps progresses because it is now enriched with a new dimension, the common contribution of Christians and Jews. It is necessary to have the desire to work together for fraternity: to recompose that family to which we all belong. This was stated so effectively in Nostra Aetate: “All nations are one community and have one origin, because God caused the whole human race to dwell on the whole face of the earth. They also have one final end, God”(NA 1).”
28 Dec 2014 | Non categorizzato
http://vimeo.com/114689814
See also: Disability: the value of life
