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18 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
Stanislaw Rylko, Department President of the department together with the secretary, Bishop Josef Clemens, presented the Third World Meeting in a press conference in the Vatican. The statement on the expectations on the part of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities will be relayed by Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement and Jean-Luc Moens, International PR Director of Emmanuel Community
This will be the third step towards “growth toward ecclesiastical maturity.” The first meeting was held in 1998 and again in 2006, in conjunction with the two big meetings of the Movements with John Paul I – who defined the phenomenon of the movements as “a stream of grace,” affirming that from these movements the Church expects “mature fruits of communion and commitment” – and with Benedict XVI, who regarded this itinerary a “healthy provocation for the Church, a creative minority that is decisive for the future of humanity.”
Pope Francis met the Movements and New Communities on 18 May 2013, and now the 3rd World Meeting will draw inspiration from his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, in which he calls the movements the “true protagonists of a new step of the Church’s evangelical mission as a manifestation of joy, reaching out towards the geographic and existential peripheries of our world, side by side with all the poor, abandoned and isolated people – the bitter product of the culture of marginalisation prevalent today.”
Before the journalists, Cardinal Stanisłau Ryłko expressed what many are wondering about today. How come, “in a world that radically rejects God, there are still so many men and women, youth and adults who discover the joy of being Christians” and “choose Christ and his Gospel as the unwavering compass of their existence?” The variety and richness of the new charisms “offer pedagogical paths” of Christian life that are so “amazingly effective, as to be able to change the life of people and arouse an extraordinary evangelical fervour.” And with “their missionary creativity, they are capable of finding new ways of testifying to and announcing the Gospel.”
Bishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, commented on the theme of the three-day meeting: context and various aspects of evangelisation, purification from obstacles and impediments, dynamism and collaboration between charisms, role of the women and the implementation of the inclusion process of the poor.
Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, stressed how much the Second Vatican Council today is for the laity, an “incentive and mirror” of their own vocation and responsibility towards the Church and contemporary society.” In expressing the expectations of the laity, she hoped that the Congress would “mark a forward step towards maturity,” that “reflections and confrontation, communion of success and failures, experiences and project set the conditions for God, Lord of history, and may draw not only fruits of communion and mutual enrichment,” but orient all to “look to and live always with renewed joy, for the only great objective of Christ’s Church: Father, that all may be one… since this is “God’s dream.” We hope to be able to respond to the deepest expectations of men and women today and contribute to making humanity one great family.”
“We want to progress along the path of pastoral conversion” the Pope is asking of us, and above all to “make an experience of communion,” remarked Jean-Luc Moens of Emmanuel Community who underlined that “we are eager to discover how the Holy Spirit works in the others. The meeting will be a unique occasion for mutual discovery.”
More details: www.laici.va
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16 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
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15 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
The preferential option for the poor, the painful journey of liberation theology, the current religious crisis, “do-it-yourself” faith and the lack of meaning. But also inequality is a lack of relationship. These were only a few of the topics discussed by a group of university professors and graduate students in search of a new cultural perspective for Latin America during the three-day meeting in Brazil at Mariapolis Ginetta (October 31-November 2, 2014). Examples joined with questions of witnesses and spiritual thirst, the promotion of native cultures and African descendents. Days during which the typically pluralistic and social calling of the country continued to surface.
Among the presenters, Dr Piero Coda, theologian and president of Sophia University Institute, Loppiano, Italy, who has seen many Latin American students, including Brazilians, studying at Sophia. He affirmed: “During this monumental turning point of epochal change, of the vision of man and of the world, there is an historic urgency to present the contribution of the charism that has matured over decades, the charism of unity that was given to Chiara Lubich.”
During the 50 years that the Focolare Movement has been in Brazil and Latin America, many projects have begun at several universities. Fraternity was often proposed as a category that brings renewal to the different disciplines, from politics to economy to pedagogy.
Through the intense exchange of experiences, proposals and reflections that characterized the three-day meeting, a new perspective was opened, a step to be taken: that a university centre under the same inspiration as Sophia should begin in Latin America. It would begin small, with specifically Latin American qualities.
Also participating was Maria Clara Bingemer, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC), and Argentinian political scientist Juan Esteban Belderrain who put his finger on some of the deep wounds of the continent and their causes, such as the lack of social cohesian.
The cultural proposal offered by Sophia has a specific feature, which is in harmony with the leanings of the Latin American Church and with its roots in the original inspiration and methodology presented by Chiara Lubich in 2001. In recent years Sophia has been an experimental laboratory, as ex-students testify: “here students and teachers strive to link theory and life, focusing on relationships at every level and aiming for transdisciplinarity in answer to the fragmentation among the disciplines.” “For Chiara thought and life were never in opposition to one another,” remarked Focolare co-president Jesus Moran during a recent interview. Chiara was “devoted to the mind of Jesus” as the founder of the Abba School and Sophia University Institute. Like all the great founders, she was fully aware that a charism that didn’t become culture had no future. Culture is always life.”
Currently the students body at Sophia University Institute is comprised of people from 30 countries. Such an international community provides a further opportunity to be formed into world citizens, where the specific culture of each opens itself to more universal dimensions. This project has turned out to be in tune with the recent trio of Pope Francis which he presented in his videomessaggio on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Loppiano Mariapolis. He recalled Sophia precisely as a place in which new men and new women can be formed “who, aside from being opportunely prepared in the academic disciplines, are at the same time steeped in the wisdom which flows from the love of God.”
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12 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
“In the year 2000,” explain Walter Kostner and Margarida Nobre, who were entrusted with the task of acquiring a new logo, “Chiara Lubich had indicated ‘Mary, Mother of all Peoples’, in which she appears to gather everyone under her mantle, as the image which could in some way represent the Focolare Movement.” The new logo wishes to express this concept: the blue symbol evokes Mary with her arms open to humanity, in order to sustain it, to comfort and dry its tears and to lead it towards heaven. The smaller symbol, which has the same form, represents the Focolare Movement in its quest to ‘repeat’ Mary, while the colour of the flame signifies the presence of the Risen One among all the components, the effect of which is putting into practice the commandment of Jesus to love one another. Two German communication professionals, Andrea Fleming and Ludger Elfen, coordinated the graphic design contributions from around the world. The final version was created by Andrea Re. Considering the expansion of the Focolare throughout the world, the logo has been created in 44 languages. The adoption of the image – which from this point onwards will identify the Focolare in all its expressions through the various types of media (apps, social network, websites, multimedia, posters, leaflets, events, letterhead) – also had an impact on its official international website. While the multi-lingual website remains the same in its structure, the overall look and feel has been restyled thanks to Gabriele De Sanctis who created the new graphic design, Marius Teleman who, in collaboration with Andrea Baldas, implemented the new theme and template, and Marija Bonnici who coordinated the project. So what’s new? The colour scheme has changed throughout to be in harmony with the blue and yellow-orange hues of the logo; the multimedia-gallery is visible on the home page; the feature boxes in the side-columns have a more stylised look. Since the navigation throughout the website has remained the same, we hope that our online visitors will continue to feel at home!
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11 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
An event which falls 50 years after the first audience granted by Pope Paul VI to Chiara Lubich (31 October 1964) and a short time after the beatification of the pope. An opportunity to illustrate, through a wide selection of contributions, the thoughts of Paul VI on the ecclesial movements and their significance in relation to the vision of the Church given by the Second Vatican Council. This was the focus of the Study Days (Castel Gandolfo, 7-8 November), which were opened by Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement, and Prof. Don Angelo Maffeis president of the Paul VI Institute, and saw a succession of talks by scholars, specialists in different disciplines. This great Pope has played an important role in the history of the Focolare Movement: “We are indebted to him for several reasons – said the president Maria Voce – first of all for his luminous teaching that marked in a clear and strong way the formation of those coming to our movement.” But also because, she continues, “in the exercise of his Petrine ministry, Pope Paul VI was instrumental in recognizing, promoting and also for identifying ways which were juridically feasible to express the specific character of this new work in the church.” 
The talks by Professors Andrea Riccardi and Alberto Monticone offered a general historical background on the birth of ecclesial movements, their novelty in the 20th Century and the maturation of the vision and the role of the laity. An analytical investigation of the two figures followed, on the basis of unpublished documents. Lucia Abignente (Chiara Lubich Center), starting from Chiara Lubich’s first meeting with Mgr. Montini in ’53 through Giulia Folonari, and looking at also delicate moments in her history up to ’64, based on diaries and unpublished writings, showed what that first meeting was for Chiara, in a period when the very secular nature of the nascent Focolare Movement was in danger. It is important for the members of the Focolare themselves, therefore, to realize who Paul VI was. Chiara speaks of him as “the father of the Opera.” Prof. Paolo Siniscalco was then given the task of analyzing how important the Focolare Movement was for Paul VI in keeping alive the spirit of Christianity in Eastern Europe, and how the Pope encouraged the concrete initiatives in this area. 
Ecumenical dialogue, another issue of central importance, was examined by Dr. Joan Back. Suffice it to recall the story that ties Paul VI, Chiara Lubich and Patriarch Athenagoras. The lawyer Adriana Cosseddu pointed out the difficulty for completely new forms like the realities of the movements, to be recognised within the Code of Canon Law (1917). It seemed that an organisation with different vocations in it was not possible because … canon law had not foreseen it! “The Pope wanted to take care of this himself, personally, and that is how approval was reached,” Chiara said in an interview with Città Nuova in 1978. 
Prof. Albert Lo Presti, director of the Igino Giordani Centre, offered a new perspective of the concept of the social doctrine of the Church in Giordani – considered the co-founder of the Focolare Movement – in relation to the social teaching of Pope Paul VI. Prof. Piero Coda, rector of Sophia University, crowned it all with a theological reflection which, on the background of the encyclical Ecclesiam suam, manifesto of the pontificate of Paul VI, and the mystical experience lived by Chiara in the years ’49 -’50, highlighted the profound harmony and synergy between the Petrine ministry of Pope Paul VI and the charism of unity of Chiara Lubich. “It was particularly rewarding for me to see the Focolare Movement and its founder, through the eyes of Paul VI – Fabio Ciardi, one of the participants at the conference, writes. This enormous figure, who had a wide perspective on the Church and society of his time, also had a special eye on this work of God, experiencing at the same time joys and doubts, praise and concerns, hopes and enthusiasm … Looking at things from his perspective we can see new aspects of this charism and how it developed in the Church.” At the conclusion of this work Prof. José-Román Flecha Andres,, compared the mystical experience of Chiara to that of the Spanish mystics of the 16th Century, Teresa of Avila in particular, and remembering how they had understood the need to make a gift of their inner life to the whole Church, said: “Here we have been able to see what, thanks to the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, was accomplished in the life of Chiara, of this Movement.”
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8 Nov 2014 | Non categorizzato
Photo: Jorge Mejia Peralta / Flickr
“We are living on top of a cemetery, and we demand justice, ” says the slogan of the protest which led thousands of students to take the streets. In fact, from 5 November in Mexico, all the schools have started to strike. A student revolt which in these three days have asked the government to make a greater effort to search for 43 of their peers, who disappeared in the state of Guerrero last 26 September.
The mayor of Iguala (the municipality where the students disappeared) José Luis Abarca and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda were arrested, accused of being the persons responsible for the students’ disappearance. While they were being interrogated on the mysterious disappearance, also the Focolare Movementin Mexico asked the government to further clarify the facts.
“The violence and injustice committed against the disappeared students and against the thousands who have disappeared over the last years in our country are things we cannot accept and we strongly denounce this with indignation, while we demand that similar events no longer be perpetrated. We are deeply moved and involved as persons and as a society,” they said in the press release.
They moreover invited all to take a stronger commitment to build a reconciled country: “Peace is not built through violence. To regenerate ourselves as a more humane society we have to respond with charity and forgiveness. Not with gestures of indifference and tolerance, but with the commitment to work concretely for the common good.” The declaration targets therefore, to transform the hearts of people first of all, and especially those who govern: “A legally constituted state cannot suffice, we need to transform the hearts of those who make up the institutions.”
The appeal addressed “all the people who profess a faith, whatever it may be, and all the people of good will, so that, united, we maintain and nurture the commitment to be builders of peace wherever we live and work.”
In brief, they suggested a “Time-Out for peace,” to the Mexican people and to call attention to the tragic situation in Mexico and in all the countries suffering from violence: “…A minute of silence and prayer for peace, every day at 12 noon, as a visible and concrete sign of fraternal solidarity towards every person in suffering.”
The Focolare Movement spread throughout the world adheres to the “minute for peace,” in support of the Mexican people with the hope that respect for life, search for truth and justice prevail over all forms of the abuse of power.
