Youth Week kicks off with an interreligious meeting

23 Jul 2013 | Non categorizzato

Youth Week – this is the expression Pope Francis used last Sunday, July 21 at the end of the Angelus, when he spoke about the long-awaited meeting for young people atRio de Janeiro. And thus began the week during which there will be meetings, moments of prayer, of celebration….a week full of life! The young people are waiting for Francis, who like them carried his own briefcase to the plane. This week started with a programming until now unprecedented in organizing these events.

An “interreligious meeting for Catholics, Jews and Muslims” was held on Sunday July 21. Two hundred young delegates participated in this meeting promoted by the Local Organizing Committee and hosted by the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) inRio de Janeiro. “We started WYD by aiming at its core: accepting differences” said Josafá Siqueira, the University Rector.

Members of the Focolare Movement are involved in the interreligious dialogue group that meets every month in Rio and that launched this initiative. Victor Gomes, a native of Rio and one of the delagates at the conference related to us: “The participants were divided into small groups where various issues were discussed. Some of those present never did this kind of experience and they were filled with new hope. The leaders of the various religions have shown great interest and brotherhood. They treated each others as equal; there was no one who felt superior to any of the rest.”

Focus: WYD 2013: Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro

Updated on July 24, 2013

BF – LH

SIF – Focolare Information Service

Piergiorgio Colonnetti has left us

18 Jul 2013 | Non categorizzato

A man of great humility, Piergiorgio had a gift for placing himself at the service of others with intelligence, deep listening and understanding.

He passed away on the morning of July 17, 2013, following a brief, serious and unexpected illness. He was surrounded by family members and focolarini.

Born in Turin, Italy, in 1930, he met the Focolare in 1956. Later he attended the first Mariapolises in Fiera di Primiero. In 1957 he married Simonetta and they became one of the first “family focolares.”

They moved to Rome in 1967 when Piergiorgio was asked to work in the Aid to the Church in Need Foundation. From 1987 he was asked by Chiara Lubich to hold various positions of responsibility in different sections of the Movement.

“I thank the Lord for the countless graces I’ve received since my encounter with the ‘Ideal of unity’ until today, and for the time that will remain to me and how I will be able to live it. But the will of God is all that matters, asking Him only, if it is possible, to be able to continue loving until the last moment,” he wrote this spring. “This phase of my life, whether it will be long or short, is full of light and peace, and I try only to live for God, for his Work, for the whole universal Church, in full unity with Pope Francis.” “The important thing is to do only what He has in His Heart and to reach Him.”

A funeral will be held on Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 15:00 in the Focolare’s international headquarters in Rocca di Papa, Italy.

Light up the flame in the young

14 Jul 2013 | Non categorizzato

Our educational system has introduced into the world people who no longer understand the society they are living in. This system is destined to destroy our civilization and already it has begun to do so. It is useless to blame the politicians, business people, lawyers… We have given many of our young people the first push to set them on a carrier of criminality. It is our own fault if the streets are full of juvenile delinquents. It is time to mend this madness. It is time to gather together these young people, who are so valuable for society, and feed them from the sources of Life.

If the results are not good – who among us can claim to have no responsibility? We should all examine ourselves and look again at our philosophy of life. Since we reject the teachings of religion it is difficult for us to realize how bad are the worst distortions brought about by secularism. Pushing religion away from our life means reducing culture to erudition, life to technology, science to technical manuals. It means depriving the human spirit of the values of the spirit. It means taking from society its constitutive principles which allow it to cohere and survive, removing from it the criterion of choice between good and evil, along with a sense of responsibility and the awareness of guilt. A culture without God is a culture without the idea of an infallible judge, and so it is one that gives clear and constant sanction to any kind of human act. And a citizen who does not believe and ignores any eternal  sanction is easily drawn to abuse his or her neighbour. The person learns how to make a machine and ignores how he or she is made. Such a person knows how the atmosphere can be used, but has no idea what use the soul is.

Educating, forming others for life, is lighting a flame. If we wish to form young people capable of being raised above financial gain and sensual pleasure, we need lift them up with a faith that is superior to material goods and sensuality. The person is raised by a superhuman impulse, not one that creates a superhero, but one that confirms the likeness of God in that human being. This upward urge is called the love of God and of its own nature it expands its love to other people. It generates hunger and thirst for righteousness and the young person, longing for these, brings this hunger to society.

The flame once lit must be fed and the young person should be trained to guard and increase its heat and its light. He or she is in need of an education that does not remain infantile, but takes place in the midst of life and death, which is to say in everything necessary to create a blaze and give light. The light needs to be fed, and what feeds it is many things: words, books, recitals and above all the examples and the witness of experience. This living flame opens us to experience divine grace which urges us to seek out those who suffer most, who are the least able, the weak, the defeated, the scorned, to make up for what they lack with what we can give. It is necessary to strive to act like this, as it is necessary to strive to keep healthy, even when we are sick, indeed precisely because we are sick. We must all work together to bring about a social order of peace and strength, of co-operation and altruism, and we much become promoters of truth.

Igino Giordani, La società cristiana (Rome: Città Nuova, 2010, first pub. by Editrice Salesiana, 1942).

The Church and today’s challenges/2

8 Jul 2013 | Non categorizzato

Part 1

The critical issues of four contents were discussed in a rich exchange of views. The situation in Asia was presented by Andrew Reception, a Filippino who is president of the Association of Catholic Missiologists. In a continent where 52.8% of the world’s population lives and only 13.2% are Christian, the main challenge of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, which is unknown by the majority. This is carried out by means of cultural dialogue, which makes the local Church effectively present in the life of the people, and by means of dialogue with the great Asian religions, and work with the poor in solidarity with their struggle for a world that is more human.

A voice from another continent was heard from Martin Nizigiyimana, a Rwandan priest. He explained the current condition of the Church in Africa from a historical perspective ‘understanding even painful events as a growth crisis, which demands humility and cooperation to take responsibility in history for the kingdom of God in the world.’ In this context the Church is called to serve reconciliation, justice and peace. Africa is known for its problems, but now there is a new way of looking at the continent, suggested by Benedict XVI during the 2009 synod, which sees Africa as ‘an immense spiritual “lung” for humanity that seems to be in the midst of a crisis of faith and hope.’ In support of this there were three significant testimonies from the Focolare Movement in Africa: the work carried out as part of the new evangelization at Fontem in Cameroon, the school for inculturation at Nairobi in Kenya and the witness given by the permanent Mariapolis at Man in the Ivory Coast during the civil war.

From Latin America, linked via Skype from Buenos Aires, José Maria Poirier, the editor of the journal Criterio, offered an understanding of Cardinal Bergoglio before his election as pope: ‘He had a low media profile and was attentive to personal relationships. He was used to being in a position of responsibility and yet he constructed extremely fraternal relationships with both the clergy and laypeople. He had a culture of encounter and hence of dialogue.’ As insights into how his papacy would proceed, Poirier said, ‘Zero tolerance for abuse, clarity on the economy and Vatican finances, a change of style for the Roman Curia, inclination to build pastoral relations between the pope and the world’s bishops, concern for the poor, the people at the bottom of the pile, those who suffer as a result of social unrest.’

There were three interesting voices from European countries: Germany, Spain and Ireland each of with is going through challenging times in Church-State relations, particularly as regards the Roman Catholic Church. Christian Hennecke, head of pastoral mission in the north German diocese of Hildesheim, emphasized the economic difficulties, the need for growth in faith, the fall in numbers for all vocations. But it is precisely in this situation that new and promising ways of being Church are emerging. Hennecke said that among the ways ahead, which are a fruit of shared experience by Catholics and Protestants, there is a move to reinforce the Word of God lived in community.

But what is happening to the Church in Spain? asked Manuel Bru, a journalist and priest from Madrid. He too saw some significant points: the decrease in the Church’s public role, where laws are passed contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine; numerical decline, even among Movements; the abandoning of religious practice by young people and women; the loss of enthusiasm, and a feeling of weariness, among priests. How can the Church in Spain be better served? Bru’s reply was ‘By taking on board the new wave started by Pope Francis and focusing on the primacy of love in action.’

Bishop Brendan Leahy, the recently ordained Bishop of Limerick in Ireland, outlined some issues within the English-speaking world. Reference to the scandals of the last few years was unavoidable: ‘At times in the churches things happen that force us to take stock and move on in ways that we would never have done otherwise. In the present case there has been a discovery of the role of children and young people in the Church, not so much as the object of pastoral action but as rather as actors within the community’s life.’ In the face of a culture that is increasingly secularized there is a degree of polarization with the Roman Catholic Church: there are those who seek to follow the way of dialogue and those who seek to defend the faith from compromise. It is necessary to go beyond ideological outlooks, just a Pope Francis does. His style, the spontaneity of his actions and his freedom in expressing himself are striking even for those who do not go to Church.

These things are challenges, but they are also opportunities, where we can catch sight of ways ahead as we recognize the ‘signs of the times’. History needs to be rethought, therefore, ‘with a view that is grateful to the Holy Spirit who has led the Church throughout the ages,’ as Maria Voce affirmed as she opened the reflections of the two-day conference on 12th and 13th June. Behind the significant changes we are witnessing, the Focolare President invited people to ‘emphasize the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the continuous capacity of the Church to respond to ever fresh challenges.’

The Church and today’s challenges / 1

26 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato

What is happening to the Church today? How are the challenges of passing on the faith to new generations to be tackled, given the scandals that have arisen in several countries and the abandonment of the faith in Europe? How are the vitality and gifts emerging from the lands of Asia and Africa to be appreciated and welcomed?

These are some of the underlying questions that were discussed by the group of experts from the fields of ecclesiology and communications, composed of priests, religious and laity who are active in various environments in different parts of the world (in missiology, ecclesiology, education, new evangelization, youth culture). They gathered together in the middle of June at Castelgandolfo, Italy to identify the challenges both at a universal level and at a local geographical level where they take on different forms in different contexts but, when taken together, can help give a vision of what is being faced by the Church.

The voice of the sociologists cited issues at the macro and micro level which not only the Church but the entire society must take into account: the management of the complexity in the global scene, the new framework for relationships and the creation of social cohesion. The Pentecost 2013 event was given a second look and was seen as a call for the Movements to become involved as the Pope invited them to “go out” and meet the human person where he or she is to be found.

The event promoted by the Gens magazine on ecclesial life was held this third time on June 12-13. Focolare president, Maria Voce offered some opening remarks. She underscored how the “push given by the new Pope to be closer to all people, more sober, more simple,” for the Focolare Movement “should signify a renewed commitment to building up and showing the Church-communion which the charism of unity allows us to live; communion with God and with all humanity: continually going out of ourselves as Pope Francis invited us to, and which we also particularly feel we should do. We must be the Church-communion and present ourselves as such, even outside strictly ecclesial structures.”

Co-president Giancarlo Faletti recalled the “passion for the Church” that had always animated Chiara Lubich especially in the period just after the Second Vatican Council. He invited everyone to continue to recognize the action of the Holy Spirit who continues to guide the People of God.

The challenge of the new generations and education strongly emerged. One example was the recent Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council of Culture on emerging youth cultures, from which the elements that have matured through the active participation of young people, from the language of the younger generations to knowing and understanding the world of the youth for the transmission of the Catholic faith.

“Five words for my Church” was the suggestive title given to a presentation via Skype, by theologian Piero Coda from Sophia University Institute which he heads in the Focolare town of Loppiano, Italy. These five words or concepts “following, People of God, dialogue, spirit and ethos” were presented by him as the lines along which today’s Church will develop.

“In fact, the Holy Spirit is quite capable of generating new energies for responding to the most pressing questions of humankind (. . .) It is the Holy Spirit who brings the Church forward, and at times He does it with rather brusque changes. And we who are not always so pliable have the impression of having to remake everything from scratch. But we should rather look to this road that the Holy Spirit opens in the Church.”