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Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

19 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato

“We feel called to be active players in the construction of Sophia, a project by no means complete, but one that requires the contribution of each and every one of us,” said Ines Tolintino Da Silva from Portugal and representative of the Seat Council as she spoke for the student body during the opening of the fifth academic year at Sophia University Institute, which was held on 18 October 2012. To date, forty-nine students have obtained a degree in “Foundations and perspectives of a culture of unity” and eighty students from several countries are enrolled in other specialisations as well. A greeting message punctually arrived from Vice Chancellor Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement, who was unable to be present because she is attending the Synod of Bishops. While highlighting the prerequisite for the Sophia experience, she stated: “the project is daring, but for this reason no less thrilling, It demands a mutual willingness to listen, to deeply share common purposes, renewed fidelity to the original insight, a common gaze towards a future that must be built together. In a word, it even more decisively demands love from us, that we live, and that we be love for each other.”

Theologian Dr Piero Coda, President of the Institute

Then, newly re-elected president of Sophia University Institute, theologian Piero Coda, gave the commitment guidelines for the next four years. Three new disciplines have been introduced in Economics and Management, Trinitarian Ontology and Political Studies. A committee is working on revising the Statutes of the institute in view of a final approval. Furthermore, in order to better incarnate the  “unity of life and of thought” feature at Sophia, proposals were made for establishment of an Academic Senate to be a place where representatives of all the components could converge for the community life of the students, alongside the already approved Academic Council.

Professor Pasquale Ferrara

Finally, this year’s inaugural lecture was given by Professor Pasquale Ferrara, a professor at Sophia University Institute, longtime diplomat and secretary General Secretary of the European University Institute. In a broad political-historical overview, Ferrara addressed the issue of “constitutional peace” that has recently received more than authoritative and legitimising confirmation with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union.

Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

Synod: The New Evangelization and the Focolare Movement

18 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato

The Focolare Movement – with members of all ages, present in the 5 continents, in 194 nations, at every level of society, in religious and lay environments, often in challenging situations – together with the whole Church has been involved in evangelization with new urgency and ardour.

Convinced of the importance of being evangelized so as to be able to evangelize, it pays attention to the formation of its members so they can be light, leaven and salt. ‘Environmental cells’, made up of two or more people in the same place, bring the living presence of the ‘Risen One’ everywhere, into families, factories, places of public administration, hospitals, schools and  universities. At the local level, it builds relationships of fraternity inspired by the Gospel through  ‘local communities’ within suburbs and towns.

Following its charism which is the unity Jesus prayed for the night before he died (Jn 17:21), the Movement prefers to give a communitarian witness, especially through international days or meetings, the annual gatherings called ‘Mariapolis’ and the Movement’s little towns where the law governing all is Jesus’ new commandment of love for one another. The Focolare also uses the press, such as the magazine and publishing house Città Nuova, and the new media and social networks.

It gives special emphasis to dialogue: Christian ecumenism, among believers of different religions, with those who do not have any specific religious conviction and with contemporary culture where the Movement offers its contribution to illuminating society’s various cultural spheres with a Christian light.

Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

Bishops: The Effectiveness of a Life of Witness

17 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato

An evening of testimonies and sharing over the work of the Synod on the New Evangelisation with 27 bishops and thirty lay people who are attending the Synod. Opening remarks were given by the President of the Bishops Conference of Thailand, Archbishop Francis X. Kriengsak who is also the moderator of the Bishops Friends of the Focolare Movement. “Our words are accepted when they are an expression of what we are living,” he exhorted. Authenticity is needed in “men and women who have experienced God and are living icons of God’s love for people.” Where? In the usual places: at work, school, in the field of health, sport, family, neighbourhood, internet.

Referring to his personal journey in an almost entirely Buddhist society, Archbishop Kriengsak concluded by saying: “but our personal testimony no matter how heroic is not enough”. In order for the Gospel to be effective and convincing “we must give life to small cells of Gospel life, and we bishops must be a living part of a joyful and attractive community,” “the Church is  attractive when it is a living communion.”

Anna Pelli from the Focolare’s Centre for Studies and involved in the Movement’s dialogue with the ecclesial world, gave a presentation on the Ecclesial Movements as the “Word” that evangelizes. She presented the Church in its charismatic richness according to an unprecedented image through which Chiara Lubich described it: “as a magnificent garden in which all the Words of God blossom:” there “Jesus blossoms, the Word of God, in all of His various expressions.” (1) From here stems the relationship “of unity and distinction” among the various spiritualities in the Church that are fruits of “of the creativity of the Spirit, His gifts to the Church of today, in order to open new paths of understanding and of  putting into effect of God’s infinite truth.” Herein is found the call to live out one’s own specificity, in order to make the Church become “a living Gospel,” “an evangelizing people.”

The bishops also wanted to hear from the laity who are motivated by the spirituality of communion as it is lived in the Focolare among young people and old, believers and non-believers, people working in society and in ecclesial environments. The statement of one Russian scientist, an unbeliever, was very meaningful. It was shared by Franz Kronreif from the Focolare: “If one day you told me you did not believe in God, I would be sad for you and for me. I would feel poorer.”

In the afternoon a conclusion was drawn, which was expressed by Archbishop Francis Kriengsak: the world is waiting to see “spaces” being created, “spaces of the Risen Lord,” “places” that give “visibility to a humanity that has been shaped by the Gospel, where communion reigns, a communion of hearts and of goods.” “It’s unthinkable that we bishops alone will manage to renew the Church. The laity must be in the front lines,” said one bishop from Korea.

The participants then moved to the Basilica of St. Bartholemew on Tiber Island, where they were warmly welcomed by the Community of San’Egidio for the celebration of prayer and a light moment of fellowship afterwards.

By Victoria Gómez

(1) C. Lubich,  “Nuova Umanità”, 3-4 (1997), p.389.

Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

Second Vatican Council: Ecumenical Openings

13 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato

Chiara Lubich in St Peter’s Square with a group of Evangelical-Lutherans from Germany (1965)

On 11 October 1962 John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council. Fifty years later the same date was chosen for a solemn commemeration of this event and for the opening of a Year of Faith that has been launched by Benedict XVI with Apostolic Letter Porta fidei “for a rediscovery of the faith” (4) and “to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ” (2). In the Focolare the years of the Council coincided with a particular welcoming of its spirituality among Christians of different Churches. Already in 1961 Chiara Lubich had been invited to Germany five times to share the Focolare’s life of living the Gospel with brothers and sisters of the Evangelical Churches. It was the same year that she founded Centro Uno, the Focolare’s secretariat for ecumenism which, in 1962, promoted its first ecumenical meeting in Rome, Italy. Many other meetings followed and for the first time, on 9 June 1965, a group of Evangelical Lutherans were officially recognized at a public audience in St. Peter’s Square. Among other things, Paul IV said to them: “You visit honours us and brings us joy.” The Evangelicals spoke of a “deep encounter in Christ”.

1964: Canon Bernard Pawley with his wife, Margaret, and children, on a visit to the Focolare’ s Mariapoli Centre in Rome, are welcomed by Chiara Lubich and her first companions.

Chiara had always been encouraged in her ecumenical action by Cardinal Agostino Bea, then president of the Secretariat for the Union of Christians in the Vatican. Some of the “observers” sent to the Second Vatican Council by the different Churches wanted to meet and deepen their knowledge of the spirituality of unity. Among them was Anglican Canon Bernard Pawley, who was struck by the renewing force of the spirituality of Chiara, which he described as a “spring of living water flowing from the Gospel”. He was convinced that the role of the Movement was that of being  a “Gospel bridge” upon which Anglicans and Catholics could meet, and he devoted himself to make it known. During the second session of the Council (1963), he organized a luncheon with the other “observers” during which Chiara met the Reformed theologian Lukas Vischer from the Ecumenical Council of the Churches, and with whom a long friendship began. She accepted from him one of the first invitations to  the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in Geneva, Switzerland (1967). Relationships were also begun with other representatives, among them Father Vitalj Borovojfrom the Russian Orthodox Church.

With Patriarch Athenagoras I in Istanbul

During those same years, Father Angelo Beghetto, Provincial Minister of the Conventual Friars of the Orient and the Holy Land, spoke to Patriarch Athenagoras I about the spirituality of unity that was spreading among the Churches. This led to 25 meetings between Chiara Lubich and this great ecumenical prophet, Athenagoras I, during the years 1967-1972. In 2004, on the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of Second Vatican Council document Unitatis redintegratio, Chiara Lubich was invited to the Pontifical Council for the Unity of Christians to speak about the spirituality of unity where she underlined:  “Having always placed mutual and constant charity at the base of our life and of all our fraternal meetings, Jesus was so present among us that we felt urged, like Saint Paul, to say: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:35). “No one can separate us”, because it is Christ who unites us”. She continued: “The ‘dialogue of the people’ is not a base or grassroots dialogue that sets itself against or alongside that of the Church leaders or directors, but a dialogue in which all Christians can participate. This people is like a leaven in the ecumenical movement which enlivens among all the understanding that because we are baptized Christians capable of loving one another, we can all contribute towards realizing the Testament of Jesus.”

Chiara Lubich with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, London 2004.

Many are the fruits that have been gathered fifty years after the beginning of the Council. At the Synod on the New Evangelization and at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council “fraternal delegates” representing fifteen Churches were among the guests. The festivities were honoured by the presence of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. The latter was invited to address some words to the Synod Assembly. During his intervention on 10 October 2012, he affirmed speaking in the context of spiritual ecumenism:  “the basic imperative in the spirituality of Chiara Lubich was ‘to make yourself one’ – one with the crucified and abandoned Christ, one through him with the Father, one with all those called to this unity and so one with the deepest needs of the world”.

Chiara Lubich visits Patriarch Bartholomew I

At the end of the opening Mass of the Year of Faith, 11 October 2012 in St. Peter’s Square, Patriarch Bartholomew I strongly emphasised: “As we move forward together, we offer thanks and glory to the living God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – that the same assembly of bishops has recognised the importance of reflection and sincere dialogue between our “sister churches”. We join in the “. . . hope that the barrier dividing the Eastern Church and the Western Church will be removed, and that – at last – there may be but the one dwelling, firmly established on Christ Jesus, the cornerstone, who will make both one” (Unitatis Redintegratio – 18) They were testimonies that in order for a proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be credible in today’s world, the world needs to see Christians united in the name of Jesus, “so that the world may believe” (Jn. 17). Compiled by Centro Uno, the Focolare’s international secretariat for ecumenical dialogue

Photo gallery (Press Area)

Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

True tales among the vines: harvest time at Loppiano Wine Estate

12 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato

Grape pickers come to Loppiano from all over Europe during the months of September and October. Members and friends of the cooperative, they are of all ages and walks of life. Every year they offer some days, at most two weeks, free of charge to help the paid workers with the grape harvest. Why should anyone choose to use part of their holidays to do something not even always pleasant? The timetable works with military precision: breakfast at 7:30, then at 8:00 leave for work, at 12:00 noon the midday meal, and then work in the fields until evening. There is time for relaxation and, for those who wish, there is Mass at the shrine of Maria Theotokos, after which the evening proceeds with another meal and the chance to mix with other people living at Loppiano. Despite the exacting rhythm, everyone is enthusiastic, even grateful. In part this is because here there is a way of doing things that takes account of human persons and there is direct and constant contact with nature. Still more, though, the grape pickers experience the atmosphere of fraternity that is the essence of every single day of the life of the farm and of the little town of Loppiano. As they tell one another about their lives and experiences between one vine and the next, they help each other cope with the hard work and find themselves having moments of real hilarity. Ambrogio Panzieri from northern Italy put it like this: ‘For a very long time I’ve not felt such intensity – both humanly and spiritually. It’s as if I’ve always known these people who are willing to encourage me and give me the strength to believe that even at home I will be able to bring the same joy, the same mutual gift of ourselves to one another.’ Antonio Sottani, who has been at the farm for 15 years, summed it up like this: ‘Certainly at the basis of everything there is the generosity of the members and friends of our cooperative. We offer board and lodging, but above all the chance, while at work, to have an experience together of doing things for and with one another. It sometimes happens, in fact, that after a few says the grape pickers feel the need to change how they live their lives, to face up to tough situations in their hometowns and in their families, bringing love into places where it does not exist. But for our part we don’t do anything in particular, we simply try to love them.’

Carlo Isolan

This ‘love’ attracts people and unexpected resources. Carlo Isolan, in charge of the farm’s agricultural side, clarified: ‘One experience in particular can explain how concrete this life is. A group of young people from the Czech Republic had spent a few days of the harvest with us. When they left, they let us know that they had used up all their money in paying to get back. In principle we have nothing to do with the ‘black economy’ and so we took from our official funds some money earmarked for our friends, aware that this was an emergency, and trusting that God would sort things out (we don’t call God the “Secret Member” of our cooperative for nothing!). A few days later, a woman who had come for the first time to help with the harvest, gave us an envelope, saying “I’ve had this in my pocket for a few days and I feel as if |I ought to give it to you.” Inside it was exactly the same amount of money as we had given the day before.’ This is a sample of so many things that could be told, a taste of the tales that reach out far and wide. (End of Part Three. To be continued) by Paolo Balduzzi

Inauguration of 5th Academic Year At Sophia University Institute

Maria Voce on the Second Vatican Council

11 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato

The Focolare Movement welcomes the invitation launched by Pope Benedict XVI at the solemn celebration that opened the Year of faith and that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council: make the beauty of the faith shine out in our time with that same “emotional tension” of the Council Fathers. Church-communion, application of the Gospel in daily life, dialogues, communion between laity and priests, the role of women and the importance of society are some of the principles  developed by  Vatican II, already in some way present in the life of the Focolare Movement from its inception. “The challenges that remain open – affirms Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement – are the ones to implement what the Council wanted to point out and to propagate more the knowledge of the contents and the novelties present in the council documents. … The maturity of the laity should contribute significantly … to the precious work of handing over the principles of Vatican II to the believing community.” Maria Voce is participating as an auditor in the session of the Synod of Bishops on “The new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.” “Humanity – affirms Maria Voce – needs to encounter God through love of neighbour. This is the way to evangelize perceived by Chiara Lubich and appropriated by the members of the Focolare: a commitment lived out daily, alongside people, intended to fulfil always and everywhere Jesus’ prayer to the Father, ‘That all may be one,’ to make humanity one family, even now.”