Democratic Republic of the Congo: A Land Open to Promise
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Central Africa. It has 60 million inhabitants living in a territory five times bigger than France. This is a country that has the potential to be quite rich, but in reality it is very poor.
The country recently celebrated its second democratic elections following a dictatorship that endured for more than thirty years and had very negative economic, social and political consequences for the people.
It is also a land where the Gospel message is welcomed with joy.
Focolarina Marisa, recounts: “I was visiting a very distant province in Équateur. The Bishop, a Bishop Friend of the Focolare, had invited us several times, since it had been thirty years since anyone from the Focolare was able to return to the area because of the great distance. When we arrived, we discovered to our great surprise that in a nearby diocese where we thought there was only a small community of ten people, there was a large community of people who were living on the other side of the Congo River.
Despite their change of fortune due to war and the departure of the missionaries they had remained united. We went to visit them, travelling across the river in a dugout canoe. We found a very vibrant community that meets together every week and shares the life of the Word. And they had many experiences to tell. For example, they walked kilometers to visit a sick person and care for him; together with other communities, they take turns caring for orphans. . . Their example has drawn others and brought about conversions. They know the story of Chiara Lubich which was told to them many years ago and which they continue to hand on orally. A few vaguely remember how the Focolare began, and when they discovered that it has spread to so many other places they were very amazed. Here, as in many other places, they have experienced that living the Word creates a community, producing radical conversions and experiences of reconciliation and forgiveness. The community has grown over the years and there are many youths. It is difficult in these places to keep stable contact because there are not even telephones. And so we write and try to stay in contact by sending letters with people as they travel from place to place, since there is no postal service in these remote regions.”
A bit of history. The Focolare’s ideal of unity reached the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1960’s and despite the vast territorial expanses it has spread to nearly every province, thanks to the men and women missionaries like Father Quintard in the East, Father Enrico Casali in the Eastern Province, Sister Roseline a Kikwit, Father Giovanni Santonlini in Kinshasa, Father Angelo Pozzi in Lubumbashi, Father Arther Duvernay from the Scheut Fathers of Belgium, and many others. Ever since the 1970’s the focolarini and focolarine from Cameroon and from Italy have made frequent visits and held formation courses, Mariapolises, meetings for families and congresses for youths.
The first women’s focolare was opened in Kinshasa in 1991 and the first men’s focolare in 2004. In 2011 a women’s focolare was opened in Lubumbashi as a point of irradiation for the Movement in the province of Katanga.
With the transfer of two focolare families to Kikwit for the province of Bandundu, and to Goma for the Northern province and Sudkivu, it was possible to respond to the needs of the great family of Chiara in this vast region.
Today members of the Movement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo promote many projects including social ones, to meet the extreme nutritional and educational needs of children especially. Among these, the social project “Petite Flamme” has a presence in several places in the region, and also the Medical Center “Moyi Mwa Ntongo” (The Morning Dawn). This is a land open to hope.
Medical center Moyi Mwa Ntongo
Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
The Economy of Communion Report 2010/2011 is online
A whole year of the Economy of Communion: data and information provided on the EoC Report range from September 2010 to September 2011. The report is divided into three parts: 
- businesses
- culture of communion
- the poor
calling this the “3 thirds” of the allocation of profits, the foundation of the EoC project. Numerical data and colorful graphics are easy to understand as it accompanies the history of the project’s twentieth year from the protagonists themselves. 
Note: the attachment containing the survey on the EoC’s “Identity and Future” was done by Simona Di Ciaccio during the International Assembly last May 2011 in Brazil. The report is available online in italian, we invite you to download and browse it. Happy reading!
Gen Rosso 2012
‘We’re sending you a handful of comments about our trip to Sardinia at the end of 2011,’ Tomek Mikusiński has written to www.focolar.org, wishing us a year: ‘fruitful and full of good communication’. A year that for the international band is going to be chock-a-block with gigs and new projects. ‘At the moment we’re cutting a CD of new songs that we hope will get to the shops by the end of March in Italy and elsewhere,’ Tomek goes on to say. ‘We hope they’ll be on sale at the same time as our tour with the live concert: Indelible Dimension, which is now revised and improved from an artistic point of view.’ 
‘sneak previews’: ‘In parallel we’re finishing off a new musical and we hope that this too will be on release by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013…’ After 14 March when this period of what Gen Rosso calls ‘working from home’ comes to an end, the band will leave for Spain, for a full two months, after which they will go on tours of different lengths in three continents: Europe (with concerts in the Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany), China and Australia. But now let’s take a step back in time to the final concert last year. It was at Villacidro (50 km from Cagliari in Sardinia). Here on 29 December 2011 Gen Rosso presented their concert Indelible Dimension. It was during the XXVth March for Peace, which took place in the light of recent troubles in Nigeria and Syria, events that show how much the search for peace needs a powerful helping hand. 
The theme of the march was Educating Young people in Justice and Peace, given by Benedict XVI to the World Day of Peace on 1 January 2012. Two thousand people were at the concert, in a wholesale warehouse, which concluded the march. ‘The scene was pretty unusual because of the artist performance (and not a few technical problems),’ Gen Rosso said, ‘but the warmth and enthusiasm of the young Sardinians made us forget any difficulties straight away.’ ‘A different world is possible, a different humanity already exists… THANKS with all my heart!’ wrote one person after the concert. In the town’s industrial zone on the following day, 30 December, there was a day of reflection and commitment for Sardinian young people. Youth for a United World led it together with Gen Rosso who ran workshops with people from every part of Sardinia. ‘Thank you Gen Rosso – thank you guys!!! Amazing concert….. a big thank you on behalf of all the Sardinian people…. a thank you that goes on forever!!!!!!!’
Ecumenism: the dialogue of life
“Coming in this zone, something has exploded. This idea has exploded: truly God has given us a new ecumenism. There was already the ecumenism of charity, that is, the dialogue of charity, as when Athenagoras brought gifts to the Pope, the Pope brought gifts to Istanbul, to Athenagoras; as when Ramsey brought gifts to the Pope, the Pope brought gifts… in order to indicate a drawing closer to one another. There was already the dialogue of prayer, in which we all pray together, especially during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. And there was already the theological dialogue, which has been blocked in many parts, also here in England a little… held back a little. We realized, especially in coming here, that we have a fourth dialogue, a fourth line. Our dialogue is the dialogue of life, the dialogue of a people which is already Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed… of a people who are already all united and who are a people… they are the Christian people of the year 2000, of our times. We realized that this is our way of being involved in ecumenism, that is, of awakening the Christian instinct of Christians, joining everyone together because the bottle is almost full, joining everyone together and bringing ahead this people. Years ago, the Pope said: “You are a people,” but he intended to say “because of your number.” Now we are four times as many as we were then, when the Pope told us that…. But what people do we intend? The Christian people. The people… we are this people, we are this people. When I spoke with the focolarini the other day – there was Lesley and Callan * – I said: “Who will ever separate me from Lesley and from Callan? No one, because Christ has united us! Jesus in our midst has united us. No one can separate us!” Now, who says anything like this in the ordinary Christian world among Orthodox and Catholics and Lutherans? Everyone goes off on their own. Everyone follows their own Churches, of course; in the meantime this must be done, looking after the people entrusted to them, following their own current, their own denomination; but who says: “No one can separate me, because Christ has united us!”? The fact is that Christ has united us and He has made us one people, and this is the small “bomb” that has exploded here in England. Dearest all, thank you also for this applause. I never thank people for applause, but it means that you are with me, it means that we are together in living this way!” Chiara Lubich, London, 16 November 1996 – to the Focolare community of Great Britain and Ireland
* Anglican focolarini