Becoming Saints in the Midwest
When you arrive in Chicago from the East Coast you immediately realise that you’re in another world.
The city runs along Lake Michigan for 50 km. Despite our night-time arrival at Midway Airport, the urban skyline of modern, lit-up skyscrapers was truly striking. Here too the population is multiethnic but it’s somehow different from New York and Washington. Chicago, the third largest city in the US with its 3 million inhabitants (9 million if you include the suburbs), is the city with the second largest Polish population in the world. It also has particularly numerous Greek and Italian communities. Throughout the decades – at times centuries – these cultural groups have maintained a clear identity within their characteristic neighbourhoods. Recent generations, however, have contributed to increased integration.
Some neighbourhoods have had serious public order problems and sometimes you’re told not to cross certain streets if you want to avoid trouble. But in Illinois and throughout the Midwest religious values and traditions are still strong and families strive to pass them on to their children.
Shortly after its arrival in the USA 50 years ago, the Focolare Movement was instituted in Chicago. Since 1966, in the Hyde Park neighbourhood, a 19th Century mansion house – loaned to the Movement by the diocese – has hosted a Mariapolis Centre. Beside it, in just as pretty a house, is the women’s focolare centre. Over the past two years the neighbourhood had been under strict security surveillance: the Obama family residence is at the end of the road. The US President will here next week, people tell us. The men’s focolare centre is a 20 minute car drive – when traffic is good – in a suburb called Berwyn.
Not far away is another small town, North Riverside, with its own town hall and mayor. There Carol, a Volunteer who got to know the Movement back in the 60’s, gave life to a very touching experience. Carol, whose son has serious disabilities, is particularity sensitive to other’s pain. She built bridges all around her with people in the neighbourhood who were suffering for one reason or another. A network of reciprocal care was gradually formed, triggering a social revolution. By now the people who run the activity have been christened “army of angels” and the project is sponsored by the local government. It’s a true model of sustainable and reciprocal care for the emotionally or physically vulnerable, giving life to a distinctive art of caring for the suffering. Other municipalities have contacted River Side North to collaborate in overcoming seemingly impossible problems. Even the president of the Bahamas on hearing about the project asked for sponsorship to apply the same methodology in his country.
Focolare’s youth members organised a meeting for their peers which took place on Saturday afternoon in North Riverside’s Village Hall. They invited friends and acquaintances as well many other young people through personal contacts, Facebook, and the internet. It was difficult therefore to estimate the possible turn-out. The program was courageous: a presentation of Chiara Luce Badano’s life enriched by experiences of local young people in their everyday environment of school and work. A young ballerina came from Ohio for the event and presented the audience with an elegant piece of dance. Another young artist sang a song she wrote about Chiara Luce and her sainthood.
This inspired Maria Voce’s opening lines when she herself took to the stage to greet the young participants. She underlined that God continues to call each one of us to be saints today and that he does this through people like Chiara Luce who show us how to become saints with the help of others: family and friends who live for the same ideals. The Focolare president concluded by launching an appeal without half measures: “Do you want to be a saint? Then why not do it?” The response was a standing ovation, a sign that the message really struck a chord. We can’t deny that today in the Mid-West and through out the world there is a thirst for sainthood.
By our correspondent Roberto Catalano
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Washington DC: Unity – a new frontier
“Americans always see a new frontier to be crossed. This is how they reached the moon. Wouldn’t you like reach unity?” Maria Voce said wrapping up her informal address at a meeting with Washington’s Focolare Community on the evening of 7th April.
300 local members of the Movement had come to spend two days together in the nation’s capital. Their meeting held at the Catholic University of America was enriched by an encounter with the country’s history.
Participants represented a true cross-section of the ethnic and cultural groups in this capital city that hosted some of the most memorable moments for the nation and many iconic turning points in the story of mankind: from the declaration of independence and the memorable speech by Abraham Lincoln right up to Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ and J.F.K.’s ‘The New Frontier’.
That morning Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti had visited the city’s historical sites, giving them an insight to the values that built this nation of peoples: simplicity, practicality, humility, readiness to forgive, openness to novelty, optimism, strength not to give up even when doors are closed. “They are extraordinary gifts that have come about thanks to the contribution of the many populations who came to these lands in the search of wellbeing. They may have gone to Colorado on a quest for gold but above all they were looking for freedom”, Maria Voce underlined. In the U.S., this freedom is in the air you breathe and in the heart of everyone who chose to come and live in the “New World”.
“You’ve reached the dream of freedom. Perhaps now is the time to do something for unity that, in a certain sense, you have also reached, thinking of the many cultures united in the USA”, continued the Focolare’s president. She confided however that the people she met over the past number of days expressed regret for the individualistic environment in which they live. Maria Voce then shared her impression that music in US- spirituals, jazz, rock and rap- seems to express its people’s ardent desire for unity- a comment that pleasantly surprised many. “The Spirituality of Unity could do something to help this dream come true… God sent the Charism of Unity here too. It’s a gift that can’t render me indifferent if I’ve received it”.
The evening’s program demonstrated how its participants, with their cultural and religious diversity, originate from all corners of the globe: Europe, Asia, the Middle-East, Cameroon. Noteworthy was the colourful presence of the 30 or so Bangwa-Cameroonians with Mafua Cristina who was on visit to the USA. Likewise the participation of a group of Afro-American Muslims with Imam Talib Sharif was particularly precious.
The Imam fondly remembered how, in 2000, Chiara Lubich launched ‘Operation Washington’ between members of the Focolare and Afro-American Muslims. He was doing military service at the time and the meeting deeply struck him. Afterwards, whilst waiting for a train back to his barracks, he found himself looking through the crowd to see if he could spot the smile of someone from the Movement. He didn’t see anyone but was reassured by the certainty that deep within him something had been edified and would be brought ahead by the relationship between Chiara and Imam W.D. Mohammed. On the 7th April in Washington, along with other Muslim brothers and sisters he witnessed that this relationship had been reinforced and developed.
Looking at the hall at the end of the two hour programme at the Catholic University of America, you could see the dream expressed on the Great Seal of the United States Government-E pluribus unum, Out of Many, One- coming true. “Which doesn’t mean that all are the same”, specified Maria Voce, “but that all are united”.
Roberto Catalano
Fordham University: a study day on the spirituality of unity
Fordham University, founded and run by the Jesuits, has two campuses in New York. The main campus is in the Bronx, while the Law School is in Manhattan. A smaller site, it is in the heart of the “Big Apple”, near the Lincoln Centre, the New York Philharmonic, the Ballet School… and only a few blocks from Broadway. It is a part of New York rich in art and culture.
On this campus on the 5th April, a study day was held on The spirituality of unity: a gift for our times. There were contributions from academics in various disciplines: theology, religious studies, ethics. The organisers were a group from various fields of jurisprudence: lawyers, judges, lecturers and professors from this and other universities. The value of their presentations came not so much from their unquestionable academic expertise, but from the values and ideas they shared regarding the dimension of communion in law. Law and communion is the name of their project in fact, and after many years of effort and not a few obstacles, promoting the value of the person and of interpersonal relationships, they had put together this first class symposium. With their colleagues from other universities, they demonstrated how the spirituality of communion can be a point of reference for those working in the legal field.
The group is from many different backgrounds. Law professors Ross Pierce and Ian Weinstein are both Jewish, while Amy Uelman and Greg Louis are Catholics. Other collaborators include Deborah Cantrell, professor of Law at The University of Colorado, who is a Buddhist, and David Shaheed, a judge in the supreme court of Marion County in Indianapolis, who is an African American Muslim.
The day was based around four round table discussions: the spirituality of unity, an economics based on communion rather than self interest, personal fulfilment, and “love of neighbour” in the field of law. The conclusion to the day was delivered by Maria Voce, Focolare president, who answered questions from those present. These were varied and challenging, and covered economics, law, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, moral theology and the role of women in the Catholic Church. Maria Voce gave clear indications regarding the promotion of justice and truth in the legal world, encouraging everyone to bring important and essential values to even the most unlikely areas of human endeavour.
She spoke of how this means finding a place for concepts that can be easily misunderstood, or only partially understood, like the key idea of “fraternity”. This dialogue needs to continue, she said. We have to find a robust methodology for accepting differences and overcoming them. It is important to recognise that our own identity is forged through relationships. She spoke about the present situation of women in the Catholic Church, and, over and above the roles of men and women, the importance of the leadership of love.
Above all Maria Voce encouraged everyone to carry on witnessing to unity in diversity. “I known it is not easy”, she said, “and who knows how many moments of discouragement and disappointment you have experienced, but I thank you because the life of your cell within Fordham University has provided yet another way forward towards universal fraternity.”
Roberto Catalano
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