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Tveit: nutrire sogni di pace per l’unità delle Chiese
“We are called to use our spirituality for the sake of all humanity, . . . . to nurture their own dreams of peace. . . .”. These were the final words of the Secretary General of the
World Council of Churches in Geneva, the Reverend Olav Fyske Tveit, at the conclusion of his visit that had a markedly familial character, to the Focolare’s international Centre in Rocca di Papa, Italy.
Shortly before, following a presentation of the Movement, Doctor Olav Fykse Tveit noted the “commitment of your heart,” “a very strong care for individuals,” “a strong connection . . . . between personal commitment and the very wide global commitment.
“. . . . that is, in many ways, what the ecumenical Movement is all about”. Making reference to the Ecumenical Council of Churches, he mentioned the path of brotherhood in which 349 Churches in 110 countries are engaged in discovering “how we can move in new directions together”.
The Secretary General was accompanied by a delegation of directors from various departments of the World Council of Churches, and was welcomed by the president of the Focolare, Maria Voce, the co-president Giancarlo Faletti, members of Centro Uno, the secretariat for ecumenical dialogue, and some members of the General Council. In her welcome address, Maria Voce recalled the decades-long relationship of deep friendship between the World Council of Churches and the Focolare Movement. Recalling her first visit to the headquarters in Geneva in 2009, Maria Voce reiterated the commitment to continue the legacy of Chiara Lubich, who had established the first contacts in 1967. “We stand beside the World Council of Churches – she said – in advancing the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood.
The occasion for the visit was the visit of the Reverend Olav Fykse Tveit to the Vatican, where, for the first time, he was received in audience by Benedict XVI, and met Cardinal Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. He had other meetings in Rome with the Methodist community, the Waldensian Church, and the Community of Sant’ Edigio.
A social question to resolve
“At bottom of the contemporary social crisis lies a powerful need of unification.” With these prophetic words, in 1954, Igino Giordani points to the daily practice of mutual love as the master way towards the reconstruction of the social fabric.
«There is a social question to resolve, because there is the question of the charity that must be put into action. Charity is the sentiment through which another person can be seen as a brother. Indeed, in the human person you see God by way of image, almost a mystical God, raised on high by the Redemption.
They talk about people abandoning the churches. But this could also be a consequence of a charity that was not enacted, of the brotherhood that remained only in missals, of the image of God that was obscured by a practical atheism. Where love is lacking, it is the case to ask whether it was the people who abandoned the churches or the churches that abandoned the people.
I speak of churches, not the Church, which is the People of God and can never abandon itself. Though they distanced themselves from the poor, the Church can never distance itself from itself, a people of paupers, to which the rich also belong, if they become poor in spirit by turning the use of their wealth into a service of charity.
At times, where Christians have forgotten their neighbour, allowing the faith to cake in the sarcophagus of their egos, detached from good works and, in this way, asphyxiated – their weaker, younger brothers, not feeling the love, lose the sense of God who is Love and loves to incarnate charity in the works of men who, by their social service, become the auctioneers and carriers of God. “You have charity, you have the Trinity,” said the great Augustine.
The brothers didn’t love each other, the fabric became worn, and they were detached».
I. Giordani, Il Fratello, 1954
“Il Fratello”, of which this page is an excerpt, is being republished in the Opere Vive series of Citta Nuova Publishing.