Twenty-three organisations – Catholic communities and institutes – spread out across Across 112 hectares of land, have chosen to live an experience of communion between charisms. This experience in Fortaleza (Brazil) has been known for 24 years as Condominio Espiritual Uirapuru (Spiritual Condominium Uirapuru) or CEU, an acronym which means ‘heaven’ in Portuguese.
Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, stopped off at Fortaleza during their trip to Brazil to meet the Focolare communities. There they were able to take part in various meetings with different charismatic realities in the Church. At the CEU they met leaders of other communities, including Nelson Giovanelli and Brother Hans from the Fazenda da Esperança, Moysés Azevedo from the Shalom Community and Daniela Martucci from Nuovi Orizzonti.
Through the organisations that form the CEU, it carries out various activities to support and protect the individual, from vulnerable children who have suffered abuse and sexual exploitation to young people and adults living on the streets or suffering from addictions. The union of the charisms present is an expression of the love that makes it possible to develop activities to restore and enhance human dignity, particularly for those who are most in need.
‘The CEU is the realisation of a dream that Chiara Lubich promised Pope John Paul II in 1998, to work for the unity of Movements and the new communities,’ said Nelson Giovanelli, founder of the Fazenda da Esperança and newly elected president of the condominium. The charism of unity, spread by Chiara Lubich, is the inspiration for fulfilling the mission for the different communities present. Jesús Morán added: ‘If there is one place where an experience of the Church can be understood, it is here at the CEU. This is the Church – many charisms, both large and small, all walking together to make the Kingdom of God a reality”.
There are 230 people who live in the CEU, including children and adolescents, young people and adults in recovery, and over 500 volunteers. Last weekend, the Obra Lumen community organised a meeting entitled ‘Com Deus Tem Jeito’ (With God there is a way), which has taken 250 drug addicts off the streets and sent them for therapeutic treatment in various partner communities, such as the Fazenda da Esperança. The area also provides a stage for cultural activities aimed at social reintegration through art, such as the Halleluya Festival of the Shalom Community, which brings together more than 400,000 people each year.
The Genfest, an event organised by the young people of the Focolare Movement, is also currently taking place in Brazil. ‘Together to Care’ is the motto for the Genfest which comprises an international event in Brazil and over 40 local Genfests in various countries around the world. Each one will begin with an initial phase in which the young people will be able to have an experience of volunteering in and solidarity with various social initiatives, including the CEU. Between 12 and 18 July, a group of 60 young people participating in the GenFest were able to get to know the different communities and get involved with different activities. ‘All these communities are already involved with caring for marginalised and vulnerable people. Our proposal was to join them, as a bond of unity. The more we gave of ourselves, the more we were open to others, the more we discovered our essence, who we were,’ said Pedro Ícaro, a GenFest participant who stayed at the CEU for four months with young people from different countries.
‘When this communion of charisms inflames the hearts of our young people, they will be able to transform the world. This is the aim of the events we organise at the CEU, like GenFest,’ said Moysés Azevedo, founder of the Shalom Community.
‘Start Here and Now’ is the latest single from international band Gen Verde. A hymn of unity, strength, courage and joy featuring two youth music groups: Banda Unità (Brazil) and AsOne (Italy). ‘All of us, together with our diversity, are invited to go beyond borders to build a world where care, love, justice and inclusion are the answer to pain, the horror of wars and divisions,’ explains the band.
What is behind the song?
‘The new song is in itself a ‘beyond borders’ experience because of the way it was produced,’ the band continues. The vocals were recorded in three different parts of the world and the video was also shot in three different locations: Loppiano and Verona (Italy) and Recife (Brazil).
The project includes the participation of two youth music groups that share Gen Verde values. Banda Unità is a Brazilian band and AsOne is a band from Verona, Italy. These groups also want to share, through music, the values of peace, dialogue and universal brotherhood.
‘Start Here and Now’ has an intergenerational and intercultural mix,’ continues Gen Verde. “This single stands out for its highly engaging rhythm and powerful lyrics, sung in different languages, to bring out the creative process inspired by interculturality and the commitment to universal brotherhood that is emphasised in the international Genfest event”.
Gen Verde played this song for the first time in Aparecida, Brazil, together with the musical groups Banda Unità and AsOne on 20 July 2024 during Genfest, the Focolare Movement’s global youth event. This edition was entitled: ‘Juntos para Cuidar – Together to Care’.
The third phase of Genfest 2024, held in Aparecida, Brazil, included workshops organized by so-called United World Communities – meeting places where young people can share their talents and passions. These communities offer the opportunity to discover talented people, concrete forms of commitment and initiate actions and projects aimed at building a more united world, which seek to respond to the local and global challenges of today’s world; to activate processes of personal and collective change; and to grow fraternity and reciprocity in all dimensions of human life. An important feature of these communitites is that they are the fruits of work between people of different generations.
Continuing the experiences of the previous phases of Genfest, in this third phase the youth were able to participate in workshops in different areas, whose methodology was based on fraternity and dialogue, as a proof for projects and actions that can now be developed in the “glocal” sphere (local projects with a global perspective). Activities were held in the areas of economics and work, cross-culture and dialogue, spirituality and human rights, health and ecology, art and social engagement, education and research, communication and media, and active citizenship and politics. The teams responsible for running the workshops were composed of young people and professionals who worked intensively for months to organize these activities.
From now on, Communities will have a working method that consists of three steps: Learning, Acting, and Sharing. The first (to Learn) is an in-depth exploration and analysis of the most current themes and issues in each community, with the goal of identifying problems and presenting solutions. The next phase (Take Action) is the implementation of actions with primarily local impact, but with a global perspective. Finally, in the third phase (Sharing), it is proposed that the community promote spaces for ongoing exchange and dialogue between initiatives, with the aim of strengthening the global collaboration network. An application-the United World Communities WebApp, -has been created as a tool for sharing ideas, experiences and news, as well as promoting collaborative projects.
“God has visited everyone’s heart.”
Al termine della terza fase del Genfest, le Communities hanno presentato in modo creativo le loro impressioni e alcuni dei risultati delle attività svolte nei giorni precedenti. Da questo lavoro è nato il documento “The United World Community: One Family, One Common Home”, che sarà il contributo dei partecipanti del Genfest 2024 al “Summit of the Future” delle Nazioni Unite del prossimo settembre. Secondo i giovani che hanno presentato il testo, esso non è un documento conclusivo, ma vuole essere un “programma di vita e di lavoro” per le varie United World Communities, oltre che una testimonianza da presentare al “Summit of the Future”.
“With our communities we don’t want to make demands, formulate slogans or complain about political leaders,” the young people said. “Instead, we seek to name our common dreams, dreams of a united world. Personal and communal dreams, which will guide us in our activities in the coming years.” They concluded, “We hope that by living them, ‘together’ and step by step, they will become signs of hope for others.”
Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, also spoke at the conclusion of Genfest 2024. Jesús Morán said that although the experience of care has been the most lived experience in human history, it is not the one that has been reflected on the most.
This has begun to change, as was demonstrated at the Genfest, in which care emerged as a response to the need for human dignity. In this sense, he concluded, it is important that young people remain connected to this global network of generative communities. Margaret Karram, for her part, said she has seen throughout the Genfest experience that young people have given tangible witness to their faith and are already in action to build a united world. Regarding Phase 3 in particular, she emphasized the richness of this experience because of its creativity, intergenerational and intercultural imprint, and the fact that, through the communities, there is a concrete possibility of living the same Genfest experience in one’s daily life. She concluded by calling on the young people to be the protagonists of these communities, the foundation of which is unity. “Please do not miss this unique opportunity that we are experiencing here: God has visited the heart of each of us and is now calling everyone to be protagonists and bearers of unity in the various areas in which they are involved”.
We have just heard stories of peace that were expressed in the most varied forms: songs, prayers, experiences, real projects.
All this strengthens in us the confidence and hope that it is possible to be peacemakers. Pope Francis says that we must be ‘artisans of peace’ every day. And to do this we need perseverance and patience to be able to look with love at all the brothers and sisters we meet on our path.
From this Genfest we have learnt that peace begins with me, with small gestures of care for others, for our peoples and for creation.
So where can we start?
We have said it several times in these days: by breaking down all the barriers that divide us, so as to live for fraternity. And this we can do:
by discovering that our common humanity is more important than all our differences;
then by being ready to forgive and to make gestures of reconciliation. Because to forgive means to say to the other: ‘You are worth much more than your actions’.
And as we did in the first phase of Genfest, let us continue, even when we return home, to be artisans of peace in our relationships, taking the first step towards others. Love will inspire us what to do, and to whom we should go.
Let us forgive without waiting for the other person to ask for forgiveness.
May this Genfest be the moment of our YES TO PEACE.
We must never feel alone again. In these days we have seen and certainly we have experienced the power of ‘togetherness’, Juntos.
Let us be united with all those who are living and working for peace. The communities we are going to build in Phase Three are already a possible way forward.
Open your eyes to visions of peace! Speak a language of peace! Make gestures of peace! For the practice of peace leads to peace. Peace reveals itself and offers itself to those who achieve, day after day, all the forms of peace of which they are capable.(*)
Open, speak and act.
So: let us not be at peace until we bring about peace!
Beginning on July 19, 2024, the second phase of Genfest 2024, the event and the youth of the Focolare Movement, concluded its program on July 21, 2024 with the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Aparecida, in Aparecida (São Paulo), Brazil. The central event of Genfest, which for the first time had its international version on the Latin American continent, brought together about 4,000 participants from more than 50 countries and, from the beginning, was marked by contagious joy. In addition, thousands of people around the world followed part of the program via streaming.
With the theme “Together to Care,” the young people gathered at the “Father Vítor Coelho de Almeida Event Center” promoted an intense program that combined celebration, art, creativity and testimony, an expression of the conviction that building universal fraternity requires concrete initiatives to take care of life on the planet, especially in terms of caring for people in different conditions of vulnerability and nature, as Pope Francis insistently requested.
Opening Ceremony
At the inauguration, the young people were welcomed by the Archbishop of Aparecida, Msgr. Orlando Brandes; the apostolic nuncio to Brazil, Msgr. Giambattista Diquattro; the rector of the Aparecida Shrine, Father Eduardo Catalfo; and the president of the Focolare Movement, Margaret Karram, among the dignitaries present. Bishop Orlando Brandes read a message sent by Cardinal Piero Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, on behalf of Pope Francis. “We know how to react with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that is not limited to words,” was the message read. In her words of greeting to the youth, Margaret Karram emphasized that “together, our dreams will come true.” Afterwards, the youth were treated to a “Latin American party” with artistic performances typical of different countries. It was an explosion of joy that involved everyone.
Day 2
A time to find directions, or more precisely, paths, for a united world. This is how the second day of the second phase of Genfest 2024 began. On the one hand, young people from around the world told how they tried to build fraternal relationships in their environments. This was the case, for example, of Adelina, from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, who had to deal with the tragedy caused by the rains that hit her city in May 2024, and Joseph, from Sierra Leone, who was separated from his family as a child and recruited by militiamen fighting the African country’s government troops with acts of violence. Artistic moments drew attention to some major issues in the world today, such as ecology and citizenship, while so-called spark changers, specialists in different areas, offered the audience some brief reflections that could bring about change in the world.
Saturday’s program also included a “preview” of Genfest Phase 3: workshops were held on different themes, always with a view to “caring” for life in its different expressions. Finally, a journey around the world with stories of personal resilience or social action, but all that had fraternity as their motivation to “embrace humanity and initiate change.” The second day’s program was concluded on the Genfest stage which saw a number of young people from Turkey, Australia, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Italy and Colombia telling how they have faced or helped others cope with grief when it seems to take away the meaning of life. The presentations, however, were not limited to personal stories. A wide variety of social initiatives were also presented on stage, such as Rimarishun, a cross-cultural project in Ecuador. Also presenting from Brazil were the Amazon Project, Quilombo Rio dos Macacos di Salvador (Afro-descendant communities) and La Casa do Menor, whose choreography received a standing ovation.
Closing Ceremony
The program for the final day of the second phase of Genfest 2024 began by looking to the past to think about the future. Some of the projects launched at the last Genfest in 2018 were recalled and have already begun to bear fruit, even in the real sense, as in the case of planting trees in areas prone to degradation. Following the example of what was done in the last Genfest in Manila, Philippines, some projects were presented to be continued after these days.
The first project will start with the third phase of Genfest. These are the “United World Communities,” which will bring together young people-including those who could not attend the event in Aparecida-in groups by areas of knowledge, from economics to work, from politics to citizenship. Young people interested in the various areas will be able to sign up for these communities based on their “passion,” as the organizers put it.
An important tool for implementing these communities is the United World Project. Launched in 2012 at Genfest in Budapest, Hungary, it is in fact a program to spread fraternity on a large scale and bring together actions in this direction, making it possible to share experiences with many young people around the world.
Another action born of this Genfest, which was more immediate, is the launch of a questionnaire to collect proposals from young people for the “ Pact for the Future,” a manifesto that will be presented at the Summit of the Future, an international summit to be organized by the UN in September 2024.
Building international communities requires dialogue. Much of the session was devoted to this theme. Rabbi Silvina Chemen and a young Muslim leader, Israa Safieddine, shared how they try to build dialogue.
Fourteen young Latin Americans from six Christian churches presented Ikuméni, a workshop of ecumenical and interreligious best practices. These are all initiatives whose ultimate goal is peacebuilding, the theme to which the entire last part of the program was devoted.
Carlos Palma from Uruguay presented the Living Peace project. A video of Chiara Lubich reminded how peace can be built today: by living mutual love.
The young Genfest participants with flags from all countries finally paraded, calling for peace in every nation. At the end, Focolare Movement President Margaret Karram called on everyone to be peacemakers, breaking down barriers that divide people and taking the initiative to forgive: “Let this Genfest be a time to say yes to peace,” she concluded.
