Memory and Migration

May 16, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria

The New Humanity Committee, the social expression of the Focolare Movement, has been active in the historic centre of Genoa for more than thirty years working with the most marginalized people, organized a series of events linked to the theme of migration. With the sponsorship of several institutions and associations in the Liguria Region a closely-knit network of relationships has been created, enriching the social fabric of the town. The chosen venue was the Galata Museo del Mare, which besides having numerous displays about seafaring life, has reconstructed historical scenes about Italian migration: for example passenger liners of times past going to the Boca neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires or Ellis Island in the USA.

This was the framework which hosted an exhibition, at the beginning of 2014, with the title “Going in-depth: a journey through memory and migration”, focusing on the theme of interior migration, that is the attitude of soul which coincides with the cultural nomadism of contemporary art. Artists from different origins exhibited their work like Ignacio Llamas from Spain and Claire Morard from France, but also Pieo Gilardi, one of the first Italian pop artists, well known at an international level.

The theme of migration was a point of convergence for multicultural, interfaith and ecumenical dialogue, for encounter and close collaboration between some Catholic movements which were involved in the past with events linked to “Together for Europe” (Cursillos, Sant’Egidio, Equipe Notre Dame, Incontri Coniugali and Charismatic Renewal), and included the participation as protagonists of the migrants themselves. The New Family Movement presented themes on support at a distance and integration at school, involving over 200 students from local High Schools.

Over a thousand people attended the event, including a workshop on creative writing and a concluding concert, organized by the Jazz class of the Paganini Conservatory of Genoa; thanks to which about twenty artists met together afterwards for three days of dialogue, which gave the possibility to each of the participants to find new energies to continue on the way of artistic communion.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-105791" style="margin-left: 10px;" title="Desert Refugees" src="https://www.focolare.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140515-02.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="224" /

The dignity and worth of the person were characteristic aspects of the debate, which left space also for the moving experiences of Chaia, a Sahrawian young man who told his suffered experience of how, together with a young man from Magreb, after crossing the desert, landed in Lampedusa and is now integrated in the Genoese reality.

The moments of dialogue were important and hosted well-known religious and movement leaders, like the president of Migrantes, a pastor of a South American Evangelical Church, the Imam of the Muslim community and the Abbot of a Buddhist monastery. This comment, we feel, expresses the reality lived by many: “I felt that that place assumed a sacredness and became a temple, pagoda, hall, mosque, because we were composing a single prayer to the one God of all humanity, and it was not just a question of sentimental feelings, but of intelligence and hearts that become one”.

Thailand calls and Latina answers

Apr 28, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria

“With some friends of the Focolare of Bangkok – Luigi Butori, one of the protagonists of the event shared – we have for some time now been bringing concrete help to some families of refugees from Myanmar belonging to the Karen ethnic group, who have settled in the north of Thailand. We shared this experience with some of our Italian friends who were helping us from afar and to who we would periodically send some updates and pictures.

In particular, after the visit of one of us in Italy in October 2013, a special relationship was created with the children of the kindergarten of I.C.G.Giuliano in Latina, who immediately showed a great desire to do something for their peers who were so far away, but who they now felt to be close to them.

Their help was directed in particular to an orphanage in Mae Sot, in the northern part of Thailand.

It was truly a touching experience for us to reach this place knowing that we were the messengers of children who were 10 thousand kilometers away, who did all they could to be able to send their humble help.

The faces of the children brightened up while they were opening the big boxes, and we also added some chocolates, milk and other good things, fruit of the sharing of our Buddhist, Christian and Muslim  friends. It was a celebration for the children to see the toys: mini-motorcycles, fireturcks and small gadgets that we ourselves didn’t know how to use: the “Karen” children, in a matter of seconds, were already experts! We were able to distribute help also to other children in the refugee camp and in other “villages” (in reality, they are just huts grouped together near a factory, or maybe in the rice fields).

Yes the gifts are important but each time we experience that it is more important to look at the person in the eyes, to extend our hand, “to touch the other”, to make him or her feel that we are there for them. In the beginning, they were very suspicious; but then, gradually their faces lit up with joy, with hope and – even if we didn’t understand their language – it seemd as if they told us: “Thank you, today you made me happy… All these things are given free of charge? When will you come back?”. “Look I am here for you and I live for you… Don’t be afraid”.

This experience has gone ahead also this year and once more the customs office of Thailand did not ask us to pay any fees, as they admired the original and funny designs that the little ones of Latina put on the 30 big boxes that they sent.

We brought these things among the ricefields and canals of Mae Sot, where those without documents strive to survive as much as they can.

But we were also touched by how this experience is changing the life of the families of the children of Latina. A fatehr said: “The life of our children and also our life has changed from the moment we started to do something for the Karen people, whom we never knew existed before”. And a mother: “Thank you for having given us this chance to do something for the others; many of us have always wanted to do something concrete, but we didn’t know what and how. The television gives us  a lot of bad news, instead this is a breath of joy and of hope”. Then a teacher: “The children are electrified by the idea that their toys arrived to the other part of the world by travelling on a big ship to reach children who have nothing. A little girl couldn’t contan herself when she saw her doll in the arms of a child in the orphanage of Mae Sot”.

The eyes never lie and those of the parents are sincere. We will continue to work so that this dream, this miracle of love that unites Latina and a forsaken place, in the midst of the mountains, in the northeast of Thailand, can still continue”.

Indonesia: There is always something to give

Apr 23, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria

We have still impressed on our minds the tragic pictures of the Haiyan or Yolanda (‘the bird of storms’) Typhoon that was unleashed on several Pacific countries, especially the Philippines, in November 2013. It was one of the most powerful cyclones ever recorded and from all over the world countries and organizations reacted in solidarity sending help to the victims of the disaster.

Focolare communities, especially in the surrounding countries, also gave their contribution. An example of this comes from the immense archipelago that makes up Indonesia (245 million inhabitants), a country that is not exactly swimming in richness. In the city of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, young people and adults of the Focolare got organized to do something. They didn’t have any money, but – they said to each other- “there is always something to give.” And so they organized a collection of superfluous things from their own homes, to set up a ‘Bazaar’. “We set up a committee to coordinate the work,” they tell us, “The Focolare Centre became the collection point for all the donations, so there was a constant coming and going of people sorting the items and putting them into different categories, all done with great joy and enthusiasm.”

The Bazaar was fixed for the 3^rd and 4^th of March, in a Parish Hall 20 km from Yogyakarta. But in the meantime the Sinabung and Kelud volcanoes erupted, “and the victims were our fellow nationals,” Tegar recalls, “We asked ourselves if anyone would still support our initiative for victims who were further away in the Philippines.” They didn’t give up, and though not ignoring the new emergency, they went ahead with the intention of helping those brothers and sisters who were even more needy. “I was chosen to coordinate the event,” Endang tells us, “I myself was the victim of an earlier earthquake and I knew what that meant and how much sadness you experience. So I took on this responsibility, and even though I didn’t have any money, I could give my time and energy. A few days before the Bazaar took place, I was at a meeting and understood the meaning of the phrase that you often hear in the Focolare Movement – when we meet in the name of Jesus, he is present among us. We experienced, in fact, that if we get together and work in his name, he optimizes our work.”

Also for William “it was an incredible experience. I really threw myself into this project. We aimed above all at the people of the village who came to mass on Saturday or Sunday. There were about twenty of us helping out. Someone directed the visitors, others served the ‘clients’ as little by little they came to look and to buy. There was even someone who organized our tea break! It was a beautiful experience: to experience that when you love the others God gives you back happiness in the depth of your heart.” Altogether 5,115,700 Rupiah (452 US$) were collected, a significant sum considering that about half the population lives on 2 dollars a day. “Everyone was happy not just because we managed to collect a good sum of money,” William is keen to point out, “But for the love and the contribution that each one gave to help the victims of Hurricane Haiyan.”

“I think that through this Bazaar”, Wulan concludes, “We managed to give a little happiness not only to the people who will receive the money but also to those who contributed with their ‘purchases’. I am sure that this love will not stop here but will expand to many other places as well.”

Renata Borlone: bearing witness to joy

Mar 10, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria

This year too, the anniversary of the Servant of God Renata Borlone (Civitavecchia 30/5/1930 – Loppiano 27/2/1990) was a moment of reflection on the life of a Christian and the enthusiasm for bringing the peace and joy of Christ everywhere.

The main appointment, the Holy Mass celebrated in the Sanctuary of Maria Theotókos, in Loppiano (Italy).

“The joy of the Gospel – as Pope Francis affrimed in the Evangelii gaudium – fills the heart and the entire life of those who meet Jesus”, and this was the experience of Renata.

A joy that springs forth from a soul who since adolescence had searched for God and for the beauty of His creation and who, having come to know the  Focolare Movement, didn’t spare her energies and enthusiasm in bearing witness daily to love and in contributing to build that unity of the human family that Jesus had asked the Father in his prayer before the passion.

“The joy – Renata wrote in her diary – coincides with God… to possess it always means to possess God”; and still: “Joy in living for the others”, a joy that “cannot be conditioned by anything, by anyone” because “God loves me, even if I am incapable, even if I have made a mess in my life and I continue to do so”, but also that joy which, paradoxically, is “squeezed from suffering” and “drawn out from pain”.

In the twenty three years that she was co-responsible of the Little City of Loppiano that now bears her name, Renata Borlone bore witness with coherence and humility, in front of thousands of people who spent time there for their formation or even for just short periods, of the joy of the life of the Gospel, giving her essential contribution to the new sociality that the Little City is committed to generating, by being always at the service of others and living with exceptional faith the serious illness that would lead to her death. “I am happy, too happy – she would repeat in the final instances of her earthly existence. I would like to bear witness that death is Life”.

And continuing to intertwine the words of the Pope and Renata, one is impressed by how much joy can be not only a fruit but may also cause change in the world and in overcoming difficulties. Pope Francis recently said in a homily at Saint Martha: “You cannot walk without joy, even in the midst of problems, even in difficulties, even in one’s own mistakes and sins there is the joy of Jesus who always forgives and helps”

And Renata wrote: “If I had to say something, I would emphasize that the joy that there is in Loppiano is born from the decision that each one makes to want to die to him or herself. I would say that also in this way the unity of peoples is already done, because the the oil that comes from squeezed olives is oil, and you can no longer distinguish one olive from another…”

Suffering and joy, therefore, challenge and conquest always to be renewed and never closed up within oneself: “May the others be happy, so that our Heaven here on earth may bring joy to the others”, “I did not give myself to Jesus so as to be happy, but so that my giving would find its meaning in the joy, in the happiness of others, of all those whom God will put beside me”.

Francesco Châtel

Chiara Lubich And Religions. Traditional Religions

Mar 9, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria

In 1966 some doctors and nurses from the Focolare entered into contact with the Bangwa tribe of “Fontem, a village immersed in the vast palm tree forests of west Cameroon. The aim was humanitarian: to help a population that was stricken with malaria and other tropical diseases with a mortality rate of 90%. Together with the Bangwa and many others, a hospital, school, church and a number of houses were constructed and the first Focolare town in Africa was begun. Chiara Lubich visited Fontem in 1966. Many years later she would recall that visit while speaking to 8,000 members of the Movement who had gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April of 1998:«I was in Fontem when the little town didn’t exist yet; now it’s very big – I don’t know how many houses there are… At that time, there wasn’t anything, there was the bush where this tribe lived. Well, I can still see this tribe in front of me on a large clearing of land celebrating my presence. … Of course, they celebrated in their own typical way; also present were the many wives of the Fon, the king, who performed a number of dances for me, and so on. There in that valley, with all those people who had come to celebrate my presence because I had sent the first focolarini doctors, I had the impression that God was embracing this large crowd of people, who were not Christians – the great majority were Animists. I thought: “Here, God is embracing everyone, he’s embracing everyone. It reminds me of what happened in the Cova da Iria in Portugal[the miracle of Fatima], the time that the sun came down and embraced everyone. God is here and is embracing everyone». Upon returning from the first trip, Chiara responded in this way to the focolarini at the school of formation in Loppiano, Italy: “We westerners are completely backward and unable live in today’s times if we don’t strip ourselves of the western mentality, because it’s half a mentality, a third or fourth a mentality with respect to the rest of the world. In Africa, for example, there is such a unique culture, so splendid and deep! We have to reach and encounter of cultures. We won’t be complete unless we “are humankind”. We will be humankind if “we have all the cultures inside.” During another visit to Africa in 1992, talking about inculturation Chiara stated: “First of all, the most powerful weapon is “making yourself one”. This means approaching people being completely empty of ourselves, in order to enter into their cultures and understand them and allow them to be expressed, so that you can embrace them within you, and have them within you. And once you have embraced them, then you can begin a dialogue with someone and maybe even pass on the Gospel message, through the riches he already possesses. Making yourself one demands inculturation, entering into the soul and the culture, into the mentality, the traditions, the customs of others – to understand them and allow the seeds of the Word to emerge.” Another moment that marked an important step for the Movement in its push towards dialogue with people of other belief systems was in 1977 when Chiara was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion: “We were in the Guildhall of London … I was speaking … in that large hall, and present there were people of many different religions…. I had the same impression there; it was as if God was embracing everyone”. 2000 Chiara visited Fontem for the last time. She was enthroned by the people, through the Fon, as Mafua Ndem (Queen in the Name of God). It was the first time that a foreigner, woman and white ever became part of the Bangwa tribe in such a way. At her death in 2008, she was given a royal funeral in Fontem. During the course on traditional religions, which preceded the funeral celebration and organized by the first Bangwa focolarino, the focolarini were admitted to the “sacred forest” (Lefem”), which is a strong sign of belonging to this people. During that week, Focolare president Maria Voce was also recognized as “successor to the throne”.  In Africa courses on inculturation continue to promote deeper understanding of different cultures. In Latin America at Escuela Aurora, in north Argentina, an effort to educate and recuperate traditional cultural and religious traditions of the people of the Andes, in the Calchaqui Valleys:In Bolivia and Peru at the Mariapolises with the Aymara people, and in Ecuador with the Afro people of Esmeralda. In New Zealand, with the Maori people. On March 20, 2014, there will be an event at the Urbania University of Rome, dedicated to Chiara Lubich and Religions: Together for the Unity of the Human Family. The gathering will highlight her efforts for interreligious dialogue, six years after her death. The event also coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate.