Here is what Silvano Lancerotto said during his closing remarks at a gathering in April 2011,promoted by the Focolare’s centre for dialogue with persons of non-religious convictions. «My grandfather was with one of his small sons at a strike by agriculture workers in the countryside of Bassa Veneto, northern Italy, in the early twenties. While standing under a big oak tree that still exists, he was killed by a bullet shot by a fierce landowner. My grandmother Maria, whom they called “curly”, now found herself alone to care for seven children in extreme poverty. She went through a long period of suffering and sacrifice, but managed to never convey to her children any sentiments of revenge. At the end of the First World War, one of her sons, my uncle Libero was moved by the spirit of revenge which had built up in him during all those years of suffering. He searched for his father’s murderer and one day found him. But he took pity on the man when he saw how is family was poor and in disarray. He spared his life and went away. As I now try to imagine that decision made under such unique circumstances, and such a long time ago, I find myself transferring it from the personal choice of an individual person to the choices made by states and politics concerning certain conflict situations today: the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, etc. It would certainly be a big step forward if my uncle’s choice, a choice that grew and matured in his human conscience, were to be practiced by the collective conscience of society today.» Lancerotto goes on to say that this “small story” points in the same direction as Chiara Lubich’s message. “It’s a message,” he says, “ that acts on consciences, looks to the transformation of society, beginning with the transformation of individuals. I share the path she showed to us when she said that dialogue requires each one of us – individuals, movements and states – to give up something in order to see, to read and, above all, to listen to the complexity and the plurality of values found in the modern world, in order enter into relationship with them, to discover their merit, to work for common projects while respecting the legitimate diversity that motivates each one.”