Focolare Movement

Latin America Without Borders

Jan 27, 2014

The second Summer School of Sophia University Institute in Argentina, held between 6-14 January, was attended by students from all over Latin America.

Seventy one students showed up atMariapolis Liain Argentina: from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Italy and Argentina. It was an opportunity to spend nine days together and explore answers to some challenging questions.

The academic approach of Summer School 2014, promoted by Sophia University Institute and the help of some Latin American professors, examined several disciplines from a new viewpoint.

Biblical Theology. Exploration of the authenticity of Gospel texts brought out the revolutionary and transforming message of Jesus’ words.

Economic Sciences. Trust and reciprocity were shown to be helpfully important to economic performance.

Sociology. The human person and society in the historical sociological context, and in the Magisterial documents of the Church, beginning with the idea of gift and interculturalism.

Latin America is calling for deep change: a return to its roots; a recognition of its wealth and the cultures of its first peoples; the challenge of social inequality; finding ways to transform its contrasting diversity into gift.

The Arts were celebrated as a valid way for promoting interculturalism, in a display of works from several countries and the concert Music of Hope: the world opening of the opera “Hablata Oblata Opus 265 by Costa Rican composer Mario Alfaguel. It is a combination of contemporary music with texts by Latin-American thinkers that delighted the audience. Students from the first Summer School presented 29 papers in seven academic areas, and 12 projects that demonstrated that it is possible to begin from a new paradigm: the culture of brotherhood.   

Daniela from Chile presented a project titled: “The new look of knowledge in the field of health care: what the same and what is different in Mapuche medicine and traditional medicine. Comparing traditional medicine and indigenous peoples.”

Christopher from Mexico presented his work titled: “Brotherhood between the lines: an approach for its use in Mexican political discourse”. He explains: “This project’s goal is to develop an analysis of the concept of brotherhood as an element of the present system of political discourse in Mexico.”

Carlos from Argentina: “We’re many, but we’re one. Today I feel as if Central America has become a land without borders, united from north to south by a single dream: universal brotherhood.”

They leave with great challenges ahead of them: to bring forward socially transforming projects in individual regions of the continent, which will be presented at the next Summer School in 2015.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

Related post

Together WE connect project

Together WE connect project

A few months ago in the Holy Land, the Focolare community and the international music groups, Gen Rosso and Gen Verde, collaborated in a training programme for young people. The objective of the programme was to prepare young people to be promoters of reconciliation and dialogue.

Youth Jubilee: ‘Aspire to great things’

Youth Jubilee: ‘Aspire to great things’

Over a million young people from 146 countries around the world: a pilgrimage full of joy, accompanied by music, with moments of silence and listening, nourished by faith, open to hope, calling for peace.

Chiara Lubich to the young people: the joy of the early Christians

Chiara Lubich to the young people: the joy of the early Christians

In April 1984, the Jubilee of the Youth was celebrated, a few days before the conclusion of the extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption. There were 300 thousand young people present. Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare Movement, held a catechesis on joy for the young people gathered in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on the 12th of April. Here is an excerpt of her talk.