Relying on the strength of love to take up the present historic challenge of multiculturalism

“We can rely on the strength of Love to take up the present historic challenge of multiculturalism.” A love that is rooted in God and “makes the men and women of this earth able to embrace the whole world, able to offer their own values as a gift to the others, able to enhance the values of the other cultures, in order to work out a global wisdom, which is so necessary today. Then humankind will live up to a fraternal interdependence, as one family capable of building structures that can express the movement from unity to diversity and vice versa.”

This is the heart of Chiara Lubich’s message, read at the conclusion of the Interdependence Day held in Paris from September 10-12, 2005.

The three-day-meeting consisted of cultural and political events affirming global interdependence as a civic strategy for peace and justice. The participants included Harry Belafonte, United Nations Cultural Ambassador; Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders); Adam Michnik, Polish Solidarity Movement co-founder; and a large number of political dignitaries.

Interdependence Day started being held after the September 11 terrorist attack. It is an initiative of American democratic political scientist Benjamin Barber, professor at the University of Maryland, born out of his conviction that “it is not sufficient to say no to war; we must build up an alternative.” The objective of Interdependence Day is to prepare individuals and groups, by promoting formation activities in schools for example, to commit themselves to international cooperation and become citizens not only of their own communities and nations, but of the interdependent world, knowing that each person can be a principal agent of change. This initiative is shared by a large number of people in America and in other countries who believe in multilateralism, in dialogue among cultures, and in the need for a global citizenship.

The first Interdependence Day, sponsored by CivWorld, an affiliate of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland , was held on September 12, 2003 and was celebrated in Philadelphia – the home of American Independence – as well as in Budapest, to establish its international character. The 2004 celebration included the signing of a new European Charter of Interdependence. It was held in Rome Italy, hosted by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni. Chiara Lubich of the Focolare Movement and Andrea Riccardi of the Community of St. Egidio were among the participants. In this year’s Interdependence Day, held at the American University of Paris, the Focolare Movement was represented by Liliana Cosi, prima ballerina and co-director of the Cosi-Stefanescu Classical Ballet Company and exponent of the artistic disciplines of the Focolare Center of Studies. Liliana Cosi presented the Focolare Movement and its contribution in the field of arts.