Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
Christianity is true because Jesus is risen.
So that he wouldn’t be taken from that pitiful tomb a large stone blocked the entrance and in front of that there was a guard. But the story took another direction, through which he left and opened up eternal life, even in death.
The Church exhorts, on the mouth of the empty tomb: heads of State, Kings and magistrates to understand; that which is difficult to understand; so much so that the same mistakes are endlessly repeated: they come from one dictatorship and prepare another; they take note of the second war and plan a third; they take care of people in disasters by adding to their mourning.
Through the countryside of the resurrection pass the delicate figures of women. In these love has overcome fear: and when the apostles had gone to ground hiding, the women came out and looked for the one who is Love: they discovered that He had risen. They find the confirmation of the Gospel: that the religion of Jesus is a duel against death, a victory over it; in fact its substance is love, which knows no limits. Beauty ends, honour terminates, justice stops at the margins of law, but love knows no barrier, it goes beyond the furrows of evil, the background of death. With the sacraments we can assure a continual resurrection from evil, which is the substance of death: and the sacraments, the substance of life, are produced by love, as redemption and as the Church.
Christians are not allowed to despair; they are not allowed to lose heart when faced with death. Their house can collapse, their riches scatter: they will pick themselves up, and take up the fight again: the fight against evil. Christianity lasts whilst it remains firm in the belief of the resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ, our Leader, draws us into and makes us participants in it through his life, he obliges us to never despair. He gives us the secret to lift ourselves up in every fall. He gives us the arms for the fight and the strength to conquer death. The spirit, if it is rooted in Christ, prevails. Ours is a religion of life; the only one in which death has be victoriously, and if we want it, definitively banished.
Today, we are on earth, but linking ourselves to the Christian spirit, people rise again. So, like Mary, who took her son freed from the nails of the cross and held him in her arms, the Church holds our crucified humanity in its womb and prepares it for the resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ must be the reason for us to be reborn in our faith, hope and charity: victorious in our actions against the tendency of death, each one with their neighbour reborn in a unity of affection, every nation reborn, in agreement of actions, with other nations.
St Augustine, in a talk about Easter and the process of our resurrection, couldn’t find better words than to quote the apostle of love who says: – We have passed from death to life because we love our brothers.
And therefore: let us love one another, to help each other to live. In this way we will rise again.
Igino Giorndani, published in Le Feste, Turin, 1954
Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
Buenos Aires, 9 April 1998
Televised message by Chiara Lubich - Italian Soundtrack
Dearest people of Argentina,
Here is my wish for this splendid nation of Argentina.
I will not wish something of my own, but something which is in the air of current history.
As we know, beyond our way of seeing things there is another: the one of He who guides history, God.
Now and again He gives signs which indicate His will: the signs of the times. One of these for the present is unity.
Despite the wars which exist in the world, despite the disasters and the inequalities, many things tell us that the world is tending towards unity.
The States in the civil and political world say it, like the European, African, Asian or American countries, which are striving to unite even if in different ways and for different goals. International bodies and organizations, like the UN, say it. The religious world says it. This is the reason we speak of ecumenism and interreligious and intercultural dialogue.
It is also unity I wish for this nation. It already exists, but we can go in depth. How? With fraternal love among everyone, between families, generations, cities and provinces, respecting every identity, in order to transform this society into one big family.
If we do this, the Risen One, which Easter celebrates, will be in the midst of everyone, because He said so.
He will improve everything in every field of human endeavour. He will be Argentina’s fortune, the country’s big chance, its secure future.
Best wishes to all, great and small! My heartfelt greetings especially to those who may be suffering in any way.
Chiara Lubich
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| “Dearest all ,
The Good News that we are still called to live today is that Jesus is risen and is alive in our midst through our mutual love. The evangelical message of 2,000 years ago is still relevant today and draws us all into a new commitment in life and giving witness. The wish that I would like to reach each one of our large family everywhere is to always walk with Him, the Risen One, through the streets of the world.” Maria Voce |
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صلّى لتبتعد عنه تلك الساعة، ولكنّه عاد وأسلم ذاته كلّيًا لإرادة الله:
كان يسوع يعرف تمام المعرفة أنّ آلامه لم تكن بالحدث المفاجئ، وليست نتيجة قرار بشريّ وحسب، إنّما هي مخطّط الله عليه. سوف يُحاكَم وينبذه الناس، لكنّ الكأس التي سيشربها، تأتي من يد الله.
يُعلّمنا يسوع أنّ للآب مخططَ محبّة على كلّ إنسان، وهو يخصّ كلَّ واحد منا بمحبّة شخصيّة. وفي حال آمنا بهذه المحبة، وتجاوبنا بدورنا معها بمحبّتنا له، فسيؤول كلّ شيء إلى خيرنا. وبالنسبة إلى يسوع ، ليس من أمر، حتّى آلامه وموته، قد حدث صدفة.
ومن ثمّ جاءت القيامة التي نحتفل بها خلال هذا الشهر.
إنّ مَثَل يسوع الذي قام من الموت يجب أن يكون نوراً لحياتنا. يجب أن نرى في كلّ ما يحصل ويحدث من حولنا، حتّى ما يؤلمنا، أمرًا يسمح به الله أو يريده لأنّه يحّبنا. عندها سيكتسب كلُّ شيء في الحياة معنىً ويحمل معه فائدة، حتّى تلك الظروف التي في حينها قد تبدو لنا أنّها تلامس العبث، أو التي لا يفهمها العقل، أو التي ترمي بنا، كما حدث ليسوع، في هوّة من اليأس المميت. يكفينا آنذاك أن نردّد معه وبفعل ثقة كليّ بمحبّة الآب:
ما يريده الله منّا هو أن نحيا حياتنا وأن نشكره بفرح على نِعَمِ الحياة. ولكن، قد نظنّ أحيانًا، بخاصّة عندما تواجهنا الآلام، أنّ إرادته أمر مفروض علينا ويجب الاستسلام أمامه، أو هي تتابع أحداث رتيبة مملّة تتوالى في حياتنا.
إنّ إرادة الله هي صوت الله في داخلنا، يُحدّثنا بلا انقطاع ويدعونا إليه، إنّها الطريقة التي يعبّر لنا بها عن حبّه ليهبنا ملء حياته. يمكننا أن نُشبّهها بالشمس وأشعّتها: الأشعّة هي بمثابة إرادة الله على كلّ إنسان. كلّ منّا يتبع شعاعًا مختلفًا عن الذي يسير فيه الآخر الذي يحقّق إرادة الله عليه أيضًا. جميعنا نتمّم إرادة واحدة هي إرادة الله، لكنّها تختلف من الواحد إلى الآخر. ونحن نعلم أنّ تلك الأشعة كلّما اقتربت من الشمس، اقتربت من بعضها بعضًا. هكذا، وبقدر ما نقترب من الله محققّين بشكل كامل إرادته الإلهيّة، يقترب واحدنا من الآخر إلى أن نصبح جميعنا واحدًا.
وإن عشنا على هذا النحو كلّ شيء في حياتنا قد يتبدّل. وبدل أن نتوجّه إلى مَن نرتاح إليهم ونخصّهم بمحبّتنا ونفضلّهم وحسب، سوف نحوّل اهتمامنا نحو جميع مَن تضعه إرادة الله على دربنا. وبدل أن نفضّل القيام بما يعجبنا سنصبح مستعدّين للقيام بما تقترحه علينا مشيئة الله ونفضّله. وأن نعيش إرادة الله بكلّ كياننا في اللحظة الحاضرة “بل ما أنت تشاء”، سوف يحملنا على التخلّي عن كلّ شيء وحتّى عن ذواتنا “ولكن لا ما أنا أشاء”. نحن لا نسعى وراء التخلّي بحدّ ذاته، بل نحن نبحث عن الله من دون سواه؛ فنكون بالنتيجة قد تخلّينا عن ذواتنا. وعندها يكون فرحنا كاملاً. يكفينا أن نغوص في اللحظة الحاضرة وأن نحقّق فيها إرادة الله ونحن نردّد:
إنّ الماضي لم يعد بين أيدينا، والمستقبل ليس ملكًا لنا بعد. مثل ذلك المسافر في قطار؛ لكي يصل سريعًا إلى هدفه لا يسير داخل القطار ذهاباً وإياباً بل يجلس هادئًا في مقعده. هكذا لنثبت في اللحظة الحاضرة، لأنّ قطار الزمن يمشي من تلقاء نفسه.
فلنحبّ إذًا تلك الابتسامة التي يجب أن نعطيها، أو العمل الذي علينا أن نقوم به، أو السيّارة التي نقودها، أو الطعام الذي نُحضّره، أو البرنامج الذي نُنظّمه أو من يتألّم بقربنا.
لا تعود المحن أو الآلام تخيفُنا إذا كنّا نعرف، على مثال يسوع، أن نرى فيها إرادة الله أي محبّته لكلّ واحد منّا. لا بل يمكننا أن نردّد هذه الصلاة:
“أعطني يا ربّ ألاّ أخاف شيئًا، لأنّ كلّ ما سوف يحصل هو إرادتك! أعطني ألاّ أرغب بشيء لأنّ ليس هناك ما أرغب به أكثر من إتمام إرادتك وحدها.
ما المهمّ في هذه الحياة؟ وحدها إرادتك مهمّة!
أعطني ألاّ أخاف شيئاً لأنّ إرادتك تسكن كلّ تفاصيل حياتي.
أعطني ألاّ أفتخر بشيء، لأنّ كلّ شيء نابع من إرادتك”.
كيارا لوبيك ( نيسان 2003)
It was a special Saturday for the large Focolare family in the Domincan Republic. Seven-hundred people met in the Church’s Casa San Paolo, a small country with a dozen provinces, two-hundred by three-hundred kilometers, but rich in local beauty and “campanalism” with both its positive and negative implications.
This was brought out during the meeting between Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti with 150 young people who are close to the Movement in the Domican Republic. Priscilla, for example, shared how she had moved from her province, Santiago Rodriguez, which is rural and famous for its large banana cultivations, nearer to the capital, in order to study psychology. The adjustment to the new environment, the people, and the way of living wasn’t easy. But being close to the youths of the Focolare helped her to insert herself into her new surroundings, and even to become a leader among her friends.
The young audience sat in silence. It seemed strange, given the exuberant vitality of Dominican youths, who are also capable of great depth and generosity. The questions showed their desire to be radical. And so Maria Voce insisted on speaking about “vocation” and aspiring for great things: «At your age there is a love for taking risks, the spirit of adventure, doing something different. It’s precisely at your age that you have the grace to do something crazy! You can have a lunacy for God, following his call, even if you aren’t sure of it. It’s worth it. » Giancarlo Faletti undscored how «It is in the nature of young people to search, in school they do research, they search for work, sport, love, involvement. It is in these things that each person’s potential is brought into evidence, and also the capacity to listen. Not only to listen to exterior voices, but above all, to the interior voice that asks me why I’m doing what I do. I can’t hide myself in front of so many things, in front of such a busy life: I must listen to the voice that asks me where my life is going. »
The influence of egotistical urges and a lack of clarity also emerged during this meeting, the noise of the city, of temptation and sin: «Our amplifier,» Maria Voce replied, «is the presence of Jesus in our midst, who makes his voice heard, and he makes it heard loudly, even more loudly than all the other noises.» Chiara Luce Badano, the young woman of the Movement who was recently beatified, is an example for their lives, who helps them to face their difficulities even when, what is accepted as normal becomes a cause of judgement against them because of their involvement in a Christian lifestyle that goes against the current. «Well, is it more important to be concerned that your companion is happy with you, or whether God is?» asked Maria Voce. Then «But these young people should be able to feel the joy that there is among you.» It’s not a matter of becoming isolated, but of advancing the beauty of life “with Jesus” in order to share with others the beauty of doing this “together”.
One young woman named Marguerita commented on what Maria Voce said: «When Maria voce spoke to us of Jesus who cried out his abandonment on the cross, I realized that it’s not only suffering, living it doesn’t doesn’t leave us with our suffering, but it brings us the joy of living with Him and for Him.» Pablo from Santo Domingo underscored that «the simple joy that I experienced today is like a virus that I have to spread to my friends.» «You’re generous, » Maria Voce concluded, «you’ve shown me that you are. And so you’re capable of great things. Let’s carry on without any fear to give even more. »
By Michele Zanzucchi
We know that the Dominican Republic is the “Switzerland of the Caribbean”. The central districts of the capital, Santo Domingo, resemble Miami or Houston, but they remain unable to conceal the serious social inequalities that affect Dominican society as a whole. It is nothing like the plight of their Haitian neighbors who are struggling to survive, even though a million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, doing the toughest jobs as construction workers, longshoremen, and banana plantation workers. And you cannot talk about “pockets” of poverty, because here there are entire neighborhoods where it is difficult to lead a decent life.
One such place is Herrera in the El Café area, where Maria Voce went to visit one of the social projects being developed by the Focolare Movement, a school named “Café con leche” – “Coffee with milk – which calls to mind the mulattoes – neither coffee nor milk – the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic. The school has over 500 students who attend morning and afternoon classes in a building that has gradually been growing larger and larger since 1990 when the project was begun.
Everything began with Marisol Jiménez. Seeing the state of extreme poverty in the district and the children in their state of semi-abandonment, she began by organizing a choir in the local parish. Then she organized a summer camp for children, which was repeated for two years and involved 500 children. It soon became clear to her that something had to be done to raise the educational level of the children, many of whom were unable to read or write. Gradually, she was able to engage her friends in the project until, in 1995, the school was opened with three teachers and around ten students.
In an atmosphere of joyful anticipation, with children sitting everywhere, and neighboring families coming to join in the festivities, Maria Voce was able to appreciate the progress that the project has shown, how it has gone ahead with the help of the “adoption at a distance” program of the New Families Movement and the generosity of the Igino Giordani-Foco Foundation, which is now directed by Margarita Rodriguez de Cano.
An incredible series of heroic acts, miracles, spiritual and material growth of the students, have permitted the school to equip hundreds of children to be earning members of the work force. The school is an example of a “holistic education” which is able to involve, support, and appreciate the family, offering hope for human development. The school is also supported by the wood crafts produced by the boys, the clothes and dresses produced by the girls, and other handcrafts that are sold locally and in the United States. The Domincan government and the President of the Republic himself have contributed to the project.
“Even if it all seems small,” said Maria Voce as she stood in the school’s courtyard, “you can feel that love has built something great here. And this remains; love always remains”.
By Michele Zanzucchi
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, amidst cheering and waving of palms, has political significance: not only because the crowd instinctively recognises him as the head of their people but also because, in this circumstance, he himself, the peaceful leader, offers a message of political worth.
On that day, therefore, whilst the multitudes (today we would say ‘crowds’) proclaim him King of Israel, Jesus Christ comes down from the Mount of Olives and – before the whole of Jerusalem, with its white houses and its people gathered around the splendid Temple, in the midst of everyone’s joy – he bursts into tears and cries out: “‘If you too had only recognised on this day the way to peace! But in fact it is hidden from your eyes!
Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you, because you did not recognise the moment of your visitation.”
That same day however, the heads of the nation, contrary to the sentiments of the people, rejected his program of peace and confirmed their program of war. That same day they decided definitively to rid themselves of the peaceful Messiah who arrived to Jerusalem on a donkey because this scarlet hero put them face to face with their belligerent messianism.
The entrance into Jerusalem was therefore the celebration of pacific messianism, that is, of a sui generis politics which is crushed by the old sort of politics; an old politics which believed (and which perhaps would believe again) in God and his law but trusted (and would trust again) more in the sword that in the squires; more in army tanks than in the Sinai announcement. This decrepit, lunatic politics sows war even in peace treaties, transforms a nation into an army and turns farmer’s fields into battle grounds.
Jesus’ messianic politics can be summarised under the heading ‘Kingdom of God’: a regime whose constitution is God’s law, a regime that upholds God as its purpose and principle. The nation is organised therein: God’s nation, guided on the tracks of peace. This kingdom of God also translates into a social constitution: it’s law is the Gospel and it entails unity, solidarity, equality, paternity, social service, justice, rationality, truth; it fights against war, tyranny, enmity, error, stupidity…
To search for the Kingdom of God therefore is to search for the happiest conditions for the life of the individual and of society. And this is easy to understand: where God reigns, man is God’s son, a being of infinite worth, who treats other men as brothers, who is treated as a brother by other men, who does unto others as he would have done unto him. In God’s kingdom the world’s goods are fraternally put in common and love circulates with forgiveness; frontiers are worthless, senseless because of the universality of love. Putting the Kingdom of God before all else therefore means raising life’s goal. In this sense we too can say that Christ has “overcome the world”.
Beyond this meaning, Jesus doesn’t deal with politics, nor do the apostles. But their teaching contains principles that, if not of a practical, immediate, biased political nature, they are of soaring and guiding wisdom which supports the great and universal art of governance in every age. Jesus doesn’t touch existing institutions, he transforms their spirit by transforming sentiments of men. He doesn’t tell the soldiers to desert their duties, nor does he tell the tax-collectors to abandon office or the members of the Sanhedrin to step down from the Supreme Court: he simply tells them to carry out their work with a new spirit. He doesn’t create commotion, he brings about revolution. He does this by transforming the spirit there where it needs to be transformed.
(Igino Giordani, Le Feste, SEI, Torino, 1954, pp. 104-110).
From the 1st- 3rd April the School for Oriental Religions (SOR) organised a course in the Focolare’s little-town called ‘Peace’ in Tagaytay (Philippines). There were 250 participants from all around Asia: Pakistan, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The majority of those who took part were from various islands in the Philippines especially Manila and Cebu.
SOR was founded in 1982 by Chiara Lubich on her first trip to Asia when dialogue between members of the Focolare Movement and the mahayana Buddhists from the Rissho Kosei kai began. SOR runs biennial courses that aim at giving formation to Christians from around Asia for dialogue with members of the continent’s religious traditions. Both in 2009 and in this year’s course, opportunities for an exchange of experiences accompanied the formation.
Visiting SOR one can not help but think of the Ancient Greece’s ‘Agora’: a place to openly discus challenges and problems that arise in the various cultural contexts such as Pakistan. It also provides an occasion to share prophetic experiences such as the dialogue that takes place with the monastic Theravada Buddhism in Thailand. We can’t leave out the recent events in Japan: following the earthquake and nuclear crisis members of the Focolare and of the Rissho Kosei kai managed to face the tragedy together in a true spirit of friendship and reciprocal support thanks to the relationships already built. Dialogue at an academic and social level in India with various Gandhian organisations and academic institutes also shows great promise.
Despite many common spiritual characteristics that can be seen throughout Asia, each country and cultural area has its specific traditions. Differences can also be seen in the relationships between Christians and members of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and cultures such as Confucianism and Taoism. The Focolare Movement experiences the challenges that the Catholic Church faces in these worlds at first hand.
During the presentations given by the working groups at SOR’s course, dialogue and evangelisation clearly emerged as two different aspects of the Church’s sole mission; a mission that must place personal and, above all, communitarian witness at top importance so as to guarantee a constructive and credible presence for announcing Jesus Christ. On the other hand Asian cultures often gather and intuit aspects of faith that Western Christianity have not yet valued nor deeply understood.
This year the School for Oriental Religions focused on the aspect of love in the different cultural and faith traditions. The presence of Archbishop Mons. Francis Xavier Kriegesak, the school’s dean was much appreciated as well as the contributions given by the monk prof. Phramaha Sanga Chaiwong, abbot of an important temple near Chang Mai in the North of Thailand, and by Julkipli Wadi, a Muslim professor of Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines.
Three days of dialogue and exchange that will produce “suitable antidotes for fundamentalism and intemperance”, not only in the long run but straight away.
Source: Città Nuova
“I will show you the way of wisdom” is DePaul University’s motto and it shows up here and there on its campus. The university was founded at the end of the 19th century by the Congregation of the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul, with the goal of providing proper education to the children of Catholic immigrants to Chicago. Today it has 25 thousand students and it has been ranked among the “top tier” universities in the United States.
The motto, taken from the Book of Proverbs, acquired a special meaning during World Catholicism Week organized by the university, the first day of which was dedicated to the theme “Catholic spirituality: a global communion”. Various personalities spoke during the week. On that first day, April 11, a number of roundtable discussions took place, some simultaneously, and some scholars from the Focolare Movement were called to present various aspects of the communal dimension of the spirituality of Chiara Lubich. Dr Judith Povilus presented the interdisciplinary, multi-ethnic and intercultural experience of the University Sophia in Loppiano. Dr Donald Mitchell discussed the connection between environmentalism and interreligious dialogue; and Dr Paul O’Hara discussed the Marian dimension of the Church.
Maria Voce, finally, gave a talk with the title “Spirituality and Trinitarian Theology in the Life and Thought of Chiara Lubich”. In a room full of academic personalities and representatives of the Catholic world, the Focolare’s president underlined four aspects of the spirituality of communion: God-love, love for our neighbour, mutual love, and Jesus Forsaken as key to the achievement of unity. She dwelled in particular on the mystery of Jesus Forsaken viewed as a secret way to heal all wounds caused by division and fragmentation.
Maria Voce used Chiara Lubich’s experience of light in the summer of 1949 and her intuitions about the spirituality of communion as mirror of the life of the Trinity as a reference point for some passages of Chiara’s she read to the audience. At the end she underlined the deep agreement between the spirituality of communion and the ideas expressed in John Paul II’s apostolic letter Novo Millennio Inuente, and presented the challenge of Sophia University, which aims at “providing foundations and perspectives of global learning, of a culture that springs from the charism of unity and that is the fruit of communitarian spirituality lived deeply as a mirror of the life of the Trinity.”
Two theologians, Dr Tom Norris of the International Theological Commission and Dr David Schindler, director of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America responded to Maria Voce. Both emphasized, albeit from different perspectives, the contemporary relevance of Chiara Lubich’s Trinitarian thought and the courage contained in her proposal to the Church and to today’s theological thinking. Norris mentioned that a theologian recently claimed that the Trinity is the grammar of every theology. Schindler highlighted the Marian dimension of Chiara’s communitarian spirituality and her capacity to respond in a positive manner to the Enlightenment.
It was impossible at that end of that day not to think of the connection between the “way of wisdom” proposed by DePaul University to its students and Chiara Lubich’s charism of communion, a gift from God to walk better on the way to wisdom.
Roberto Catalano
Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.
The Kehilath Anshe Maarav (KAM) synagogue of Chicago, built in 1847, was the ideal place for the gathering of 200 faithful of different religions. Located in Hyde Park on 50th Avenue, it was the first synagogue ever build in the Midwest. Its very architecture seems inspired by a desire for dialogue. Lutherans, Armenians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians were present to the meeting.
About thirty of the people present took turns on the stage to share moments of spiritual communion they experienced in the course of the last thirty years by living the spirit of brotherhood exemplified by Chiara Lubich when she met representatives of various faiths throughout the world. Those meetings were seeds of prophecy that, one by one, came to fruition. The participants remembered with emotion the meeting between Chiara Lubich and Imam W. D. Mohammed in the Malcolm Shabazz mosque in Harlem in 1997, and later in Washington D.C. in 2000; the two leaders made a pact of mutual love which continues to these days among their respective organizations.
The representative of the Buddhist movement Rissho Kosei Kai remembered the meeting between Chiara and founder Nikkyo Niwano.
Emily Soloff, associate director for Interreligious Relations of the American Jewish Committee, one the people who emceed the event, said that moments of dialogue with members of the Focolare remind her of the Jewish Sabbath because of their solemnity and sense of family. Sister Laila Mohammed, daughter of the late Imam W. D. Mohammed, echoed those feelings: she said that the meeting between Christians and Muslims she attended in Rome had great spiritual depth and brought to her the same spiritual fruits of a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Prof. Donald Mitchell, Imam Mikal Saahir and Imam Kareem Irfan recounted an experience of dialogue between academics and religious leaders they had during a joint trip to Asia. In the Philippines and Thailand, in particular, the spirit of universal brotherhood felt by everyone who met in the Focolare centers gave hope that dialogue can bring a solution to the conflicts with Muslim minorities that afflict the South of both countries.
Young people who work in collaborative social projects aimed to people in need also shared their experiences.
At the end, Maria Voce, president of the Focolare, and co-president Giancarlo Faletti greeted those present and answered questions presented by a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew. The answers brought into evidence that the dialogue conducted by the Focolare has its origin in Chiara Lubich’s dream to contribute to the unification of the human family, and is thus not the responsibility of only a part of the Focolare movement but of everyone – young people and adults, the elderly and children. Giancarlo Faletti emphasized that, while the day had been a trip down memory lane that allowed everyone to remember the milestones of their common history, it was important not to dwell in nostalgia but to strengthen their mutual love.
At the end Maria Voce said: “Often religions have been like spheres that brushed one another. Then people came along who pierced these spheres so that the wealth of each could be shared by the others. This was the prophetic role of Chiara Lubich, Nikkyo Niwano, Dadaji of the Swadhyay movement, Imam W. D. Mohammed, and others. Thanks to them we were able to discover riches we weren’t aware of. Fear has gone. Now we must continue on this path.” The attendees responded to this invitation with a standing ovation. Some said: “We bring to our communities the wealth we have discovered. You help the Focolare; together we will help humanity.”
Roberto Catalano
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