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Economy of Communion: it’s Africa’s moment

Economy of Communion: it’s Africa’s moment

Jan 18, 2011 | Focolare Worldwide

Economy of Communion: A new paradigm for the African Development is the title of the first Pan African Summer School of the Economy of Communion, which will be held from January 23 to the 25 at Mariapolis Piero in Nairobi (Kenya). There will be 110 aspiring young entrepreneurs who want to learn how to start businesses of communion, together with experts in the Economy of Communion from the United States, Philippines and Italy. The youth expected are from all over Africa (Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Cameroun, Central Africa, Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Madagascar, South Africa and Angola); they speak 4 different languages: English, French, Portuguese and Italian.

Formation, reciprocity, and enculturation are the fundamental pillars of the school. “The Pan African Summer School is based on three assumptions,” said Luigino Bruni, responsible for the worldwide EoC project. “The first: today, cooperation in development is done with people, not with capital. Without quality universities, no serious development can take place. Second: the method of the school is reciprocity. There will not be any professors from the West who are coming to teach the African youth. Starting from the high esteem that we hold for the culture, everyone will learn from everyone. Thirdly: development cannot happen without business culture, and this is what Africa is missing today. Africa needs to open itself up to the market while saving the “community” roots that are so strong in its culture’s DNA. So, one can understand how “Economy” and “Communion” can truly be an important opportunity here.”

In the days that follow the school, from January 26 to 28, 2011, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi will host the International Conference on the Economy of Communion, in which 300 people are expected to participate. It’s the first time that the Economy of Communion will be presented in an African University. Dr. Aloys Blasie’ Ayako, Dean of this prestigious university’s Faculty of Commerce, has strongly encouraged this event – which will pay special attention to “business culture” – as he sees great hope for his people in the Economy of Communion culture.

To give continuity to this important moment, there is a professional development course in the works at CUEA. It is aimed at spreading an economic business culture for Africa and will be entrusted to a group of economists and scholars that work throughout the world developing the Economy of Communion.

Economy of Communion: it’s Africa’s moment

Youth and Democracy

Jan 18, 2011 | Focolare Worldwide

The difficulties that Europe’s democracy is going through was the topic suggested for a training seminar on politics held on the 13th of January for the youth of Cagliari in Sardegna, Italy. The context was indeed a difficult one. In Sardegna social tensions have been increasing.  Despite the fact that disillusionment, disorientation and uncertainty about the future appears to be widespread among the youth, this event once again attracted many participants.

What does universal brotherhood have to say to Political Science and to modern democracy and all its paradoxes?

This was the main point of keynote speaker Daniela Ropelato, Professor of Political Sciences at the University Institute Sophia located in Loppiano (near Florency, Italy). She shared with the audience the main ideas of a reflection that involves politicians and scholars, citizens and government officers, who have found in the charism of unity the cornerstone for their public commitment.

The school on politics in Cagliari is not an isolated experience: it is one out of ten such schools born recently in Italy. They are part of the international network of the Schools of the Movement for Unity. “Learning communities”, as they are called in Argentina,  are for those young people who do not wish to yield to current trends in politics but who have decided to practice a “politics of communion”.

The young people from Sardegna attending were the main protagonists of the event: their example is a concrete answer to the need for unity.

“An extra drive to become more active, also in our small way,” said one of the participants, “to become citizens who are aware of the contribution we all can give”. “We can do politics at home, in a waiting rooms, in a shop, in a square, by giving our opinion and witnessing with our life”.

Their School has being named after “Domenico Mangano”. He had moved to Viterbo from Sardegna. He was convinced that the light and logic of the Gospel had to lead our actions in politics. He was a justice builder and developer who was at every bodies service. He had many high administrative responsibilities in the city of Viterbo. He witnessed that a positive relationship among generations may be the key to the so needed innovation the public sphere needs.

Economy of Communion: it’s Africa’s moment

chiaraluce.org vi aspetta su Internet

Jan 17, 2011 | Focolare Worldwide

The aim of www.chiaraluce.org is to make Chiara Luce’s experience known as widely as possible and it will have a special emphasis on the collective spirituality. The website seeks to reach everyone. Apart from Italian, it is translated into English and Spanish and it seeks to focus on the life experience of Chiara Luce which many of us can relate to. This is why the site has simply been called Chiara Luce. It’s not meant to be a commemorative site but rather a site which speaks about a friend who is close to us. It is divided into three parts: LIFE, LOVE, LIGHT. The choice of words is not random. In fact, the site wishes to be a continuation of that evening celebration for Chiara Luce held at Pope Paul VI Audience Hall, at the Vatican, on 25 September 2010. LIFE: this first section, which focuses on the life of Chiara Luce, is what is currently active. It is subdivided into 7 sub-sections: her parents’ wish for a child, Chiara’s childhood and teenage years, her sickness and death, her beatification and the ensuing phenomenon – each section is enriched with images and videos. The second section, entitled LOVE, aims to deepen the collective spirituality and will gather the most relevant experiences from the whole world. Finally, the section on LIGHT, is expected to go online in February and will be geared towards the most social and dynamic aspect of the Internet. It will be connected to the most such social networks as Facebook, Orbit, Twitter, YouTube and grant visitors access to everything that the online network has to offer on the topic: past, present and future events surrounding Chiara Luce. Ample space will be given for comments and feedback. Welcome to www.chiaraluce.org !

Focolare in Hungary

Jan 15, 2011 | Focolare Worldwide

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.

Economy of Communion: it’s Africa’s moment

Cardinal Rylko visits the focolarini

Jan 11, 2011 | Non categorizzato

“I am here not on official business, but urged by a need of the heart. I am here to extend to all of you a heartfelt thanks, in the name of the Church, for what you are: a great hope of the Church of today and tomorrow.” Cardinal Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, addressed these affectionate words to the 1,200 men and women focolarini who were attending the fourth and last annual retreat for focolarini. They were there from Europe and the continents.

Cardinal Rylko underscored that “the charism which the Holy Spirit gave to Chiara is for the Church, and it is a treasure that must be guarded and protected, but especially lived,” which is precisely the best way, said the prelate, of protecting it, “living it all the way to the bottom, with passion, enthusiasm, and gratitude,” he reiterated. Recalling, then, the Apostolic Letter “Novo Millennio Ineuente,” in which John Paul II proposes the “spirituality of communion” to everyone, he added: “Whenever you speak of communion you touch the central nerve of the charism of unity.”

He therefore invited the focolarini who had gathered together for those few days to “live again in our day the gift of communion, which is your very strength.” He highlighted the particular task that is awaiting the Movement today: to freely offer this gift which was freely given, to this world that is broken and divided by hatred. Hence the importance of cultivating “a profound communion with the universal Church and, in particular, with the person of the successor of Peter, the Pope.” He recalled the words spoken by Benedict XVI, in 2006 to the Movements: “. . . I ask you to be even more collaborators in universal apostolic ministry of the Pope, opening the doors to Christ.”

Aware that “you take these words as the programme of your life with a missionary zeal that touches the ends of the earth,” Cardinal Rylko concluded by underscoring that the communion with the universal Church is a concrete fact. It means “being participants in the major challenges facing the Church at the present time,” particularly mentioning the intolerance and persecution of Christians in various countries of the world.

After lunch, which took place in a peaceful family atmosphere, the Cardinal – who was celebrating 15 years of his episcopal ordination – wanted to go to the chapel of the Movement’s Centre in Rocca di Papa to visit Chiara Lubich’s tomb. He also visited the house where she lived for over 40 years, and then went to the Chiara Lubich Centre, which houses the founder’s archival legacy. They were solemn moments imbued with vivid memories

Economy of Communion: it’s Africa’s moment

“Marilen” Centre for Unity – Oceania

Jan 10, 2011 | Non categorizzato

A snippet of history By 1982, every continent except ours, had its own mini-city, its own Centre for Unity. So it was in that year that we started to search for the best place for a Centre for Unity for the whole of Oceania. We narrowed the search area down to a 1.5 hour’s drive radius from Melbourne and all our friends searched high and low for a property that was: beautiful, affordable, close to Melbourne and the airport, easily reached by interstate visitors, where the local council regulations could accommodate development, where there would be space for the Australian and New Zealand (and Islander) soul to sing. In short: location, location, location … We looked east to Gippsland, south-west to Geelong, north to central Victoria and to the West (the Lion Park!). But no place quite fitted every requirement. Then in March 1986, one of the pioneers of the Focolare, Marilen Holzhauser, died. At a home Mass in the Focolare, offered for her, we asked Marilen to help us find a property. Then, as is often the case, the unexpected happened in an unplanned and almost miraculous way. The December 1986 newsletter tells the story: ‘On the Anzac weekend, we had a New Humanity seminar in Healesville, together with Margaret Linard and Giuseppe Arsì (Scinti),and there we experienced a very great unity. At our Sunday Mass and services, we prayed for a Center for Unity. After Mass, we went to say hello to Fr Gerald Loughnan, then parish priest of Healesville, an old friend whom we hadn’t seen for some time. Father had 100 acres of land in Greendale (in country Victoria), which he had thoughts of subdividing and selling. We felt that Marilen in heaven had listened to our prayers and was pointing the way. Margaret Linard vividly recalls how it all unfolded: “I said, ‘Father, do you still have that block of land? You don’t want to sell it do you?’ He said, ‘Well, I have the land but I want to retire there.’ After Mass the next day, Father Loughnan came rushing towards us with his vestments flapping in the wind. He hadn’t even bothered to take them off and he said, ‘About that land. I’ve been thinking about it. I think I will sell it. Do you still want to buy it?” Fr Loughnan decided to keep ten acres for himself and sell us the rest. So how much was asked for the property? Exactly what we had in the bank through the generosity of everyone who shared the search and the dream! An invitation was sent to all those who had been involved in the search for a property over the previous two or three years to come and see the land. Whoever was sceptical when they heard that the land had no power, no town water, no telephones and so on, were soon won over when they saw the place. The magic of Marilen was beginning to weave its design.