“March 22cnd will be forever marked by the cowardly attacks in the airport and in the metro in Brussels. They were actions of people who were not able to see love of neighbour as a priority in life, precisely during the days of Easter, a feast that proclaims: Love conquers all. It’s been a week in which feelings of deep hatred and a sense that God is requiring us to love every neighbour. That’s certainly not easy in moments like these. It’s in our nature to find perptrator. That’s what’s happening here in Belgium. We wonder where we went wrong and who was responsible for the radicalisation of that human being. It was also a week filled with novel questions for me. It’s been like constantly writing little letters to God and running every day to the mailbox to see if He’s answered them yet. It’s even worse when my own friends wonder why I still defend Muslims: ‘It’s all because of them,’ they say. ‘We should send them home. Why give to the refugees, and then they do away with us?’ I came to realize that I had to keep on doing the same exercise over and over again: to put myself in the skin of my friends who perhaps have not had the good fortune of experiencing God so near to them. Perhaps they haven’t realised that He is the only one that can give the answer: an answer of Love. They feel the fear that pushes them to prefer security and their own future. My effort was to show them the other side of the story: ‘Those people (the terrorists) aren’t Muslims. Islam embodies values that spread love. But when you try to do that, you are always met with resisitence. The wound is still fresh. I was hoping that I’d be able to bring enough healing to the wounds, but a complete cure will take time. This Good Friday I returned to my house weary and fed up with caring for “the wounds”. I can well imagine that it must have been a very hard week for the people who were on the front lines, caring for the wounded in body and in spirit. It is said that the young people of today don’t dare to express their faith. We no longer dare to talk about the things we believe in for fear of being cast from society. We no longer dare to do what we believe should be done. Perhaps it’s not fear of expressing ourselves, but tiredness because believing in Christian ideals is a tiring venture. The faith of Belgium is so exceptional and should muster up the strength to uphold its values. The young people choose to stop believing in order to avoid criticism. And this made me understand once more the strength of the ideal of peace and unity that Chiara Lubich taught us. It’s a sort of “cafe” for our weariness. It helps us to smile when we’re presented with cynical questions from our friends. These become opportunities for sharing our message . . . that’s the reason I follow Jesus! I’d like to ask God for more fire than I had before, a fire that lights candles in the hearts of young people. Candles that will enable us to look at one another in a positive light instead of criticising each other, so that the downward spiral will become an upward spiral and the faith will become a celebration rather than a preoccupation. A place where each of us can find the key to build a world in which attacks like those of March 22nd never happen again.”
During the last visit to Taungoo, one of the regions where the Long Distance Support Project in Myanmar was launched, “we came to realise how many kids on Long Distance Support are now walking on their own,” writes the representative of AfnOnlus in Myanmar, Myanmar Vivienne Arpon. The visit by the local staff of Long Distance Support to the families of the children being supported was an opportunity to bring some concrete love and to better understand the difficulties they were facing. Marta had been abandoned by her husband when the children, Justin and Joseph, were small. Through the project she found the strength she needed to raise her family. When he finished school Justin won a scholarship in culinary arts at an Institute in Yangon, and Joseph became personnel assistant at a fabrics company. Philip and Anna’s family had been living in a slum in poor hygienic conditions. Long Distance Support has enabled them to live in a decent house and have a more dignified life. Although Philip is still studying, his parents have generously committed to support those who are worse off than they. “What gives us joy,” says Vienne, “is to notice how the improvement in the physical living conditions of these families has led to human and spiritual growth.” Since 2006 the project has expanded in response to requests for help from Eric, the Burmese coordinator. Thanks to the intervention of other NGOs it was possible to build a new school in Yenanchaung, the Magway region and find teachers and qualified personnel. The school children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS or abandonment. Many of these teenagers have been able to find good jobs now, so that in addition to being financially independent they can even contribute something to their families. “We’re pretty confident,” Vivienne writes speaking to supporters, “that the future of these children is assured, not only because they can study, but because they felt the love from your side, which assures them. For all this, thank you very much for the sacrifices you have made. In fact, it is not always easy to live solidarity, but when you take into consideration those who are living in worse conditions than yours it can redimension your own needs and wants and can lead to a more sober lifestyle, perhaps even a freer life for yourself. One family from Messina, Italy writes of how their experience with long distance support with AFNonlus is enrichment for them that has opened them to the whole world. The boy they were supporting has grown up and, thanks to the support he received through the programme, is now working. Nevertheless, there are many other children living in conditions of need and the Sicilian family, in spite of the financial problems that everyone is going through, didn’t turn their backs on them. They decided to continue contributing their support: “With four children it isn’t easy to make ends meet. In spite of the uncertainty, we believe in this project and are very happy to offer some concrete help to people who are worse off than we are . . . in this case, little Vincenzo from Myanmar.” The Myanmar project extends through a territory which, due to environmental conditions and historic reasons was never developed adequately. Many families and children are victims of malnutrition and illness, such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. With the support from contributors, the project is giving hope to people, offering a different future to the new generations and contributing to the human development of the population. For more information: The Focolare has been in the Asian world since 1966. Recent cultural and interreligious events have remembered those years: 50 anni di storia.
“When the family suffers, society suffers,” said one of the participants going straight to the heart of the main message of the event: “The Family And Peace. Tools For Peace In The Family: 5 Secrets.” Similar events were held in 8 cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo, Brazaville, with a massive attendance on March 13th. The organisers report 1000 people in Kinshasa, 500 in Goma, 600 in Lubumbashi and 1,500 in Kikwit. There were another 110 in Bukuvu, 83 in Uvira not counting the Masses celebrated in other locations, inlcuding 14 in Congo Brazzaville. In Lolo 170 adults with 40 children “celebrated” – because thoughought Congo as in other African countries it is the feast of “Mamma Chiara,” as she is affectionately known on that continent. “With its spirituality of unity the Focolare Movement hoped to create synergy by providing opportunities for sharing and exchange with structures of the local Church that serve the family,” writes Martine from Kinshasa. “Friends from the Church of Christ in Congo and from the Muslim community also participated. The event raised enthusiasm and joy, and we met several times to prepare it together: some sharing their testimonies, some singing and dancing – very group wished to contribute something to the day.” The event was also covered in the media, on television and in the newspapers: L’Observatuer, Le Phare, Le Potentiel, Le Congolais, to mention a few. In Kikwit the Muslim radio also covered the event! The “5 Secrets” are actually elements from the charism of unity applied to family life: the pact of mercy (forgiveness between family members); communion of the experiences of living the Word of God; communion of souls; and fraternal correction. Finally, conversations with people who can assist the family along its way if their are problems. “These secrets,” they write, “barely revealed, are already helping several families to rediscover their peace and harmony.” During his thank you address, Abdourahamane Diallo from UNESCO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stated: “I would like to offer my congratulations to the organisers of this day in favour of peace in the family. We at UNESCO also think that we need to lift up the defense of peace through education, dialogue, tolerance and culture. I render homage to the family because that is where education begins. I thank you for this work you are doing.” “At this meeting I discovered a reality of God to which we are called to live together, doing all we can so that it continues,” declared Imam of Kikwit. “We all have one only God, the One who sent the Angel to Mary to announce the glad tidings.” The person in charge of Comunità Vie Nouvelle: “I’m glad to have discovered the 5 secrets for building peace in the family. This evening I telephoned my son who is having family problems, to share all of this with him. I needed this theme!” “This experience with the local Church,” Martine concludes, “and with our Protestant and Muslim friends with whom we continue to grow the relationship, has been a step forward towards Mamma Chiara’s and our dream of unity.”
A conference for mathematicians “A couple of my colleagues also attended a conference with their small son. After supper they took turns putting him to sleep and were never able to spend an evening together. I sensed that things weren’t going well between them and wondered what I could do to help. I suggested that one evening I could stay up with the boy, since he knew me quite well. The following day my colleague thanked me: Ever since the little one was born, he told me, they’d never had a moment just for them, and that evening was very important.” M.Z. – PolandMy neighbour is another me “I study art at university. Shocked by the suffering of so many Syrian families, I thought of organising an art exhibit with some friends. We could use the money we earned from selling our artwork to help those families. We called the exhibit: ‘My neighbour is another me. Break down the walls of indifference’.” One of the main pieces was a wall made of tiles. Each visitor could take one tile home as a reminder that we’re all connected and invited in our daily lives to do something for people who are suffering. There were a lot of problems involved in organising the exhibit. At one point I was really tired, but thinking about the suffering of the Syrians I found new energy to carry on. The art sale brought in 4000 dollars that will be donated in full to several Syrian families.” J.T. – USAThe goodnight kiss “Once again, that night Papa had dumped all the day’s stress on Mamma. Without a reply, she went to iron in the kitchen as he read in the living room. A wall had been built between them. Feeling the atmosphere growing heavier and heavier, my brothers and I went to our rooms. But I couldn’t fall asleep. A sentence kept coming to my mind: “Where there is no love, put love and you’ll draw out love.” Overcoming my human pride, I got up and went into the kitchen. “Good night, Papa,” and I gave him a kiss. Then, “Good night, Mamma” and gave her a kiss. They looked at each other and the wall between them collapsed. I went back to bed happy.” G.M. – SwitzerlandOne small act of love “I’m a Franciscan. After giving the last hoe I had to a poor person I said to Jesus: “Okay, now you take care of it!” I heard on the radio that a whole party of hoes were arriving. I asked an NGO to make me one of the beneficiaries: I received 200 hoes along with machetes and sacks of seed that I distributed. Many people from the place ask me for help: Members of a Protestant sect from Kimbangisti and even a witch doctor. He invited me to his home and, offering me 5 litres of palm wine, he thanked me for all that I do for his people. All because of one small act of love. . .” G.B. – Angola
Paray-le-Monial, a city in the Burgundy region is not far from other places with a rich spiritual heritage, like Cluny and Taizé, and embodies the artistic heritage of the places of worship it boasts of (this is where Cluny and Cistercian architecture originated), set along the “roads of Romanic culture,” leading to Santiago di Compostela. Furthermore, Jesus appeared here to Saint Margherita Maria Alacoque and this gave rise to the spirituality of the Sacred Heart. The participation of 14 Movements and new Communities, with over 70 members of various ages and experiences, was driven by a fraternal friendship and the desire to broaden their knowledge. Thus a meeting entitled, “Communion and mercy – Experiences and challenges,” was set for 3 – 6 March. Also the bishop of Le Mans, Bishop Yves Le Saux was present. The choice of the place was triggered by the invitation of the Community of Emmanuele since it was here where an important historical phase of the community began in 1975, and which then diffused worldwide. Some of the participants had already attendedlast year’s event held near Florence, in Loppiano, while some were there for the first time. “Unity is lived like a polyhedron “– Pope Francis had said to the Catholic Fraternity in 2014. It invites us to marvel at what we are. In his welcoming speech, Laurent Landete, head of the Emmanuele Comunity, stressed that “Through a spirit of wonder, we contemplate the profiles of your communities.” Mercy is the name of God, the Pope affirmed when he opened the Jubilee Year, and this was the framework which each of the 14 communities placed as the setting of their projects and testimonials. For the Arche group, the aim is to heal the wounds of disability. The Community has to become a place of forgiveness: and though fragile and vulnerable, we can experience the Father’s mercy. The Pope John XXIII Association targeted sharing with the poor and learning forgiveness. For the Speranza, New Horizons families and the Cenacle Community, it means going into the depths of addiction and existential fragility to bring the resurrection, mercy and reconciliation with oneself and the world. All this may appear to be mere social actions, but upon listening to their experiences, a profound spirituality ensued, and they became striking examples of the pedagogy of the Gospel. For the Canção Nova Community, mercy means using the means of communication to be able to bring the good news to all of humanity. Unity for the Focolare is the renewal of its choice to stand in every moment, side by side with each person we meet, with the inevitable alternation of light and shadows. Love for our brother and the “pact of mercy” are the practices that help reach this goal. The Catholic Shalom Community instead targeted mercy as a mission, in unforeseen situations such as that of the Carnival of Rio. The Community of the Beatitudes chose to share the path in identifying and expressing its ecclesiastic features in its Statutes, and the Regnum Christi Community focused on sharing the Church’s goals and fraternal friendship in Christ as referral points of light. The current events gave a strong imprint on the relationships that ensued during the meeting. The Emmanuele Community shared its interreligious dialogue initiatives, especially with the Muslims. This was an important fact, considering the serious attacks that came about in the country. Also the Sant’Egidio Community stressed the importance of peace, the acquisition of a vision of a world that discovers brotherhood as its innermost being. The Chemin Neuf Community stressed that sharing strengthens communion, and makes us experience the extraordinary mercy of the Father who is unity: the source of their mission. “Diverse charisms in the kaleidoscope of the testimonials, appeared like God’s Love reaching out to humanity today”, declared Lina Ciampi who participated on behalf of the Focolare. There was a strong desire in everyone to meet again, and the determination to keep in touch and pray for one another. A pact of benevolence among us, concluded the meeting.
“Dialogue is a true sign of the times, but it also represents something that we need to deepen in all senses. In the wake of John Paul II and of other contemporary thinkers, Chiara Lubich had described out times, at least in the West, with the image of a “cultural night”, not a permanent night, but a night which, according to Lubich, hid a light, a hope. We could therefore say that within the cultural night, which is also a “night of dialogue,” a light is hidden, namely the possibility of all of us together elaborating a new culture of dialogue. To do this – in my opinion – the first step is to rediscover that it is so rooted in human nature that in every culture we can find what I would call the “ sources of dialogue.” These sources are contained in the great Scriptures and are basically two: the source that rises from the religious experience and the source that rises from the philosophical research of humanity. In this line we should have to talk about Biblical, Koranic, Vedic, Buddhist sources, and so on. Last century in the West a real dialogical thinking developed from Jewish and Chrisitan roots. I draw particularly on the latter to offer you several principles of an anthropolgy of dialogue. First. Dialogue “is written in human nature” to the point that you could say that it is the very definition of man. Second. Through dialogue “every person is completed by the gift of the other;” that is, we need one another in order to be ourselves. In dialogue I give to the other my otherness, my diversity. Third. Each dialogue “is always a personal encounter.” Therefore, it is not a matter of words or of thoughts, but of giving our being. Dialogue is not mere conversation or discussion, but something that touches the interlocutors more deeply. Fourth. Dialogue requires “silence and listening.” This is decisive, because silence is important not only for right speech, but also for right thinking. As one proverb says: “When you talk, let your words be better than your silence” (Dionysius the Areopagite). Fifth. True dialogue “constitutes something existential” because we risk our selves, our vision of things, our identity. At times we feel that we lose our cultural identity, but it’s only a passage because, in reality, our identity is immensely enriched in its opening. We should have an “open identity.” (Fabris). This means knowing who we are: but also being convinced that “when I understand with someone else . . . I know even better “who I am”. Some further principles. Authentic dialogue “has to do with the truth” and is a deepening of the truth. For the ancient Greeks dialogue was the method for reaching the truth. This means that truth is always in need of being completed; no one posesses the truth, only she [the truth] posesses it. So we are not dealing with relativity of truth, but of “relationality of the truth” (Baccarini). “Relative truth” means to say that each one has his truth that is true only for himself. “Relational truth” means that each one takes part and puts in common with the others his sharing in the [one] truth, which is true for everyone. Our way of reaching the truth and how we share in the truth is different. This is why dialogue is important: to enrich us with the different perspectives. Through relationship each one discovers new aspects of the truth as if they were his own. As Raimond Panikkar says: From a window you see the whole landscape, but not totally. It is what we said earlier: We need to understand diversity as a gift and not as a danger. One of the great paradoxes of today is that in this globalised world we are fearful of diversity, of the other. Dialogue also “requires strong will.” Love for the truth leads me to seek her and desire her, and therefore I put myself in dialogue. Two final principles. “Diaolgue is only possible among true people,” and only love makes us true. In other words, love prepares people for dialogue by making them true [persons]. What makes the talk fertile is the holiness of the one that speaks and the holiness of the one that listens. This then is the full scope of the dialogue’s responsibility: it requires true persons and makes the persons more true. In conclusion: the culture of dialogue “knows only one law, which is reciprocity.” This dynamic of going and returning is essential for there to be true dialogue. Finally, today there is much talk about interculturalism. I think that true interculturalism is possible if we begin to live this culture of dialogue. No one ever said that dialogue would be easy. It requires something that today is difficult to pronounce: sacrifice. It requires men and women “mature for death” (Maria Zambrano), that is dying to oneself to live in the other.” Jesús Morán , University of Mumbai, February 5, 2016.
Lahore is the second largest city of Pakistan, in the north east Punjab Province. “For some time schools and universities have been protected like fortresses, as well as churches and mosques that have armed guards. A public park could never have been guarded in such a way. It is shocking that most of the victims are children and families, many of them celebrating the feast of Easter,” they write from the Focolare community in Lahore. It was 19:00 local time, March 27th, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park. Pope Francis called it a “cowardly and senseless” crime as he recalled Easter in Pakisatn that was “bloodied by a detestable attack that slaughtered so many innocents” including 29 children and many women. “Along with everyone else,” they continue from Lahore, “we want to once again embrace this face of Jesus Forsaken so that he might transform this great suffering into new momentum to love, new light to illuminate minds and strengthen all people of good will. We’re praying for all the victims, the wounded and the families, that hatred will not beget hatred.” “I was on my way to the park with my grandkids, and at one point I felt like I had to go home again,” says one friend who was saved from the massacre. “Our relatives were there at the moment of the explosion, but none of them were harmed. One of them was an 18 year old boy who tried to help a child who later died in his arms.” “I invite us all to pray to the Lord for the many victims and their loved ones,” the Pope went on to say, appealing to “civil authorities and all members of society” in Pakistan “that they would make every effort to return peace and serenity to the population and, in particular, to the religious minorities that are most vulnerable.” “The sacred dignity with which they suffer the pain is striking,” the people of Lahore testify, “and how much solidarity has been shown. The wounded were driven in private cars, without fear or hesitation, to nearby hospitals. The hospital staff worked without stopping. The appeal for blood donations was immediately answered by long queues at hospitals. The suffering that people have been going through for some time now and seemed to have reached its limit, has produced a new attitude, new hope that is expressed in small gestures that demonstrate a common wish: Peace.” “In many places people are out on the streets with lit candles. The protests were carried out peacefully. In many newspapers around the world there is talk about attacks on Christians and perhaps that’s true, but here it seems to us like an attack against humanity which is the same thing. The victims are Christians and Muslims. The gestures of solidarity from abroad have been very well received, such as the offing of the lights on the Eiffel Tower. They did help Pakistan to feel that it wasn’t all alone in suffering this very painful and absurd tragedy.” Maria Chiara De Lorenzo
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Protecting minors is a civic obligation which is also finds it fulfilment in the utmost respect for human rights. It is an obligation, therefore, but one that is loaded with foresight, precisely because of the inestimable value it represents for the new generations. Upon reviewing the various articles of the El Salvador law which entered into force in 2011, the novelty stands out, with respect to the previous law which only highlighted the cases where this is missing, such as situations regarding survival, disability and abandonment. This new norm which refers to the guidelines of international laws provides for the protection of all children from their conception up to the age of 18, ensuring adequate opportunities for integral development and a life that reflects the standards of human dignity. As in many countries, also in El Salvador social phenomena that endanger these principles abound, precisely due to the typical vulnerability to which infants and adolescents are exposed. And as in any other place on the planet, also here the population is called to collaborate actively with the institutions to safeguard every human right, but especially those rights every child in the world is entitled to. In 2014, a Document drawn up by the Focolare “for the promotion of the wellbeing and protection of minors” had aroused in the Movement worldwide, a renewed awareness of this responsibility. Also due to this initiative, the El Salvadorean community of the Focolare is now giving its valid contribution to a widespread knowledge of children’s rights and of how we must act to promote their integral development and the psycho-physical-spiritual wellbeing of minors, while also denouncing certain hidden and subtle practices with which parents and educators involuntarily damage their harmonious growth. This action of the Focolare found support in the local Catholic Church which in turn encourages the associations to adopt all the means possible to help forestall any action that may infringe these rights. The Focolare’s training programme provides for a reading of the law in the light of evangelical love, in the perspective of concurring to form new generations that are increasingly aware and free to make their independent choices for values in life. This programme also includes the recent “ Up2meProject” created by the Focolare and adjusted to the various development phases. It is enthusiastic work carried out by adults, youth, adolescents and children, to open a dialogue on various themes that are ever more actual today.
Why are these words of Jesus so dear to us and why do they come back time and again in the Words of Life we choose each month? Perhaps it’s because they are the heart of the Gospel. They are what the Lord will ask us when in the end we find ourselves in front of him. On these words will hinge the most important exam of our lives; and we can get ready for it every single day. The Lord will ask whether we have given food and drink to whoever was hungry and thirsty, whether we have welcomed the stranger, whether we have clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner… It is a question of little acts, which yet have the value of eternity. Nothing is small if done for love, if done for him. Jesus indeed did not just come close to the poor and marginalized; he healed the sick and comforted the suffering. But he loved them with a preferential love, to the point of calling them members of his family, of identifying himself with them in a mysterious solidarity. Today too Jesus is still present in whoever suffers injustice and violence, in whoever is looking for work or living in a risky situation, in whoever is forced to leave his or her homeland because of war. How many people are in pain around us for all sorts of other reasons and call out, even without words, for our help! They are Jesus who asks for concrete love, a love capable of inventing new ‘works of mercy’ in keeping with new needs. No one is excluded. If a person who is old or sick is Jesus, how can we not seek what could give the necessary relief? If I teach my language to an immigrant child, I teach Jesus. If I help my mother clean the house, I help Jesus. If I bring hope to a prisoner or consolation to someone who is afflicted or forgiveness to someone who has hurt me, I build a relationship with Jesus. And every time the fruit will be not only giving joy to the other person, but I too will feel a great joy. By giving we receive, we sense an inner fullness, we feel happy because, even though we do not know it, we have met Jesus. The other person, as Chiara Lubich wrote, is the archway we pass under to reach God. This is how she recalls the impact of this Word of Life from the first moments of her experience: The whole of our old way of thinking about our neighbours and loving them collapsed. If Christ was in some way in everyone, we could not discriminate, we could not have preferences. Our human notions that classified others were thrown up into the air: compatriot or foreigner, old or young, good-looking or ugly, nice or nasty, rich or poor, Christ was behind each one, Christ was in each one. And in reality each brother or sister was ‘another Christ’…. Living like this we realized that our neighbour was for us the path to God. Or rather, our brother or sister was like an archway that we had to go under to meet God. We experienced this from the earliest days. What union with God in the evening, when we prayed, or when we recollected ourselves after having loved him all day in our brothers and sisters! Who gave us that consolation, that inner union that was so new, so heavenly, if not Christ who lived the ‘give, and it will be given to you’ (Lk 6:38)of his Gospel? We had loved him all day in our brothers and sisters and here he was now loving us.’1 Fabio Ciardi 1 Chiara Lubich Scritti spirituali, vol. 4, (Rom3, 1995), 204-5.
“At the age of 19 I left my home in Abruzzi, Italy, to study aerospace engineering in Pisa. It was an exhausting but satisfying journey. In 5 years I finished the specialisation with honours and an internship in Germany that enriched my skill set even more. All of it thanks to the sacrifice and support of my family. After graduation I was anxious to find my place in the work world. But I had to deal with youth unemployment, which is 40% in our country, and with companies that at best offer only fixed-term contracts or consulting positions with quarterly or even semi-annual salaries. After a few months spent sending my resume in vain, I started thinking that maybe I had to apply to other areas of the industry. Or emigrate. But quite unexpectedly I received an offer from a company that represents Italy in the major European Consortium manufacturer of missiles and defence technologies. The idea of a real job in a major company like that was very tempting. After a successful telephone call I was invited to an interview with the technical staff. The environment was youthful and stimulating, serious and quite professional. Designing missiles didn’t really reflect my principles, but inside me I cradled the hope that I would be offered a job that wouldn’t involve me in the manufacturing of weapons. The interview went well. Just a week later, I was asked to sign a contract, it being understood that this was a job directly related to the production of missiles. I felt like my back was against the wall. On one side was a steady job with a permanent contract, a very good salary and possibility of a career. On the other side was my belief as a citizen, but first of all as a man committed to building a non-violent society based on respect for human rights, social justice, a correct balance amongst human needs, the natural environment and the use of resources. I’ve always believed in a society where the ambitions of a few don’t trample on the dignity and economic success of others, that they don’t make me forget that I am a human being. Things were further complicated by my colleagues from school who were pushing me to accept regardless of my moralizing, reaffirming their indisputable thesis that a 25 year old graduate cannot afford these days to refuse such a job with so many benefits. With a thousand arguments they were trying to put me in front of reality telling me how lucky I was and … irresponsible! Not least of all with this work I could relieve my family of their commitment and be able to support myself. Something else besides my conscience played a decisive role: the people who are closest to me, the family, my girlfriend and the Youth For A United World that I grew up with. They helped to mature in me the idea – which became clearer and clearer – that in order to build a supportive and non-violent society, you need to act concretely, paying personally and giving witness. This was my opportunity to do that. I told the company that I couldn’t accept their offer, clearly explaining my reasons. Naturally, it wasn’t an easy decision, especially since I didn’t have any other offers. But I didn’t let that stop me. I continued with my job search and in a few weeks I received other offers that led me to where I am now happily satisfied with my job as a civil aerospace engineer.” Source:Città NuovaSee also: Arms? No, thank you.
“Last March 13, the Ivory Coast and the entire world learned to their surprise that the seaside city of Grand-Bassam had been hard struck by unknown assailants and that it was difficult to know the number of victims,” write Jeanne Kabanga and Damase Djato from the Focolare in Abidjan. “One can imagine the slaughter with all the people that go there every week to rest on the shore in front of the hotel they call the star of the south. It is a place visited mostly by tourists of every provenance. Grand-Bassam had been the first capital of the Ivory Coasts and is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.”
Msgr Joseph Spiteri
On the same day, 180 people were together in Abidjan to underscore the timeliness of the message of Chiara Lubich who had been awarded the UNESCO Peace Education Prize in 196, and had died on March 18, 2008. Amongst the guests were the Apostolic Nunzio in the Ivory Coast, Archbishop Joseph Spiteri and Imam Diaria. Every year, at his invitation, the Focolare community takes part in the celebration of the Maouloud ( birthday of the Prophet). “From their words – and proceeding from the Chiara’s invitation to the political deciders to live the art of loving as a true therapy for out times – we rediscovered our common duty to exert ourselves with fidelity to love without distinction, to not get lost in fundamentalism, but to cultivate hope and mercy.” “Our tendency, instead,” the Nunzio pointed out, “is to put judgement before mercy,” whereas “if Muslim and Christians love one another,” the Imam insisted, “the world would be saved.” Young people at the event told of their efforts to collect signatures for peace: After they had carefully prepared quotes from Ghandi, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Chiara Lubich and the Dalai Lama, they distributed them on the streets. “It wasn’t easy to approach the adults and present our project,” What moved everyone the most, were the testimonies of the little children because they were so concrete and showed their commitment in being “messengers of peace” in their own environments. “One day, at home,” Marie Lucie recounted, “my youngest sister hadn’t washed the dishes. So, at lunchtime we couldn’t eat. I had told her to do them, but she didn’t want to. I said to myself, if I washed them I would be doing an action of peace. That’s what I did, and we ate.” “At school,” Prince reported, “some of my friends were making fun of another boy who seemed weaker, insulting and beating. Another boy and I decided to intervene, speaking to them, telling them about the ideals of peace that we believe in and asking them to let him be.” They stopped and are now friends.” Within such a context, the presentation of the Economy of Communion which, in the Ivory Coast has already made some moves and turned out to be a possible antidote to the poverty and misery: small actions like Firmin’s teaching activity a quarter of Abidjan. And the signature campaign for peace brought out the personal commitment of each person. “It was only when we got home,” Jeanne and Damase continue, “that we learned from the television news about the attack in Grand-Bassam. After a day of listening to talk about peace and experiencing peace, we feel a clear call to be workers of peace, putting into practice what we learned and, above all, living peace within and amongst ourselves in order to give it to the people around us. It seems to us that this is the only way we will be able to give our contribution to defuse terrorism and every sort of hatred.”
“A providential circumstance led me to examining in depth the reality of Jesus who, after his abandonment and death on the cross, rose from the dead. Not only, but I had the opportunity to meditate intensely with my mind and heart on many details of Jesus’ resurrection and on his life after the resurrection. I was dumbfounded (this is the exact word) at the majesty, the magnificence that emanated from this divine event, by the uniqueness of the risen Lord, by this supernatural fact which, as far as I know, is unique in the world. For this reason, I cannot help but highlight it again this time. … The resurrection is what most characterizes Christianity, what distinguishes Jesus, its founder. The fact that he is risen! Risen from the dead! Not in the way that others rose, like Lazarus, for instance, who then, when his time came, died. Jesus is risen never to die again. He continues to live, also as a man, in heaven, in the heart of the Trinity. Five hundred people saw him! And he certainly wasn’t a ghost. It was him, really him. He told Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side” (Jn 20:27). He ate with his disciples; he spoke with them; he stayed with them for as long as forty days. He had renounced his infinite greatness out of love for us and he had made himself small, a man among men, like one of us. … In rising from the dead, he broke, he surpassed, all the laws of nature, of the entire cosmos and, by doing so, he showed that he is greater than all that exists, greater than all that he created, greater than all that can be imagined. Consequently, even if we have just an intuition of this truth, we cannot help but see him as God. We cannot help but do as Thomas did and fall down on our knees in adoration before him, confessing in all sincerity: “My Lord and my God.” … And I saw with new eyes what he did during those fabulous new days on earth. After an angel came down from heaven, overturned the stone of his sepulchre and announced his resurrection, the risen Lord appeared first of all to Mary Magdalene, the former sinner, because he had become man for sinners. Then we find him walking along the road to Emmaus. Great and immense as he was, he becomes the first exegete and explains the Scriptures to the two disciples. Then we see him as the founder of his Church, laying his hands on his disciples to give them the Holy Spirit; we hear him saying extraordinary words to Peter whom he places as the head of his Church. Then he sends the disciples into the world to announce the Gospel, the new Kingdom he founded in the name of the Most Holy Trinity from where he descended and to where, with his coming ascension, he will return. … And, because he is risen, the words he said to us before his death acquire unique brilliance and express indisputable truths. First and foremost, the words announcing the fact that we too will rise. I knew it and believed it before, because I am a Christian. But now I am doubly sure: I will rise, we will rise. …” Chiara Lubich, In unità verso il Padre, Città Nuova editrice, Roma 2004, p.102-105
“The tragic mystery of the death on the Cross, when even Heaven and earth darken in horror and tremble, was poured forth upon the poor women beneath that gibbet.” The Father had abandoned the Son; the Son had abandoned the Mother: Everything crumbled into horror and darkness. Only that woman remained standing, and she was entrusted with abandoned Humankind. Our destiny was in Her hands just as it was on that peaceful day when She spoke her first fiat. When the Father turned his gaze on those horrific hills that had become the pivot point of the universe, He saw Humankind clinging to that woman, under the gory and bloody sacrifice of the man-God. “Martyr, and more than a martyr,” says Saint Bernard. Beneath the Cross, Mary. We can truly say that Jesus somehow needed Her not only to be born, but also to die. She was there in that moment on the Cross when, abandoned by every person on earth, He felt abandoned by the Father in Heaven. Therefore, at the foot of the Cross he turned to the Mother: the Mother who had never deserted Him and who had triumphed over nature so as not to fall in that trial under which any woman would have crumbled. As Goethe seems to sense in Faust, on Calvary Mary and Jesus were joined in a “single suffering.” Then, when the Son had died, the Mother continued to suffer. The dead Jesus was placed upon her lap: more helpless than when He had been a child. A dead God on His Mother’s lap! Right then, yes, she was queen. Since Jesus recapitulated humanity, [He] was all humanity of all times – guarded on the lap of Mary, who in that desolation appears as the Mother and Queen of the human family that walks the paths of sorrow. Her greatness was equal with Her anguish. But as we see, Her regality was nothing but a primacy in suffering: the only way for her to be the closest one, immediately next to the Crucifix. If you think about Mary’s torment beneath the Cross, about the pain of the Mother upon the destruction of Her Son, willing victim of the sins of the world and of all the sufferings of all humankind, you can sense the immensity of the tragedy she endured, a cosmic tragedy. And you can measure our narrowness when we dedicate to her only a few sentences, a few brief prayers, a few gritty words . . . It seems to us a waste of time to meditate on, to weep over [it]: and we risk Eternity. Since inserting yourself into that suffering is to include yourself in the Redemption. Let’s take our place with her beneath the Cross, choosing the role of a victim over that of an executioner, embracing suffering over the charm of wealth, the Cross over vice: so that we can then be with Mary in bearing on [our] lap, the bloodless body of Jesus, the Mystical Body that persecutions bleed to death. Always, during the hours when the Church is being executed and Christ suffers in Christians, you see Her again, Mary gathering the lacerated body to Her bosom. And since Christ recapitulates Humanity, he identified with Humanity, so that the Church appears as Mary herself who gathers in the peoples in the midst of wars.” Igino Giordani, Maria modello perfetto, (Rome: Città Nuova, 2001), p.124-129.
At the beginning of the 1970s the world was already interconnected through “the irreversible encounters between peoples and civilisations the world over, that had been made possible through a veritable explosion of means of communication and massive technological development”. While highlighting the positive in all this, Chiara Lubich warned those young people that “today not everyone is well prepared for this encounter”, which was often destabilising because people realised their way of thinking was not the only one. She invited the young people not to confuse absolute values, those linked to what is Eternal, with their own mental structures. As people’s certainties were shattered, Chiara offered them a model to follow, a key that would open the doors to building a new world. “We may wonder how to live in this terrible present day when a mysterious earthquake seems to shake-up the noblest of values, like enormous skyscrapers that crumble and crash into one another. Is there a practical answer …, a sure means we can rely on so as to contribute to generating the world of the future? “Is there a type of global-person who has felt within them this terrible earthquake which threatens to destroy everything that was thought untouchable up to now? Is there someone who almost believed that absolute truth itself was leaving him to his own destiny, throwing him into the greatest confusion? Is there a global person who was able to overcome this terrible trial, paying for a new world which he found anew within himself and which he generated for others? Yes, such a person exists. But it is easy to understand this person couldn’t be merely a human being, but had to be the Human being: it’s Jesus forsaken. “His humanity, which was perfect, yet weak and subject to suffering and death, is the symbol of every human structure, which, within its limits has been able, throughout the centuries, to give humankind something unlimited, such as the truth. “On the cross, close to his physical death, and to his abandonment, which was his mystical death, Jesus experienced the destruction of all his humanity, of his being man; of his bodily structure, so to speak. At that moment, the Father mysteriously allowed that Jesus doubted even God’s presence within him, as though it had vanished. This is why he cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). “But since he is God, precisely in this cry, Jesus had the strength to overcome this infinite suffering. By so doing He gave his weak, mortal flesh the power of immortality, bringing his risen body into the heart of the immortal Trinity. Moreover, with this extraordinary act of accepting the most frightening destruction ever known to heaven or on earth, Jesus gave humankind the possibility of rising again in the next life, with the resurrection of the body, and rising again in this life with a spiritual resurrection – when we love Jesus Forsaken – from any death or destruction in which people might find themselves. “Jesus Forsaken … is the reliable leader for all young people in this century. When he is loved he offers those who follow him the spirit of truth, in the same way as he made the Holy Spirit descend upon the apostles after his death.” Chiara affirmed that “by following him they will find the strength not to fear any situation, but to face it with confidence. It is a confidence which knows that every human truth and the Truth itself, which is the Kingdom of Heaven, can find, also with their help, new mental structures on a worldwide level.” And she ended: “It is up to you to welcome him into your hearts like the most precious pearl that you can receive; for your spiritual life, for the peoples you represent here; but above all for that new world which must see all people united; for the new world which will be home not only to many peoples, but to the people of God”. Source: Chiara Lubich, Colloqui con i gen 1970-74, Citta’ Nuova, ed, 1999, pp 73-83.
“I’ve never been so close to the site of a terrorist attack. Nowadays we are somewhat accustomed to seeing such catastrophes everyday on the news but passing in front of the metro station only a few minutes before and thinking that it was so close by and not knowing exactly what to do is quite another thing. I’m a firm believer that a united world is possible. Through my commitment in New Humanity, but mostly through the small daily actions, I try to live and act in a spirit of fraternity that is also expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But, as the news came and the howling of sirens intensified outside my window, I was blown away. Okay, it was all so close by, but still what could I do? Stay put and respond to all the messages from friends and relatives who were asking for news? Should I take to the streets and go to help who knows who and how? Should I keep working as if nothing had occurred? It was surreal, and I found myself disoriented and helpless. It also made me question the meaning of it all. What could have moved them to push some young people like me to hate to the point of being ready to sacrifice their lives in order to kill so many defenseless passengers, chosen at random and pressed into a packed metro car? I wondered what crime I would had committed that I should have to die with them. I could not find any satisfactory answers in any of the theories I had learned at university in political science class. What did give me some light was the memory of the previous evening spent with several youth who are engaged in living the same commitment as me, and during that evening we had promised another time to be instruments of brotherhood and dialogue for the people around us. Trying to put aside my confusion, I realized that, in those moments, it was (almost) as if I was experiencing the war in my own skin, all the more reason to be a peacemaker beginning with the people who were with me at the moment. Colleagues, friends and acquaintances… in spite of the terror and shock, I slowly began to realize that I was not the only one to think so. Everybody – each in their own way we’re dealing with their emotions – none of them found words of hate for what had happened, but everyone was convinced that dialogue was the only way possible to respond to such insane acts. The words spoken by Chiara Lubich, founder of New Humanity and the Focolare Movement, when she was awarded the UNESCO Peace Education Prize in December 1996, seemed truer to me than ever. “Anybody who would like to clear today’s mountains of hatred and violence finds themselves in front of an immense and weighty task. But what is impossible to millions of isolated and divided individuals, seems possible once they make mutual love, mutual understanding and unity the essential activity of their life.”
“The orientation of the Gospel of St. John, and also the others, converge in the phrase which has lately taken on a deep and infinite meaning for me: “That they all be one, as you Father are in me and I in you, so that the world may believe.” (John 17,21). This is how we should live. […] These are the coordinates of the unity that is particularly dear to me: unity in our parishes, unity in the various services and ministries, unity between the clergy and the laity, and between presbyteries. Unity becomes credible only if it demonstrates that we are not the patrons, but that only He is the Lord. This unity in the context of priestly ministry is something I particularly hold dear. Likewise I must mention unity of the Church, unity with those who are outside the confines of our Roman-Catholic Church, unity among all those who identify themselves with faith in the only God, the Living God and, therefore, with the Jews and Muslims. That unity between the Church and society is where one does not run parallel to or contrast with the other, but where the Church and society enter into a mutual relationship, bringing to light that unity which God gives for leavening society, with that leaven which makes man free. It is unity that makes man fully man, since he can become man in the full sense only where God has the right to be fully God, and thus can endow us with all He wishes to give us. And He wants to give us nothing less than His intimate mystery: Trinitarian unity. But this is not a simple plan, since we do not progress much only with plans. Instead it has to become life […]. Also I have to start living this unity. It is due to this that I trust the fact that all of you dear brothers and sisters can help me, and that we can do so mutually.” Bishop Klaus Hemmerle Cited from: W. Hagemann, Klaus Hemmerle. Innamorato della Parola di Dio. (In love with the Word of God), Città Nuova ed., Roma 2013, pp. 337-338
“Looking at this profoundly wounded world, unity and peace might seem just a dream.
May the power of the Risen Lord, who overcame death, every death, forever, strengthen in us the boldness to believe, hope and act so that fraternity may become the norm for shared living between different cultures and peoples.
I wish you all a Happy Easter, with the Risen Jesus in our midst!”
In a statement titled “God weeps with us in Brussels” the Focolare Movement states: “The terrible attacks on the morning of Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at the Zaventem airport and the Maelbeck metro station in the heart of the European district of Brussels have caused deep dismay. We share in the pain of all those families who have lost loved ones and we support them with our prayers. We also offer prayers for all who suffer violence in so many parts of the world, and for those who commit such insane acts that are incompatible with peace.” In the face of such absurdity a question can rise in our hearts: “My God, have you abandoned us?” May Christ’s Passion, which we will commemorate on Good Friday, help us to believe that every suffering is an echo of Jesus’s cry of abandonment on the Cross. May the Resurrection give us cause to hope for the dawning of a better world. The March 22nd attacks are an eloquent signal that invite us to double our efforts for the triumph of peace which is a fruit of solidarity and fraternity.We propose meeting daily at midday for a TIME-OUT: a moment of silence or of prayer for peace.Source:Focolari Belgio online Read more:I was there on that Tuesday morning in Brussels
Faced with the increasingly untenable situation of widespread armed conflict, large fringes of civil society continue to make noise in an effort to curb the actions of governments that with their choices support arms trafficking, which is identified as one of the causes that prevents resolutions to the conflicts. The Political Movement for Unity has long been engaged on this issue. Through its Città Nuova, the Political Movement for Unity and especially its schools on participation in politics, it continues to expose the involvement of Italy in the production of war. The country, in fact home to strategic military bases, continues to produce high-tech weapons that also arrive in Middle Eastern countries, as reported by Città Nuova. Bombs are transited from the ports of Sardegna destined for Saudi Arabia, a country interested in the Syrian conflict and driving a coalition committed to the war in Yemen, with thousands of victims and condemned by the UN. What to do then? A year of work accompanied by experts of international geopolitics, led to the drafting of an appeal made of concrete demands, presented to the deputies and senators available: • Respect for 185/90 Law, concerning the “export control, import and transit of military goods.” In particular, it asks for the termination of exportation and transiting on the national territory to direct weapons to countries in conflict or who are committing serious human rights violations. • The allocation of funds for the conversion of the military industry into civil purposes, with reference to the provisions in Art.1 paragraph 3 of the 185/90 Law. • Transparency and control of banking transactions related to imports, exports and the transit of arms. To these were also added the request for the insertion of the themes of integration and welcome in the political agenda, and the investment of more resources in international cooperation. The youth promoters of the March 16th Meeting are well aware of the powers that be and the apparent judgment, even benevolent, of naivety that accompanies their concerns, but, as they say: “We believe we have a responsibility, due precisely to the ideals that motivate us, and therefore we cannot be silent or passive as we look at the world around us. We work in our daily lives to build fraternity and that is where we begin from in engaging governors.” The reflection in Parliament was enriched by the contributions of Pasquale Ferrara, diplomat and university professor Interrnational Relations; Shahrzad Houshmand, Islamic theologian who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University; Michele Zanzucchi, director of Città Nuova; and Professor Maurizio Simoncelli, co-founder of the Institute of International Disarmament Archival Research. At the root is the spirituality of Chiara Lubich, who saw the horrors of World War II in her own city of Trent, Italy, and throughout her life, through dialogue with people of different faiths and cultures, sowed seeds of peaceful coexistence. Chiara, just 28 year old, had also set foot in the Italian Parliament when she met Igino Giordani in 1948. “The hope is that young people can have an impact on the political agenda, as citizens of the present and the future”, says Silvio Minnetti, chairman of the Political Movement for Unity in Italy (MPPU). “Young people are asking us questions, challenging, demanding, and and those of us where are in political field want to welcome them, becoming directly engaged in their voting choices, but also by initiating a serious reflection in order to give substance to the answers.” In an attempt To affect the political agenda even more, the Political Movement for Unity in Italy is planning to organize a mutual listening and sharing workshop to be held in the Seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the coming months, to discuss the young people’s Appeal. It will include the participation of parliamentarians, experts, young people and representatives of the Italian government. See also:Build peace each day (Full text of the Appeal in Italian)
“It is the most beautiful and moving concert I have ever attended.” “Your music soothes the soul.” “I can no longer be indifferent to the world around me: I have to do something.” These are some of the impressions with which the audience expressed their enthusiasm for “On the other side,” the latest concert of the international band Gen Verde, given in Hong Kong, Macao and four cities of Taiwan (Haulien, Taipei, Kaoshiung and Taichung).Gen Verde is an international all-women band with members from 14 countries and four continents. They cover all the roles: authors, composers, musicians, dancers, lighting, video and sound technicians, management, etc. In theatres and stadiums filled to the brim with enthusiastic audiences, these women offer a programme interwoven with their own life stories, portrayed through music and drama, through which they give voice to their ideal of unity, presented as the key elements urging humanity to move towards universal brotherhood. Various pieces, complete with choreographies, unfolded to the rhythm of an engaging style of pop-rock music of various shades which all went to underpin this theme, while the backdrop projected significant key words, graphics and images of great historical impact. Since some pieces were presented in the local languages, the message came through loud and clear. In addition, in the days preceding the concerts, in three of these cities, the band involved the high school and university students in the“Start Now” project with the support of the local Focolare community. The universal language of music and the arts led the youth to undertake a dialogue beyond their differences, to build the show “together.” The fact was that, in every piece, participation and enthusiasm were so vital, that the workshop participants gave the same commitment as the artists in launching their message. For Gen Verde, meeting the Asian youth was important, to see that also at this latitude, the expectations of the new generations are to share their experiences and move away from stereotyped images and give a mark of trust and altruism to their lives. “Many of them – a member of the group said – confided their difficulty in living in an extremely competitive society where they are always under pressure to excel. At the same time they demonstrated great sensitivity to the themes of the environment, peace and universal brotherhood, and dialogue with all.” “You have given us hope, courage, energy and enthusiasm,” one of them wrote to Gen Verde. And a girl said: “In all sectors we are pushed to be top of the class: instead we learned from you that we must follow our conscience and be true to ourselves.” A businessman said: “Looking at the young people this evening I would say, with youth like this, Hong Kong is saved!” After the rioting that a few days earlier had traumatized the city, the concert re-lit the fire of hope in him. To live for a united world wherever we are. This is the message that remains in the hearts of those who meet Gen Verde, whatever culture or creed they profess, because in each of them is imbued the conviction that together comes the strength to make the world a better place. See Photo gallery Hong Kong and Photo gallery Taipei
March 5, 2016, Brescia, Italy At the Catholic University: “Paul VI And Chiara Lubich, The Prophecy Of A Church That Makes Itself Dialogue Conference,” organised in collaboration with Paul VI Institute in continuation of the “Make Dialogue Days” held in Castel Gandolfo during November 2014. Among the presenters: Archbishop Vincenzo Zani, Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Lucia Albignente, who is in charge of the historical sector of the Chiara Lubich Centre; Father Angelo Maffeis, president of Paul VI Institute; Franco Monaco, politician and journalist; Alberto Lo Presti, professor of Political Theory at Sophia University Institute. March 6, 2016, Vicenza, Italy “Beyond The Borders Interreligious Conference” at Centro A. Onisto – Borgo S. Lucia, 51. Speakers: Emeritus Bishop of Aleppo, Armando Bortolaso; Imam of the Islamich community of Veneto, Dr Kamel Layachi and Rita Moussallem from the Focolare’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. The event will conclude with a flashmob in Piazza dei Signori. March 6, 2016, Olomouc, Czech Republic At the Catholic Chancery, a Cultural programme on the figure of Chiara Lubich as a sower of peace, followed by the celebration of the Mass by Archbishop Jan Graubner in cathedral. March 8, 2016, Ischia, Italy At the island’s Multi-Purpose Auditorium, 19:30, an evening programme on Work & Neigborhood. Civil engineer, Patience Mollè Lobè and business owner, Antonio Diana will be among the presenters. The moderator will be Carlo Cefaloni, Città Nuova journalist and expert on workplace dynamics. March 11, 2016, Caserta, Italy Music, testimonies and theater, at the Reggia di Caserta, 19:30, a reflection on the life and thought of Chiara Lubich titled: “The great attraction of the modern time”. Through the collaboration of the Diocese and the Directors of the Reggia. March 11, 2016, Rosario, Argentina A meeting at the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) will reflect on the influence of the charism of unity on education. Presenters include: Dr Nieves Tapia, Coordinator of the Latin American Centre for Service Learning (CLAYSS). March 11-12, 2016, Fontem, Cameroon Workshop with music, drawing, poetry and theatre on “Chiara and Peace” for the students of 20 schools that belong to the Peace Education Project. Awards for the best pieces and for significant gestures of peace by the students themselves. The event will also be attended by civil authorities, traditional and religious authorities. March 12, 2016, Garden Grove, USA At Christ Cathedral, Garden Grove, holy Mass celebrated by Bishop Kevin William Vann, from the Diocese of Orange. In the afternoon, at the Academy Gym, a meeting on multiculturalism with representatives from various religions and ethnicities. March 12, 2016, Caracas, Venezuela Presentation of Chiara Lubich as a builder of dialogue and peace, who was awarded the 1996 UNESCO Peace Prize. The event will take place at the Institute For Religious Education (ITER) with people from different Churches. March 12, 2016, Brasilia, Brazil At the Paulist University (UNIP), at 15:30, 1996 UNESCO Peace Prize to Chiara Lubich. Followed by three moments of reflection: building peace in our personal relationships; in the dialogue amongst churches and religions and, in collaboration with the Institute of Immigration and Human Rights (IMDH), with mirgrants and refugees. Entrance fee: 1 kg of food for Haitian immigrants. March 12, 2016, Todi, Italy Tenth anniversary of the conferment of honorary citizenship on Chiara Lubich, at 15:30, in the Council Hall: “A Humanised Economy”, which will reflect on the Economy of Communion Project that was conceived by Chiara Lubich. Besides the Mayor of the city, interventions will be made by the President of the Region of Umbria, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, Dr Giuseppe Argiolas and two business owners: Andrea Cruciani and Antonio Baldaccini. March 12, 2016, Castel Gandolfo, Italy At the Mariapolis Centre (Via de La Salle), 17:30, a programme of reflection on “The Culture Of Dialogue As A Means Of Peace.” The invitation is extended to ecclesiastical and civil leaders, and to the general public. Besides numerous testimonies, the keynote address will be given by Focolare president, Maria Voce. March 12, 2016, Manfredonia, Italy The 7th Edition of the Manfrodian Chiara Lubich Brotherhood Prize. In attendance: Vera Baboun, Mayor of Bethlehem and Pasquale Ferrara, diplomat and Secretary General of the European University Institute of Florence. InfoMarch 12, 2016, Milan, Italy “Me Through You” Event, highlighting how the search for peace brings us closer to others and to our true self. The event will take place in three half-hour sections, each in a different location and at different times so that everyone can attend all the sections: at the Basilica of Saint Ambrose; Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Institute; Gonzaga Institute. InfoMarch 12, 2016, Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzergovina An Open Day at the School of Theology dedicated to Chiara Lubich: “The Message of Dialogue and Peace.” Participants include people of Christian confessions, other faiths and people with no religious affiliation. Archbishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Pujic, will celebrate Mass in cathedral. March 12, 2016, Genoa, Italy In the Minor Council Hall of the Piazza Ducale, a discussion on the Encyclical Letter Laudato si’ during a programme titled: “Religions Dialogue For Peace And the Environment.” Presenters will include: President of the Islamic Community of Genoa, Huseim salah; Chief Rabbi of Genoa, Giuseppe Momigliano; Buddhist monk, Gnanathilaka Mahauswewe; environmental engineer, Andrea Ponta; from the Focolare’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, Roberto Catalano March 12, 2016, Milan, Italy “Me Through You” Event, highlighting how the search for peace brings us closer to others and to our true self. The event will take place in three half-hour sections, each in a different location and at different times so that everyone can attend all the sections: at the Basilica of Saint Ambrose; Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Institute; Gonzaga Institute. InfoMarch 12, 1016, Solingen, Germany At Zentrum Frieden Mariapolis Centre, “Living together in diversity”. The German Movement for Unity in Politics invites everyone to a roundtable with politicians and city administrators. It will be followed by a discussion on the integration of refugees. March 13, 2016, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo The city Mayor will the event at the Jesuit School where, in the presence of civil and religious authorities, a reflection on Peace and the Light of the Charism of Unity will be held. An event under the same title will be held the same day in Goma, Lubumbashi and in 16 cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo March 13, 2016, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo In the Great Hall of the Catholic University, in the presence of religious leaders from different Churches and religions, the academic and diplomatic world, a discussion on Chiara as Woman of Peace. An intervention will be given by the UNESCO representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. March 13, 2016, San Salvador, El Salvador Roundtable on “Peace that is born from dialogue” at the Università F. Gavidia, in the auditorium of Edificio E, 9:00 – 12:00 March 13, 2016, Lisbon, Portugal At the Franciscan Cultural Centre, a roundtable on ‘Chiara and Peace’ with members of the National Peace and Justice Commission, Dr Pedro Vaz Patto, President, Dr Graça Franco and António Marujo, journalists. March 13, 2016, Melbourne, Australia At the Mariapolis Centre, a celebration titled “Build peace in your own environment” , including testimonies on welcoming refugees. Presentation of Mark Ruse’s documentary film: “Politics for unity: making a world of difference”. Those in attendance include: Vicar General of the Diocese, Msgr Greg Bennet and leaders of ecclesial movements operating in Australia.March 13, 2016, Bujumbura, Burundi At Scheppen High School ofNyakabiga : “Merciful Like The Heavenly Father, Building Peace.” Presenters include: the Archbishop of Bujumbura, Evariste Ngoyagoye. March 13, 2016, Vung Tau, Vietnam Annual Mariapolis in Vietnam, in the presence of the Bishop, Joseph Tran Văn Toan, who will celebrate the Mass. The programme will also include the presentation of a documentary film on Chiara Lubich: Story, Charism, Culture. March 14, 2016, Houston, USA “Unity In Diversity” Interreligious Conference at 19:00 in the St. Thomas University, preceeded by the celebration of Catholic Mass in St. Basil Chapel by the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Cardinal Joseph Anthony Fiorenza. Presenters include: Cardinal Fiorenza; Imam Qasim Ahmed from the Islamic Institute; Rabbi Steve Morgen from the Beth Yeshurun Congregation; Therese Lee from the Focolare Movement. InfoMarch 14, 2016, Manila, Philippines During the 50th anniversary celebration of the arrival of the Focolare in Asia, at De La Salle University, a symposium title: “The Charism Of Unity, A Timeless Legacy.” Numerous religious and civil leaders will present the reflections on Chiara Lubich’s contribution to the unity among Churches, religions, in society, an on Gospel reciprocity as a lifestyle that creates brotherhood. March 14, 2016, Rome, Italy At the Shrine of Our Lady of the Divine Love, at 18:30, Mass celebrated by Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Consecrated Life. InfoMarch 14, 2016, Trent, Italy At the Demarchi Foundation, presenation of the book by I. Pedrini: “L’altro Novecento: nella testimonianza di Duccia Calderari.” Duccia’s biography, one of the first witness who followed Lubich in the birth of the Focolare, gives the opportunity to: Monica Ronchini, researcher; Giuseppe Ferrandi, Director of the History Museum of Trent; and Lucia Fronza Crepaz, ex-parliamentarian – to reflect on Chiara as a builder of peace. March 14, 2016, Havana, Cuba At Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Cultural Centre, a presentation of the figure of Chiara and peace, in the presence of Apostolic Nunzio, Archbishop Giorgio Lingua. Follwed by a concert by the Ars Longa Ancient Music Group. March 14, 2016, Verona, Italy At the Palazzo Gran Guardia: presentation of the “Chiara Lubich For A Culture Of Peace Brotherhood Prize, in the presence of Muslim theologian, Sharharzad Houshmand; Professor at the University of Padua, Giuseppe Milan; journalist Aurora Niosia March 16, 2016, Rome, Italy At the Chamber of Deputies, presentation of a manifesto with concrete proposals for peace, disarmament and industrial conversion.To receive it in Parliament, Youth for a United World who, with the Movement for Unity in Politics and participating schools, promoted the project, along with several deputies, the President of the Chamber, Boldrini and Exterior Minister, Gentiloni. March 16, 2016, Seville, Spain At the Metropolitan Seminary, Dr Manual Palma, vice director of the Theological Union of Seville, will speak on Jesus, Prince of Peace in the Spirituality of Chiara Lubich. Followed by a discussion on peace in Islam to be held by Imam Allah Bashar from the King Abdul Aziz Al Saud Mosque of Marbella, Malaga). He will also talk about his relationship with Chiara Lubich. March 18-20, 2016, Milan, Italy At the Fieramilanocity, during the international fair, an exposition on the Economy of Communion, presenting Lubich’s message of peace that continues to reach today’s world. InfoMarch 19, 2016, Perth, Australia At Northbridge Square, screening of a video clip on “Peace” produced by young people, and a signature campaign appealing for peace #Signup4peace.
“I’ve been running the family business for more than 40 years,” says Livio from the Italian Province of Cuneo (Italy). “Along with me there is my wife, our 4 children and my sister. Along with our 28 employees we deal in galvanic treatment of dumbells, tanks, motorcycles, mufflers, automobile parts, fitness equipment, and so on. The chrome coating is good for appearance, but most of all for preventing rust. For several years now our business has been applying the values of the Economy of Communion, a project which joins the need to generate profit with the aspiration to help the needy and put people at the centre of things. This goes for employees, between shareholders, with clients, providers and competitors. Following a long period of almost constant growth, we were unexpectedly hit by the serious crisis that still affects many companies like ours. Of course, we’re not going to give up, and we continue to do all we can to find new clientele – and we never stop believing in this new way of understanding the economy. In 2014 we welcomed three members of an important German automotive group who were potential customers. After the technical presentation of the company by our children and other collaborators, seeing that the visitors were so impressed and so curious we spoke to them about the Economy of Communion and its growth throughout the world. We also told them about the AIEC in Europe and AIPEC in Italy (of which I’m the president): two business owners associations whose members run their businesses inspired by the “culture of giving”. Eventually, while proposing an interesting job offer they remarked: ‘We’re surprised that despite the fact that your production company has such limited forces, you were able to create a galvanic process which is actually quite complex’. The processing systems and many years of hard work certainly had something to do with it, but also the stories of some of our experiences during the lull periods when we didn’t have much business and hired several migrants and two young people who were in the midst of serious problems, and of everyone’s commitment to live in a relationship of brotherhood also outside working hours. We think that another factor was our way of giving priority to relationships in a healthy detachment from wanting to do business at any cost.”“I’m director of a mechanical manufacturing company,” says Enrica from Turin, Italy. “We also have 28 employees. My father, whom I soon began to work for, conveyed to me the values of sharing, the spirit of sacrifce and the commitment to always improve. In the year 2000 orders were reduced to a minimum, but no one was fired and, at Christmas, because of the lack of liquidity it was decided that we would pay the Christmas Bonuses from our own pockets. In 2003 we got a foreign job offer. My father and I jumped on it, involving and empowering all the employees. We worked very much to gain the trust of banks, suppliers, clientele and establishing compactness. Three months later, we were overwhelmed by the crisis and by my father’s sudden illness. Thanks be to God, I was able to count on the support of many people and, after a year and a half of temporary layoffs, all the employees returned to the business. But I was tired and opressed by it all. At that point I came to know about AIPEC, which was established in 2012, and about these business owners who I felt close to because of their working style and their ‘culture of giving’. That’s how I began to attend their meetings, comparing myself to them and to various social categories. I felt welcomed, encouraged, instructed – to the point that I recently accepted a position in directing AIPEC. Together with the others who were elected, I continue to discover the beauty and the responsibility involved in run a business in which you do your best to maintain a stable economy and at the same time share in relationships, take a listening position and offer concrete support. Because a gift given bears fruit, and it is fruit that lasts.”
“What we wish to do today is not so much remember as to review together, after 20 years, the content and method which Chiara outlined at UNESCO on the 17th December 1996 on a subject which is more than ever relevant to international relations, education for peace. On that occasion UNESCO conferred on the founder of the Focolare Movement a special prize awarded to those whose work contributes to creating pathways and conditions whereby peace may become something real.” Maria Voce, the President of the Focolare, recalled that event in her talk given on 12th March at Castel Gandolfo, during the afternoon dedicated to Chiara Lubich and peace, in the presence of ambassadors and leading figures in the worlds of culture and Christian unity. “Looking at that occasion again today, it seems more than ever relevant: what could be more important than education to reach this kind of goal? Current affairs, what we see before us day after day, portray images of a peace that has been violated and often scorned. It seems almost as though, from the daily life of individuals right up to international level, “living in peace” is not part of what the generations living in the Third Millennium do. Yet how often do we appeal for peace or try to reconnect the broken strands of relationships among individuals, peoples and states? We cannot deny that we find it easier to put up barriers, perhaps thinking we are defending ourselves, instead of working to build unity in relations, among ideas, in politics, in economics and between religious viewpoints. Hence peace escapes us and is ever more distant. At UNESCO Headquarters, Chiara Lubich put forward a methodfor education to peace, the spirituality of unity, which is a new lifestyle that can overcome divisions among individuals, communities and peoples and so can help restore or consolidate peace. This spirituality is lived by people from very different backgrounds and experiences: Christians of different Churches, believers of different religions and people of different cultures. All of them are motivated by wanting to enable humankind become one single family; all know they must face problems and situations that arise daily at every level and in every field; all are directed towards being – at least wherever they are – and I quote Chiara “seeds of a new people, of a world at peace, with greater solidarity especially towards the least and the poorest; to be seeds of a more united world” (Chiara Lubich’s talk at UNESCO, 17.12.1996) in which it will be possible not only to call one another brothers and sisters but truly be so. If this is the method, what is the secret of its success? It is a secret which Chiara herself defined as the art of loving, which is “It means being the first to love, without expecting the other person to love us in return. It means knowing how to ‘make ourselves one’ with others, that is, to identify with their burdens, their thoughts, their sufferings, their joys. But, if this love of neighbour is lived out by more than one person, it becomes mutual. (Ibid.). Reciprocity: it is a word which carries much weight in international relations but is often limited to ensuring a truce in conflicts, not in preventing them or resolving them. Those who have responsibility and key roles in the international community know very well how difficult negotiations can be and how many obstacles are encountered before reaching agreements that satisfy all parties. To consider love as a negotiating tool in regard to the great objective of peace would allow us to feel part of one family, to live an authentic dimension of fraternity without restricting it merely to coexistence or forced shared living, but enabling fraternity to be open to the needs of the weakest and the poorest, of those who are excluded from political engagement or from a type of economics whose only law is profit. We need to love, then,and work for others and with others; so as to help overcome the barriers posed by conflicting interests, by a show of power, by inequality in levels of development, or lack of access to the market or technology. When speaking about peace education we find ourselves facing the great challenge of applying a method, that of unity as the fruit of mutual love, in the fragmented context currently enveloping almost all spheres of our daily life. Chiara Lubich was aware of this and for this reason offered the Representatives of Member States at UNESCO almost the key for a step change, a good practice, in the language used in international relations. In fact she said: «Nothing good, useful, or fruitful can be accomplished in the world without accepting troubles, suffering, in a word, without the cross.” (Ibid.).Commitment to peace is difficult to achieve if we are not ready to set aside our certainties and our comfort, so as to set out on new and unexplored paths; becoming creative without improvising; hearing to the voices of those who call for peace and identifying places where it can actually be achieved. … Twenty years ago, speaking at UNESCO, Chiara pointed out that love was “the most powerful instrument that can give humanity its highest dignity: that of feeling not so much that we are a collection of peoples, alongside one another and often in conflict with one another, but instead that we are one single people.” Today too even though we face many recurring difficulties, this is the ideal we wish to achieve through everyone’s contribution.”
“In such a fractured and divided Venezuela we want to live the Gospel radically, wherever we work, or study, to build bridges of unity and peace. In the town council for example, there are 3 people who live the spirituality of unity, one belonging to the Government’s party and 2 in the opposing parties, and yet they respect and help one another.” One of them Ophelia, of the Focolare community speaks about a marginal district of the city of Valencia called Colinas de Guacamaya “A friend of mine asked me to accompany her to the doctor’s – she said and so the long waiting line started for the medicine: an old man in search of his treatment for diabetes, another asking for headache pills, a boy at the drug store asking for a painkiller. Just one pill, but he didn’t have enough money to pay for it.” But Ofelia had a bag of medicine in her car which she always brings along with her, with medicines that arrived from “Divine Providence”, as she herself recounts, and could offer them for free to all those who were there. The looks on their faces were of incredulity and gratitude. Betty and Orlando have 4 kids and they transferred to the “Little Cloud” Mariapolis Centre,in the district of Junquito, close to Caracas. “To serve those in need– Betty recounts –, we had lost touch with some members of the community so we organized the social pastoral. We wanted to respond to the need of food, clothing and homes for some families of the parish. So with the help of the town council, we managed to build a house fit to host a poor elderly man.” “The current social crisis, with the high in security indices the country is beset with, opened our hearts even more to the needs of the families in our community who live in fear of even losing their lives. We found out about a boy’s father who was in serious conditions due to a gunshot wound. in his head. We rushed to the hospital where he was admitted at the intensive care and died a few days later. We are now continuing to give our concrete love, with care and attention to protect the mother and son, whom we took in with us.” “Upon the request of the parish priest – María Carolina of the Junquito community recounts – we went to a rural zone that can be reached only by jeep. The Florida community were waiting for us, and in need of so many material things, and up to a few months earlier did not even have electricity. A community of sacrificed people, dedicated to farming and who walk kilometres to go to Mass once a month. An experience that involved all of us and which started up a communion of goods: from all over clothes, medicine, toys, shoes, food arrived… with trucks filled to the brim with goods but above all, hope, and love for this community. Even if difficulties are not missing, upon our arrival the people came out of their homes, running to meet us with applause, immediately imbuing a family atmosphere!.” The community of Puerto Ayacucho, in the State of Amazzona, is a border zone, inhabited by aborigine communities. They were beset with serious problems: the presence of guerillas, the exploitation of gold, a high rate of single mothers. It had just undergone a painful experience with the death of a boy, Felipe, a member of the Focolare, who had been killed two months earlier by gunshots. This is a frequent event in Venezuela, especially in this region. He had died to save the life of his brother who was wanted by the guerilla. Juan,his best friend, told us that «Felipe had set an appointment to enrol in the catechism class, but he died the day before… Together we had planned a lot for the future.» Felipe’s death had left a mark in this community: a new commitment to live to build peace, give new horizons and hope especially to the youth.
The flow of refugees has not stopped for months. They are living in a state of emergency on the islands of Lesbo, Kos, in Athens and in Idomeni. There are many secular and religious associations – Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant – and the NGOs that have never ceased to be there with help and assistance for these suffering people. The local community of the Focolare Movement, although small, both in Athens and in Salonica (Greece) has opened its arms and heart collaborating with several associations, including Caritas, The Pope John XXIII Community and others. “Particularly in Athens,” they write, “we went to several refugee camps that are opened and closed according to the influx of arrivals. We have involved friends and colleagues in a food and clothing collection campaign to distribute to the different welcoming centres. From Salonica every week a group from the Focolare community in collaboration with Caritas, travels to the outskirts of Macedonia with relief and emergency aid.” “I went with some of my friends and colleagues from work to one camp where between 500 and 1000 people arrive each day,’ writes Mariangela from the focolare in Athens. “We help with the distribution of the meals, the sorting and mending clothing and play with the many, many children. We’d want to be able to say something to them, to share their burdens, but the language prevents us. The only way for us to communicate is with a smile, a caress and concrete deeds. In the end you feel like you’re able break through. It all seems so little in this sea of desperation, but we try to give at least one drop of love.” Maristella Tsamatropoulou, works on the National Greek Caritas Team: “The current refugee crisis doesn’t but expand the landscape of assistance that Caritas already began, to alleviate the Greek socio-economic crisis.” She explains, “It’s a matter of humanitarian aid that sees to the distribution of meals, of basic needs, both on the islands where the mass gatherings require it. . . but then the hospitality in hotels where there are the very important child care workers with their programmes for children, psychologists and the possibility to bathe. The different programmes that are structured and supported through foreign financing would never be able to carry out their work without the chain of solidarity that involves the efforts of so many volunteers on the front lines and on the back lines (the ones who make the appeals and collect the items).” At a pastry shop bar in Syros, the owners have involved their customers in gestures of solidarity such as collecting medicines, clothing and food, along with “A coffee waiting. . .” deal that allows you to leave a coffee for someone who is unable to pay. At Christmas, 235 people arrived! Some bread shops have begun “a loaf of bread waiting” in their businesses. “We’re so struck by the generosity and solidarity of the people,” they write from the Focolare community. “In spite of the serious financial crisis, the Greek people are pulling out all of their fraternal power, towards the poorest, finding unexpected energy and crativity to lift up so many people. It’s a true lesson in being human!”
Thousands of refugees with hopes of crossing the Greek border live under tents in mud. The “mirage” is to reach Europe. Dolores Poletto is Croation. She works twice a week with Caritas Macedonia and lives in the focolare community in Skopje. She reports what she saw along the border. “I was at the refugee camp in Gevgelija, Macedonia with some colleagues from Caritas. It was an informal visit. On the other side of the border was a sea of people. We also crossed the border between Greece and Macedonia.” Closed Borders. The humanitarian crisis that refugees are enduring in Greece, Macedonia and Serbia is the result of the closing of border crossings along the Balkans migration route. On March 9, Slovenian authorities closed the border. Croatia has also announced that it will close its border and Serbia immediately announced the same. According to the most recent data – but the numbers are estimates – there are now some 14 thousand refugees at the Macedonian border. In Greece there are more than 34 thousand. Idomeni is like a funnel. The same thing is happening here that we have seen happening for months in Calais at the French border on the English Channel. The migrants arrive after having crossed through Greece and the Aegean on overloaded boats. “A multitude of people,” Dolores says. “They arrive in very poor condition . . . We’re on the border where before they crossed into Macedonia. People want to be as close as possible, so curtains have been put up behind the railway station.” Along with the mud, there is also the cold. “The daytime temperature is comfortable, rising as high as 18 degrees (C), but in the evening it drops to 2-3 degrees.” Living conditions in the camp deteriorate daily. Along with the cold, food is scarce and hygienic conditions are appalling. Many stand in line waiting for food,” Dolores says. “It’s hard to describe what their psychological state is like under such conditions. Many say that they’re from Syria. All of them would like to go to Germany, Austria . . . They have only one question for us: “When will the border open?” They’re prepared to do anything, so long as they reach their goal . . . ready even to die. “You know, I just heard news of 3 refugees who starved to death trying to cross illegally between Macedonia and Greece. This is so sad.” Caritas has been on the scene since the beginning, along with many other NGOs. “They’re waiting, hoping to cross the border,” Dolores explains. “That’s why they don’t want to move to more suitable camps. It’s difficult to help them.” The border police are here ensuring that no one crosses the border, in accordance with agreements made with Europe. When faced with this “impasse . . . you feel completely helpless.” Dolores has been deeply affected by this experience on the border. “We can stay with them on the Cross; I’m not able to forget those images. There are quite a few journalists there. I spoke with several of them and returned home to watch the news reports on TV. I said that if I had watched them without having visited that place, they would only have only been another series of daily news reports, but now after having touched it with my own hands, it feels more like a live wound on humanity’s body.” Source: SIR
“I started to give a hand, Annette, a GermanFocolarina recounts, “in December 2014. The cold had already set in and there was urgent need for blankets. In trying to find out more, a member of the RomAmoR ONLUS proposed: “More than blankets we need you to come and give us a hand.” The week after I was already at the Ostia station. It was a really moving experience. On approaching those people I discovered that oddly enough, they were the ones to welcome me! I realised that this is not an uncomfortable category of people to avoid, but persons who wish to relate with others, and are capable of imbuing human warmth. After a while also the volunteers came with a hot dinner and the anonymous, cold and bleak station, warmed up. ” Annette has changed since then. The first nights she couldn’t sleep thinking of Giovanni, Stefan, Mohamed who did not have a warm bed like hers. She started to review her wardrobe, to see if there was still something else she could share, despite the fact that in the Focolare community already tries to live only with the essentials. But above all, she continued going to the station every Monday. One evening, looking at the notebook that listed the requests of the homeless, she saw that a man needed a pair of shoes. Since there were none in the house she remembered Chiara Lubich’s experience during the war, when she asked Jesus present in the poor, for a pair of shoes. “So I did the same thing and in two weeks ten pairs of shoes arrived!”
When autumn set in, there again was need for blankets. In November, two friends from Rome celebrated their birthdays so they thought of asking blankets as gifts. Many did arrive, but they were not enough. Since she could not give away what they had at home, Annette again asked Jesus, so that He in the poor could get some warmth. «In a matter of a few days, she said – a theological Centre that was moving house sent 4 huge sacks containing 30 blankets and ten camp mattresses. Not to mention the blankets gathered by other volunteers.” This sharing spirit spread like oil puddle. A colleague’s neighbour who had lost faith in any type of social activity, donated warm clothing and also got a friend involved. “But even more than these interventions of Providence–Annette confided – is the experience we make. These are people who have no food, no roof over their heads, but who slowly acquire dignity, since they are clean and better dressed and because together we are living a fraternal relationship. I always try to help the others sincerely, disposing of myself as a small instrument of God’s love. And they give me the chance to testify to the Gospel “on the road,” sharing with people from all over the world the most varied ideas and opinions. In this reciprocity, things change, the face of the city is transformed and one can perceive this love concretely… even if only through a hot dinner. At Christmas we received a special gift: two friends of the station came to celebrate with us in the Focolare, to everyone’s great joy. “
An event entitled, “Earth Village. Living the City Together. Rome in Mariapolis,” will take place in the heart of Italy’s capital in the parks and gardens of Villa Borghese. The event is sponsored by Earth Day Italia and the Focolare Movement of Rome. The celebration of the 46th edition of the international Earth Day will inaugurate the event, which this year assumes greater relevance as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has chosen April 22nd as the date on which the historic Paris Agreement on climate, COP21, officially opens for signing, with the participation of nations worldwide. In light of the Encyclical Laudato Si’, in which Pope Francis invites everyone to care for our common home, and in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy, “Earth Village – Rome in Mariapolis” aims to rediscover Rome’s unique vocation of universal brotherhood. The idea is to create a temporary village within the city, with the involvement of numerous initiatives which daily work to make the capital a better place in which to live, where each citizen or tourist, no matter their age, social class or culture, can experience their own irreplaceable contribution to the life of the city. The goal of the event is to create bridges of dialogue among diversities—center and periphery, young people and adults, Romans and citizens “in transit”— to demonstrate the innumerable social initiatives in favour of the human person present in Rome, because finding common ground amidst diversity is possible, and solidarity is a universal value. Living the City Together will unfold throughout four days of activities—workshops, laboratories, seminars, exchanges of good practice, artistic performances, debates, games, reflections or simply sharing of time and experiences—all geared towards increasing mutual respect, knowledge, and acceptance. For more information about the event:www.villaggioperlaterra.it
“This soiree should have been held here three months ago. Instead, the folly of men changed our direction.” These were the opening words of Noufissa Boulif, Muslim, organiser of the event: after the attack in Paris on 13 November 2015, Brussels lost its identity. This is where some of the terrorists involved were based, and for security reasons the concert had been cancelled and moved to 20 February 2016. The encounter between music, and Muslim and Christian cultures, became a platform for the encounter between Muslims, Christians and also agnostics who believe in dialogue and who, knowing they were welcome, were able to receive the others and discover their hidden qualities and values. But wasn’t it highly risky, for an Islamic-Christian event right in the heart of Brussels? We asked Noufissa.”If the concert was able to go through, it was thanks to the incredible solidarity between Muslims and Christians, and certainly due to divine protection. Luckily the entire programme came about without accidents or tensions.” The concert was dedicated to all the children who suffer, giving the soiree the theme «of children and the youth, but also under the auspices of diversity which characterises our country.» For more than 20 years, Noufissa has known and lived Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity. She wants to testify before all that fraternity between Christians and Muslims, often antagonists, is possible. In this perspective she organized the first Islam-Christina concert in October 2014. https://vimeo.com/114676421 “I have been working on it for a long time”, Noufissa recounted. “Together with my husband and children, we are involved in interreligious dialogue, which has by now become part of my life. For me, as a Muslim wearing a veil, living in harmony with others is not to be taken for granted, because I feel that people look at you with curiosity or evident signs of diffidence. But every time, I try to approach them without prejudice, and with a smile. The Golden Rule which all great religions advocate, helps me a lot. “None of you really believes if you do not wish for your neighbor what you wish for yourself” (Mohammed, Hadith 13 de al-Nawawi). The islamophobic reactions and influence of the mass media are not always constructive or comprehensible, but the essential thing is to overcome them. The prophet, Mohammed, in a hadith stresses that “A smile is an alm” (meaning, a free gift for the other).” Going back to 20 February this year. Various choirs appeared on stage: children, youth, Christians and Muslims, blacks and whites. Speaking Neerlandish or French – also this is one of Belgium’s challenges, the participants were Rissala, the small choir singers, the voices of the dei 4 Horizons, and the ‘TOUCH,’ a group of disabled Muslim girls. Towards the end, also the rappers – Mc ‘Youns, and Antis et Mamz-I – with their incisive words, invited everyone not to give up, but to continue believing in life. The “light of the heart” association was formed after 25 years of Noufissa’s interreligious dialogues, and 10 years of the service of one of her Muslim friends involved in palliative treatments: together they visit the sick at their homes, trying to meet the thirst for relationships in their particular phases of life. With this association, after a year of hard work to prepare “Fraternity choir,” they are already working on a next Islam-Christian event to be held on 23 April entitled, “Together with Mary,” in the Saint Michel Cathedral in Brussels.
“I was 17 years old,” says Lebanese focolarina Nadine, “when the war broke out in Lebanon: schools closed, roads mined, bombings day and night, snipers, the dead and wounded. . . In the midst of the tragedies that had begun to enrage our country, me and some other young people that had been fascinated by the spirituality of Chiara Lubich heard those words from the early days of the Focolare echoing again: “Everything crumbles, only God remains.” Like Chiara and the first focolarine, we could have been dead from one moment to the next, and like them we wanted to present ourselves before God ‘having loved to the end’. We had learned that loving means being attentive to the needs of the people around us. It wasn’t so easy under such circumstances, but when we were able to do it our hearts were cleared of fear and we hardly noticed the storm of hatred and violence that surrounded us. Therefore we were able to help many people carry on. We often wrote to Chiara, to tell her how we were living and every time she wrote back personally” “I still remember the acts of violence and kidnappings when the religious discrimination began. My own father was kidnapped twice. Chiara spoke to us of the first Christians and their courage in giving witness to the faith even in the face of Roman persecution. One of our friends, Fouad, was able to attend a Gen convention Italy. During his return trip to Lebanon, while he was travelling on the road from the airport, Fouad was stopped by some armed men. It was a Muslim region and his documents showed that he was a Maronite Christian. “Yes, I’m Christian,” Fouad admitted. “I’m on my way home.” “You’re coming with us,” they told him. A long interrogation followed and the final sentence: “Do you understand what awaits you?” The boy understood that it was all over for him. One of the militiamen took him and led him towards a bridge where many other Christians had been killed. While they walked, he tried to calm himself and wondered what God might want of him in that moment. ‘Love this neighbour,’ came to his mind. So he tried to make that militiaman feel all his love: ‘It must be hard,’ Fouad said to him, ‘it must be hard to do this job, to make war.’ When they came within eyeshot of the bridge the militiaman stopped, looked at him and exclaimed: ‘Let’s go back’. I recall how moved Chiara was by the witness of this young man, so moved that she wanted this episode to be shared for the edification of the whole Movement.” “At every ceasefire we’d gather together to visit the focolare. . . Our parents were fearful for us, but we couldn’t stop ourselves. Forging unity with one another was the life force that sent us forth to love everyone. It was precisely during those years of war that many of us felt the call to consecrate our lives to God. Chiara supported us with her example, with her words. With love, she kept track of the families that were being sorely tried by the restricitons and tiredness. . . Several had lost their jobs, their houses. Others had been living in air-raid shelters for years and wanted to leave the country so that their children could have a future, several of whom were wounded. . . For each one of these families, Chiara opened the homes of the Movement to provide them a place to go and recover or to settle down permanently. She also launched a fundraising campaign to cover the costs of the journey. Since the airport of Beirut had been closed for years, she sent us focolarine to open a focolare in Cyprus – the only way out by sea – to assist those who were leaving the country.” “Chiara’s concrete love was always accompanied by her powerful spiritual encouragements. After years of living life to the extreme we often felt weak, tired and helpless. So Chiara reminded us of that ‘little cloud’ a new sign with which God had made himself present to the Jewish people in the desert when they were suffering through an absurd war, and she suggested that we go ahead in living the Word in a totally new way. And from that ‘little cloud’,” she went on to tell us, “not only will you draw many others into living the Gospel, but you’ll draw out the strength you need to continue loving. . .all the way to the end.”
«The contrary of peace in Colombia is the armed conflict that has been going on for more than 50 years, the second longest in current history. It is a clash that has taken on multiple dimensions, and is fruit of inequality and political asymmetry, blown up to the extremes due to the establishment of a logic of illicit economies such as narcotraffic. More than 4.5 million people have been evacuated, 220,000 assassinated, and 25,000 officially registered as “desaparecidos.” But we cannot consider the conflict only as that being fought on the front: it affects everything, takes over the social and cultural processes, public life, and daily interactions, and wounds the lives of families. When one lives in a country which for three generations has gained the renown as a protagonist of the social bond of violence, one has to come to grips with a true anthropological change: the logic of giving, trust, and gratuity seem to have disappeared. And yet the war has not consumed everything: there are numerous initiatives, creativity, groups that work to rebuild the social weft, and the faithfulness of God who is not absent in every historical moment. A newpaperthrown into a waste bin brought good news to a Columbian religious who read that there were people who seriously believed in the Gospel and tried to live it. At almost 78 years of age, he was filled with life which immediately became contagious. The story of Chiara Lubich and her first companions, who – like them – were living in other places of the world, triggered new hope. The stories took on the countenance of people like Rosa who lives in the outskirts of Medellín, one of the most struck regions. Her son had been assassinated by a friend and the normal answer would have been revenge, but believing in life means courage and forgiveness. It was a wound that continues to sting, but her answer was to live for that district. And this signifies peace. Another one is Nubia, who had to escape at dawn since the guerrillas had occupied her town. She left her home and fields: all that she had. Pregnant, and with a small baby and an adolescent, upon arriving in a new town, she lost her husband and elder boy in a construction site where they were working in precarious conditions, an absurdity that was so hard to believe. The love of one of the Focolare communities gave her support for years, and the strength to start a new life. Peace in itself is not goods, justice has to be warrantied, and the causes have to be blocked and fought. This is what Gabrielina and Macedonio did, donating their poor house for the construction of a social centre which then became an infirmary, after-school centre, and the seat of projects of urban architectural renewal. Other types of future had to be created, educating people towards other possible worlds. From the communion of goods, a kindergarten was created to receive the poor children, and today it has become a high school with more than 400 students and an educational offer centered on love and the generosity to build a peaceful and pluralist Colombia. Many initiatives have sprung up since no population can come in contact with Chiara Lubich and still remain inactive as before. Her charism which leads us to discover and believe in Love, produces a change in mentality where we discover our capacity to love, and become subjects capable of peace. As affirmed by Rafael Grasa, President of the International Peace Institute Catalunya and guest professor in Medellin, «peace begins from the people, and continues with interpersonal relationships, and groups. Peace is dynamic and its fulfillment touches the entire harmony of the human being with oneself, the others, and nature. » But now that there will be the signing of that long-desired peace treaty with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)in Havana by the end of the month, we need to relearn how to live it – and like creation which is awaiting the birth pangs – the country is now awaiting a stronger manifestation of the sons of this charism.»
With the fall of the Berlin Wall everything seemed resolved. No one imagined that the walls of mistrust, hatred and prejudice stood on in the former Yugoslavia, impeding what for so many years the Focolare communities had been trying to build: unity among all, differences of differences ethnicity, language and religion. They saw the diversity as enrichment. The announcement of the conflict was a real shock to them, but also an incentive to continue believing that despite the absurdity of fratricidal war, God’s love had not diminshed. Minka Fabjan, expert in administration and active in the field of the Economy of Communion, reports on behalf of the community in Zagabria: “It was August 1991 and, amidst a thousand hardships, a group of us went to Katowice, Poland, because we learned that Chiara Lubich was going to be there. She invited us to testify to the Gospel in every possible way, to ‘shout it from the rooftops’. There were already the first rumblings of war in Croatia: closed schools, blocked highways . . . Amidst winds of war, it was striking to hear our messages of peace which, at the urging of Chiara, we sent to various public broadcasters. Nevertheless, her messages became more intense: “Demonstrate with your life that love conquers all.” She had been the one to suggest that we collect signatures for peace: “in schools, in front of churches, on public squares, in Slovenia, Serbia and everywhere. Because of the air raids, in Croatia we even gathered signatures in the air raid shelters. Within a few days we sent them off to several Heads of State, 65,000 signatures.” “Meanwhile our houses filled up with refugees: they were relatives and friends, but also strangers. Therefore, Chiara invited the Movement around the world to become involved in sending help. The first truckload arrived in autumn. It contained foodstuffs and basic necessities, and that continued for years. Red Cross centres, conference halls, houses in the middle of construction and cellars were transformed into storerooms, so that the goods could be shared with neighbours and refugees both Serbian, Muslim and Christian. We prepared up to 300 packages a day. With this humanitarian aid we managed to provide relgular help to 7000 people.” “We were already feeling tired when, in 1993, Pope John Paul II asked us to open our hearts and homes to the Bosnian women who were arriving from Zagabria, following the unspeakable cruelties suffered in the camps. We felt like Chiara was beside us and so we all got to work. During the 1993 Familyfest, we launched a fundraising campaign that allowed us to give homes to 50 refugee families and to help more than 150 women. Through adoption at a distance, thousands of children were provided for. Several rape victims found the heroic strength to carry the pregnancy to term. In Serbia 700 men – including members of the Movement – were drafted into the federal army. When Chiara heard of it she invited all of us to pray for them, that they would find the courage to oppose violence and not fire their weapons. And those prayers were quickly answered because all of our men were given civil service duties.” The war had also involved Kosovo and Belgrade. Nevertheless, Chiara wanted to visit an area near Croatia. When Večernji list journalist, Ottone Novosel, asked her if she had any words for the people, Chiara didn’t hesitate: “Show that the miracle of unity is possible even among different ways of thinking, different ethnic groups, and different religions. This war could provoke another reaction, a great flowing of love that could become a model for many other populations. God is the one who guides history ” (April 12, 1999). Her words continue to be timely as we consider the many conflicts that still plague our planet and dishonour our common humanity.
The spirituality of unity born of Chiara Lubich holds a strong relevance for peace. This was the main message of an event at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on March 12, 2016 at which people came together to reconsider the heritage of Chiara Lubich in the field of peace building. In attendance were ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic corps to the Holy See and to the Italian State from 20 countries: Morocco, Libya, Benin, Gabon Turkey, Taiwan, Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba, Uruguay, Paraguay, USA, Guatemala, and several European nations like Ukraine, Lithuania, Albania, Slovenia, Portugal and Malta. Yet, the current picture which imposes itself on our gaze offers images of a “a peace that is violated and often derided” leading us to believe that “the generations of the Third Millennium will never have an experience of life together in peace.” These were the words of Focolare president, Maria Voce in her welcoming remarks. How can we retie the broken thread of human relationships among peoples and States? “At the UNESCO headquarters, Chiara Lubich had presented a method of Peace Education,” Maria Voce recalled. It was the spirituality of unity, which lays the foundations for a culture of dialogue. This was demonstrated by 4 experiences: the simplicity of the Cube of Peace which became the basis for the development of Living Peace,a project in Cairo schools that has reached 300 schools in 110 countries involving an additional 1000 children and teenagers; dialogue between Christians and Muslims in Italy against the backdrop of tension that spreads across the continent; the “miraculous” story of Fontem, Cameroon, in which Chiara Lubich foresaw the future unity amongst the peoples foreshadowed in a pact that was sealed between the chiefs of the two tribes; and then her grand dream of influencing society through culture and thought, which has led to the founding of the Sophia University Institute, Loppiano, Italy. Gen Verdealso spoke from the stage of the Mariapolis Centre in Castel Gandolfo. Their songs from the new On the Other Side Show sing the same stories: the sacrifice of the monks in Tibhirine, Algeria, the lullaby for the nameless child who drowned during one of many voyages of hope, Salvadoran bishop Oscar Romero’s voice for truth, now Blessed, murdered at the hand of a criminal, the cry of the Amazon forest that impoverishes us all. Gen Verde works to build peace in its many workshops for thousands of young people. Those young people choose to be the first sprouts of a new people wherever they find themselves, the sprouts of a more supportive world for the smallest and poorest. This is what Chiara had said at UNESCO when she spoke of a “united world” and she also told how to do it: having courage to suffer, accepting the suffering and fatigue that it requires. “If more people accepted suffering out of love, the suffering demanded by love,” Chiara said, “that would be the most powerful arm for giving back humanity its true dignity: not that of a collection of peoples, one next to the other, often at war – but one people.”
Aleppo, March 8, 2016. I woke up at four in the morning to the sound of bombs and wasn’t able to go back to sleep. I tried not to believe my ears. No, it can’t be true, Lord! More bombings! Just as we were beginning to hope things would get better, that the electricity had returned after 5 months and the water after 45 days! Why? This ceasefire was supposed to last and become permanent! My pleadings rose from the depths of my soul to the Lord of History, asking that this truce which was announced a week ago for all Syria would become permanent. But the sound of fighting on the frontlines that divide the city of Aleppo in two only increased, with the sound of loud explosions that are easily heard at night. While waiting for the sun to rise and for calm to return, as I continued praying I thought: “Of course, we all want Peace, but do we really believe or think that it is achieved at such a high price? There are people who think that war is the path to follow! They’re prepared to sacrifice not only their own lives, but also those of others because they believe this. And there are powers that make a profit on everything that’s happening, so they don’t want the war to end and; indeed, they continue to pour gas on the fire. And we, the ones who believe in great ideals, in living peaceful and civil lives with respect for other cultures – do we truly believe it? And what price are we ready to pay? Frankly, the war in Syria is not a small matter. Who would have the courage to destroy a country that 6 years ago was growing with life and hope, where Muslims and Christians of different confessions and many other ethnic groups lived at peace with each other? Surely these destroyers are not single individuals. An answer by Chiara Lubich to some of our Muslim friends in 2002 came to mind. They had asked her about the hope that love and peace would win out over the war. She answered by citing the September 11th attacks: “Terrorism is a fruit of Evil (with a capital E) against which human strength will not suffice [. . .]. The forces of Good (with a capital G” are required [. . .] the forces of God’s Love. And so, what do we have to do? Prayer! We have to unite . . . all of us who are for universal brotherhood . . . unite to pray that terrorism will be overcome. And we can do it, because Jesus says that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, in His love, whatever they ask, will be done for them. And we are far more than two or three [. . .] Let us leave here with one idea: We are together, let us unite to pray. But that’s not enough. The main cause of terrorism is this indifference in front of a world that is half rich and half poor. They would like – and they’re not wrong in this – for there to be some communion of goods [. . .] some solidarity. We have to change hearts. Only if we carry out the work of universal brotherhood will we be able to convince ourselves and others that we should also put together our goods. We’ll begin amongst ourselves, but then the ideas begin to rise all the way to the Heads of State. We need to have this certainty: that with God, impossible things become possible; that with God – beginning with the brotherhood amongst us – we’ll reach the great goal: to make humanity one family [. . .]. This is our objective.” We shouldn’t delude ourselves. We shouldn’t wait for others to do something. We’re also responsible! If we truly believe that God can overcome Evil and that He listens to us, then we have to pray to the Father without ceasing, with the faith that He will help us; otherwise, we commit a sin of omission. Everybody remembers the time the bombings stopped over Syria, thanks to the influence of the prayer and fasting of the Pope and many others. And God heard us! And so He can hear us again. Let’s do it then – and always – until the reign of Peace comes not only in Syria, but in the whole world. See: Chiara Lubich, Castel Gandolfo, Italy, November 3, 2002, questions and answers with Muslim friends of the Focolare.
“A woman of dauntless faith, a meek messenger of hope and peace” – this is how Pope Benedict XVI described Chiara Lubich in his message at her funeral eight years ago. In January 2015, on the occasion of the official opening of the cause of her beatification, Pope Francis urged “to make known to the people of God the life and work of one who welcomed Our Lord’s invitation and enkindled a new light for the church on the journey towards unity”. Hundreds of initiatives held around the world remember her message of peace.The Focolare Community in Europe is promoting more than 200 events. “We live for Unity” is the title of the meeting in Minsk, Belarus. Meetings will held in the six cities where Focolare Communities are present in Sweden. In Munich, there will be the first “Chiaratag”. Journalists and qualified members of the Justice and Peace Commission will take part in the round table conference “Chiara and peace” held in Lisbon, Portugal. In Seville, Spain the theme will be “Chiara Lubich, educator for peace”. Allal Baschar, Imam of the Mosque of King Abdul Aziz al Saud of Marbella and Fr. Manuel Palma Ramírez, deputy director of the Seville Theological Studies Centre will be two speakers during this meeting. “A message of dialogue and peace” is the title of the meeting organized by the Focolare community in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This Community, composed of Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims and people with no religious belief, will share the result of years of commitment lived side by side by its various members. The public is invited to attend, and Archbishop Cardinal Vinko Puljić is expected to participate. The firm belief in this message is passed through an ongoing dialogue, even in other Balkan countries, and it leads to mutual recognition of traditions and nationalities. Pearls, an educational programme carried out in Skopje, Macedonia shows this. It consists of an early childhood programme for children of various ethnic groups. It is linked to the university and also involves the families. Based on Lubich’s ideal of universal brotherhood, it was initiated by Professor Aziz Shehu, a Muslim who was then lecturer and pro-dean at the Faculty of Pedagogy. In early March, 110 young Croats, Serbs, Ruthenians, Albanians and Macedonians also gave witness of this irreversible process when, for the first time, with others from Bulgaria and Rumania, they came together under the banner, the Balkans: we are oneNumerous meetings, symposia, conferences and concerts will be held in the Americas. These events vary from spiritual and prayerful to interfaith or environmental. They will take place from New York to San Francisco in U.S.A, from Santiago, Chile to La Habana, Cuba, Neza in the Mexican State of Nezahualcoyotl, Caracas in Venezuela, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Mendoza in Argentina. Very significant are the meetings to be held in the Pacific Islands of Honolulu, Hawaii, and in Noumea, New Caledonia. There is no family at Medellin, Colombia, who has not lost at least one of its members during these 50 years of conflict. So, even among the Focolare communities, one finds three generations with stories similar to that of Rosa, who had her son murdered by a friend but did not fall a victim of vengeance. She braved the situation with the courage of forgiveness while she worked in the social services centre of the neighbourhood to spread reconciliation, care, culture. Educational projects set up in different cities of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Mexico see generations of children grow up into professionals and teachers and assume the task of promoting an education that leads to fraternity and peace. Australia will focus on peace and fellowship, with appointments in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. The meeting in Perth, organized by youth, will be held in the central Northbridge Square.Politics for Unity: Making a World of Difference will be the theme for the conferences held in Wellington and in Christchurch, New Zealand. Thirty-one communities present in various regions of South Korea will animate the events that are meant to deepen the bond between Chiara Lubich and peace. The symposium at De La Salle University in Manila, the Philippines will focus on “The Charism of Unity: a timeless legacy” and delve into the Movement’s fifty years history in the continent of Asia. In Vietnam, 300 people from all over the country will be meeting in Vung Tau for several days to share and live together the spirituality of unity. In Pakistan, spiritual meetings and Masses for peace are to be held in seven cities. Events are also scheduled to take place in Burkina Faso,Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and also in other places. Inspired by the current situation of social tension, Burundi choose the theme: Merciful like our Heavenly Father, we are builders of peace. A telephone conference call will unite, the big cities of the Democratic Rep. of Congo: Lubumbashi, Goma, Kinshasa and Kikwit. Here, 1500 people, among them ambassadors, members of UNESCO, representatives of different Christian denominations and Muslim authorities, will reflect on Peace in the family. The widespread presence of the Focolare communities in Italy stimulates numerous initiatives. In Rome, the meeting place for 280 young people will be the Italian Parliament where they will meet Laura Boldini, the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Paolo Gentiloni, the Minister of foreign affairs and other members of Parliament. The three main speakers, who will discuss the manifesto containing concrete proposals on peace, disarmament and industrial reconversion are Pasquale Ferrara, a diplomat, Michele Zanzucchi, the director of Città Nuova and Shahrzad Houshmand, a Muslim theologian. Antonio M. Baggio will lecture to law students at the University of Pisa about: The love of loves. The religious and secular nature of politics in Chiara Lubich. “Religions dialogue in favour of peace and the environment” will be the event at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. During this event, Husein Salah, president of the Islamic Community, Giuseppe Momigliano, the chief Rabbi, Gnanathilaka Mahauswewe, a Buddhist monk, Andrea Ponta, an environmental engineer and Roberto Catalano from the Interreligious Diaolgue Centre of the Focolare Movement will give, a reflection on Laudato Si’. “Me through you” is the title of an itinerate event in Milan, which is a sort of “embrace” to the city and an interaction between different groups. There will be more dialogue, integration and forgiveness during the series of events “Is my world like yours?… steps towards getting to know one another better”. Members of the diplomatic Corps accredited to Italy and to the Holy See and representatives of the cultural world will meet at the Auditorium of the Mariapoli Centre at Castelgandolfo, Rome, where they will be welcomed by Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement. Chiara Lubich will be commemorated through The Culture of dialogue as a factor of peace. Whilst armed conflicts continue to cause havoc and kill hope in the Middle East, the Focolare communities in Syria affirm: “Even we are responsible to contribute towards peace. If we believe in God, the Lord of history who can conquer evil and hear our prayers, we would commit a sin of omission if we do not turn at all times to Him, who makes the impossible become possible and helps us to achieve our aim of uniting humanity into one family. So let us pray, while we change our hearts and share our goods”. The events of March 14, 2016 make sense because they aim at converging the efforts and prayers of many people, in many places on earth, to make the world become more united. Meanwhile, the cause of the beatification of Chiara Lubich, which began on January 27, 2015 is following the required process. Witness has already been offered by persons who are members of different Churches and by others who have no particular religious conviction. A mosaic of testimonies highlight her exemplary life, a commitment shared with all those whom God placed in her path to “become saints together”. Press Release
From the Argentinean capital, if you take the south bound motorway, after half an hour you would get to Plátanos, a peripheral barrio of about 20,000 inhabitants. They are hardworking people who have built their own homes with great effort and very little money. The parish, dedicated to Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, is very active. Fr. Francesco Ballarini, Italian, brought the Focolare spirit there almost 30 years ago. Today, it is the lay people who continue to live this spirit of unity, together with other diocesan parishes. “At the start of the year – they recounted – we organised a party for the children of the most far out district of Plátanos, the inhabitants of which do not frequent the parish very much. Each of them was invited to put in common their own talents: some taught how to make bread, others how to paint, and there were a ceramics lab, a catechist dad to play magician, and some ladies who taught how to prepare mate (the typical infusion drunk in the Southern tip of the country).” On this occasion they met a 15-year-old at the end of her pregnancy. “She needed everything. A solidarity competition started in order to meet the needs of the child who was born a few days early. Upon reaching her house, we were shocked by the downgrade of the small place: without a floor or windows, a broken door, and with her six siblings living there with her parents. When the community heard about this situation, a lot of aid started coming in. We are almost ready to install the windows, doors, a heater and other people have offered to give a hand. Some ladies went to teach M. how to best take care of her baby, and M. who was sad and irritable when we first met her, has started to smile. It is the charity lived all together that works small miracles.” “Another initiative we are working on – they continued – is the Sachetera project: it is about the manufacture of sleeping sacks with the milk bags, for the homeless. As a parish we want to continue supporting this project, and even each of us could work in their own homes. We prefer working together: kids, adolescents and adults. During a very rainy day, we thought it would be impossible to meet, but the thought of our homeless friends urged us to work even harder.” “We then gathered at Bernal (another barrio) with members of other parishes and the Focolare youth who brought ahead the aid project for the needy. For us it is important to share our experiences with other parishes, also so we would not enclose ourselves only in “our” periphery, and instead open out to the others.” In September, the house of a family in a nearby district burned down – destroying everything, “we started up an action aid, bringing the primary necessities from our own homes. With the communion of goods we contributed to the building of the walls. So with great enthusiasm, they were able to rebuild their house. Only much later, we found out that the family belongs to the Pentecostal church, and that he was the Pastor. We were moved since Love did not consider, once again, one’s religious profession, or other differences.» In the following days, the Pastor who worked as a mason, offered to plaster the wall of the church which wanted to build an altar for the icon of the Virgin of Luján. «I thank you all for the love you gave me, without asking anything in return – the Pastor said to the Catholic community gathered for the Sunday mass, and which they wanted to take part in – you have helped me overcome the prejudices that many of us (Pentecostals) feel towards Catholics. You too are my brothers.”
“We cannot talk about evangelization in Fontem without the Focolare Movement,” said Bishop Nkea standing in front of the television cameras during his visit to the International Centre in Rocca di Papa, Italy, on March 8. “Chiara Lubich went to Fontem 50 years ago, and she brought the Ideal [spirituality of unity]. That is why we have come here: to thank Chiara and the Movement for everything it has done for us in these 50 years. This is a pilgrimage of thanksgiving.” “The Diocese of Mamfe did not exist 50 years ago and Fontem was a lost village in the Cameroonian forest that was difficult to reach.” We cannot understand the Bishop’s words without returning to the history of an event that has been called the “miracle in the forest”. Fontem was the first permanent Mariapolis on the African continent. In 1966, several focolarini, doctors, went to help the Bangwa people who were being decimated with an infant mortality rate of 98%. A few months later, Chiara herself visited them: “That huge crowd of people gathered on the vast plane in front of the home of their Fon,” she would say in 1995, “appeared so united and so anxious to be elevated [. . .] that it seemed to me long prepared by Mary to embrace the Christian faith in its most integral and genuine form.” “The focolarini were believed because they did to Jesus what they did to the Bangwa, offering, above all, a witness of the love amongst themselves and towards everyone.” Today there is a hospital in Fontem, Mary Health of Africa, which serves a large part of the region; and a college, Mary Seat of Wisdom, which prepares students for university. With the help of focolarini priests, parishes have been opened in Menji, Fotabong, Fonjumetaw. Bishop Nkea declared: “Mainly, we learned mutual love and unity. I’m also Bangwa, so I’m speaking in the name of my people.” “We learned interreligious dialogue: What is important for us now is that we love one another, whether we are Christian or not, to live in this unity with each other.” The delegation that had come to render homage to Chiara Lubich included bishops – Bishop Nkea and Emeritus Bishop Lysinge who was celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood – priests, women religious and many lay people. They are a living testimony to the communion in the diocese. They were welcomed at the International Centre of the Focolare by the Movement’s president, Maria Voce – who first visited Fontem in January 2009 – and the Movement’s co-president, Jesús Morán, who will visit Fontem this coming December. The visit of the delegation marked the opening of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the arrival of the spirituality of unity in Fontem (1966-2016) and will continue through the year. The visit to Chiara’s house was particularly moving. The day concluded with a solemn Mass in the chapel where Chiara rests. “Your pilgrimage here today bears witness to the fruits produced by that first visit of Chiara, which launched a Divine adventure that no one ever imagined,” Maria Voce said as she welcomed them. “You are the fruit of the life of these 50 years. It is a great joy for us and shows us the vitality of Africa. Fifty years have gone by and our wish to each other now is that we begin a new period, hopefully a long period for offering to God trees covered with fruits and with blossoms.” Jesús Morán commented: “There is an exchange of gifts between Africa and us. The charism of unity is a gift for Africa, and Africa is a gift for the whole Movement.”
“Five years ago, before the outbreak of the Syrian conflict, my family and I planned to make a full-time experience at the international town of the Focolare in Loppiano (Florence). Violet and I attended the Loreto School, where with other couples from various parts of the world, we deepened the topic of the family in the light of the spirituality of unity while our four children attended the schools of the region.After years of work as a doctor, we wanted to dedicate a year of our life to God. We prepared to leave with great care and responsibility, unaware of what would happen from then on: after the outbreak of the conflicts in our country. In the time that remained before our departure, I managed to be useful in many ways, giving first aid to the wounded, and making long and risky trips by car to reach them. Also the departure for Italy was rather adventurous precisely due to the disorders that unfortunately continued. As we followed with trepidation the increasingly tragic news from afar, at the end of the course our relatives implored us to delay our return. You can imagine the anguish with which we made this decision, and the pain of not being able to do anything for our compatriots. We felt like a car with an engine in full thrust being held on the spot by force. But neither was it simple to remain in Italy. There was no future ahead of us. Even if we were in a friendly environment, because my qualifications were not recognised, I was not allowed to practice my profession. So I adapted myself to doing other jobs, like carpentry or other works, while waiting for some opening. Finally an occasion came up where I could do something for my people. I found out about a reception project of “Doctors Without Borders” that helps refugees in Slovenia, which needed an Arab-speaking doctor. So I immediately left, without knowing exactly how it would be. Upon my arrival, I immediately set myself at the service of many who reached the Refugee center via the sea or after a long journey on foot. Many of them came from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan… and many also from Syria! Seeing them arrive and welcoming them in our language was really moving, so that tears ran down my face. From then on I no longer worried about the hours of sleep, food… I wanted to stay with them all the time to soothe their suffering, taking care of them and making them feel “at home.” I can still rememberthe first baby girl I took care of: she kept crying, and we couldn’t calm her down. Upon visiting her I understood that she only had a stomach ache and I started to cradle her and speak to her in Arab… the child slowly calmed down and fell asleep in my arms. When the others approached to take her, she would struggle and did not want to let my arm go… it was really a strong experience. Over here the flow is continuous. Three trains arrive daily with about 2,500 people. In only four days we had to see to so many people, as had never happened in any month. There are only six of us in our team: the others are all natives of the place. Also they noticed how touching it was for me to see my compatriots arrive in those conditions. When I receive them, saying my name (Issa=Jesus), I see their eyes light up. For each of them I would like to be another Jesus, who is there to welcome and take care of them, through me. The chance to do so is like God’s answer for me.”
“We could say that it is the moment for women: not because the media endlessly focus on divorce and VIP trends but because of the fact that more than ever today, coexistence and the fruit of man-woman dialectics call for the presence of those who are, or will be mothers, naturally or spiritually. The social body as never before suffers the lack of full health and normal feminineness: it is as if its flight was done with two wings, one of which was too overwrought, and the other lifeless, which make its progress very disorderly. People are aware that this is the time for woman, but of a womanly woman, and not a contamination or contrast of man: almost like a feminised man. The history of the last centuries in which the strong man – the superman – had been forged in disdain for feminineness, was affected by excessive masculinity, not counterbalanced by feminineness. The same but contrary effect of non-integrated feminineness is imbued by a sense of virility. Women today have voting rights, gained managing roles in offices, and entered into public life. But their impact remains dull, like before or even worse since by entering the political battles they align with the males, taking on their ambitions, and bowing to their methods: they have become reduced-performance males. Their votes, without outstanding discrimination are added to those of men since the latter’s game continues as before, without corrections, integration, or being enlightened by the other, which is an indispensable factor. And so the flight (or plunge) continues with only one wing. Just think of what Mary’s fascination was like, and what it still is today – her name alone signifies the sublimation of woman who was made to become the grafting point of the divine onto the human, and as the ianua coeli, door to Heaven, the rise of the human towards the divine. Societies today call for the presence of the woman, so that she could imbue in society the demands for maternity, life, and therefore, of material and moral nutrition, education, love in peace and work, of the family gathered in pureness and thus, the condemnation of factions and wars. This is because woman by nature stands for generation of life and not production of death, for the good of the offspring which are the State and the Church of the future, the same humanity.” (Igino Giordani, “Fides” publication, 1961)
“We got to know a family from Burundi who in the current terrible situation in their country, about which we hear very little, have left the country like many other families and come to Kampala where we live,”writeus from Uganda. “The husband went back to Burundi so as not to lose his job and to be able to pay the rent on the house in Uganda and buy food for their children, including a three week old baby. “His wife had not been able to stay in Burundi when shooting began again in their city, as she had too vivid memories of all that had happened in the 1990s during the civil war. Then she had miraculously escaped death because the Headmaster of the school she attended had twice paid off soldiers who had come to the school on two consecutive days to look for her and the other girls. So, when the first signs of trouble began, the family had decided to go, leaving all they had behind in Bujumbura. They had brought other relatives with them, so there were 8 of them in all. “We heard that the rent did not cover furniture and that they had only 4 chairs in the living room: what could we do? We thought that four of our folding chairs, used occasionally when many people come to our house, would be made better use of in their house, so that at least everyone could sit and eat comfortably. “As we left we cut two pumpkins from the garden to take with us. We had planted a number of them almost by chance a few months earlier and they had picked up after the dry season and had been extremely useful in recent weeks! Moreover, just the day before we had received some food supplies. Providence has never been lacking over the last few months and it is truly by sharing it that the Gospel promise “give and gifts will be given to you” comes true. So we took two kilos of sugar, two of rice, one kilo of salt and a litre of oil and went to see the family. “Their house was new and clean and there were some unusual trimmings on the ceiling as well as a nice light fitting. But there were no beds in the bedrooms, only mattresses. In the living room there was a small round plastic table and four chairs, a little television in the corner on the floor with an antenna hanging over visitors’ heads. We could not see any toys or other furniture. “We went in with the chairs and spent two very happy hours with the family getting to know them better and sharing past memories and hopes for the future. The children are not going to school at the moment. The older ones want to go to university but it is much more expensive in Uganda than Burundi so it is not possible for now. Finding work is difficult too, as many people are unemployed and it is almost impossible for foreigners if you don’t know someone. What is more they don’t speak luganda, the local language, and English is not their mother tongue either. But they said “… We trust in God!”. “It was already 7.30 in the evening and we needed to go home. We all said goodbye. They were so happy we had come but as soon as we asked them to keep the chairs, and return them when they left that house, their faces lit up and they thanked us again and again! Before getting into the car they wanted to give us their blessing! On the way home I thought that four ordinary chairs and two pumpkins, once given, can fill the hearts, both of those who receive and those who give, with joy…” (S.M. Uganda)
“I’ve never been so close to the site of a terrorist attack. Nowadays we are somewhat accustomed to seeing such catastrophes everyday on the news but passing in front of the metro station only a few minutes before and thinking that it was so close by and not knowing exactly what to do is quite another thing. I’m a firm believer that a united world is possible. Through my commitment in New Humanity, but mostly through the small daily actions, I try to live and act in a spirit of fraternity that is also expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But, as the news came and the howling of sirens intensified outside my window, I was blown away. Okay, it was all so close by, but still what could I do? Stay put and respond to all the messages from friends and relatives who were asking for news? Should I take to the streets and go to help who knows who and how? Should I keep working as if nothing had occurred? It was surreal, and I found myself disoriented and helpless. It also made me question the meaning of it all. What could have moved them to push some young people like me to hate to the point of being ready to sacrifice their lives in order to kill so many defenseless passengers, chosen at random and pressed into a packed metro car? I wondered what crime I would had committed that I should have to die with them. I could not find any satisfactory answers in any of the theories I had learned at university in political science class. What did give me some light was the memory of the previous evening spent with several youth who are engaged in living the same commitment as me, and during that evening we had promised another time to be instruments of brotherhood and dialogue for the people around us. Trying to put aside my confusion, I realized that, in those moments, it was (almost) as if I was experiencing the war in my own skin, all the more reason to be a peacemaker beginning with the people who were with me at the moment. Colleagues, friends and acquaintances… in spite of the terror and shock, I slowly began to realize that I was not the only one to think so. Everybody – each in their own way we’re dealing with their emotions – none of them found words of hate for what had happened, but everyone was convinced that dialogue was the only way possible to respond to such insane acts. The words spoken by 
“What we wish to do today is not so much remember as to review together, after 20 years, the content and method which Chiara outlined at UNESCO on the 17th December 1996 on a subject which is more than ever relevant to international relations, education for peace. On that occasion UNESCO conferred on the founder of the Focolare Movement a special prize awarded to those whose work contributes to creating pathways and conditions whereby peace may become something real.” Maria Voce, the President of the Focolare, recalled that event in her talk given on 12th March at Castel Gandolfo, during 
This spirituality is lived by people from very different backgrounds and experiences: Christians of different Churches, believers of different religions and people of different cultures. All of them are motivated by wanting to enable humankind become one single family; all know they must face problems and situations that arise daily at every level and in every field; all are directed towards being – at least wherever they are – and I quote Chiara “seeds of a new people, of a world at peace, with greater solidarity especially towards the least and the poorest; to be seeds of a more united world” (Chiara Lubich’s talk at UNESCO, 17.12.1996) in which it will be possible not only to call one another brothers and sisters but truly be so. If this is the method, what is the secret of its success? It is a secret which Chiara herself defined as the art of loving, which is “It means being the first to love, without expecting the other person to love us in return. It means knowing how to ‘make ourselves one’ with others, that is, to identify with their burdens, their thoughts, their sufferings, their joys. But, if this love of neighbour is lived out by more than one person, it becomes mutual. (Ibid.). Reciprocity: it is a word which carries much weight in international relations but is often limited to ensuring a truce in conflicts, not in preventing them or resolving them. Those who have responsibility and key roles in the international community know very well how difficult negotiations can be and how many obstacles are encountered before reaching agreements that satisfy all parties. To consider love as a negotiating tool in regard to the great objective of peace would allow us to feel part of one family, to live an authentic dimension of fraternity without restricting it merely to coexistence or forced shared living, but enabling fraternity to be open to the needs of the weakest and the poorest, of those who are excluded from political engagement or from a type of economics whose only law is profit. We need to love, then, and work for others and with others; so as to help overcome the barriers posed by conflicting interests, by a show of power, by inequality in levels of development, or lack of access to the market or technology. When speaking about peace education we find ourselves facing the great challenge of applying a method, that of unity as the fruit of mutual love, in the fragmented context currently enveloping almost all spheres of our daily life. Chiara Lubich was aware of this and for this reason offered the Representatives of Member States at UNESCO almost the key for a step change, a good practice, in the language used in international relations. In fact she said: «Nothing good, useful, or fruitful can be accomplished in the world without accepting troubles, suffering, in a word, without the cross.” (Ibid.). Commitment to peace is difficult to achieve if we are not ready to set aside our certainties and our comfort, so as to set out on new and unexplored paths; becoming creative without improvising; hearing to the voices of those who call for peace and identifying places where it can actually be achieved. … Twenty years ago, speaking at UNESCO, Chiara pointed out that love was “the most powerful instrument that can give humanity its highest dignity: that of feeling not so much that we are a collection of peoples, alongside one another and often in conflict with one another, but instead that we are one single people.” Today too even though we face many recurring difficulties, this is the ideal we wish to achieve through everyone’s contribution.”
Aleppo, March 8, 2016. I woke up at four in the morning to the sound of bombs and wasn’t able to go back to sleep. I tried not to believe my ears. No, it can’t be true, Lord! More bombings! Just as we were beginning to hope things would get better, that the electricity had returned after 5 months and the water after 45 days! Why? This ceasefire was supposed to last and become permanent! My pleadings rose from the depths of my soul to the Lord of History, asking that this truce which was announced a week ago for all Syria would become permanent. But the sound of fighting on the frontlines that divide the city of Aleppo in two only increased, with the sound of loud explosions that are easily heard at night. While waiting for the sun to rise and for calm to return, as I continued praying I thought: “Of course, we all want Peace, but do we really believe or think that it is achieved at such a high price? There are people who think that war is the path to follow! They’re prepared to sacrifice not only their own lives, but also those of others because they believe this. And there are powers that make a profit on everything that’s happening, so they don’t want the war to end and; indeed, they continue to pour gas on the fire. 
And we, the ones who believe in great ideals, in living peaceful and civil lives with respect for other cultures – do we truly believe it? And what price are we ready to pay? Frankly, the war in Syria is not a small matter. Who would have the courage to destroy a country that 6 years ago was growing with life and hope, where Muslims and Christians of different confessions and many other ethnic groups lived at peace with each other? Surely these destroyers are not single individuals. An answer by 
From the 
“Five years ago, before the outbreak of the Syrian conflict, my family and I planned to make a full-time experience at the international town of the Focolare in 
