Page 83 – Movimento dei Focolari

A tale of friendship: Muslims and Christians in Sicily

Apr 23, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

“Above all its a tale of friendship”. These words opened the meeting jointly organised by the Muslim community in Sicily and the Focolare Movement at Catania on the 14^th April. “Some of the Focolare Movement members had met the Imam of Catania, and their friendship grew to include other Muslims and members of the movement, especially families. There were moments of sharing together the values of universal brotherhood through concretely lived experiences.” This was shared by Giusy Brogna of the Focolare, an expert in interfaith dialogue with Islam after having lived for years in the Middle East, who had organised the event together with journalist Roberto Mazzarella, Kheit Abdelhafid, Imam and President of the Muslim community in Sicily, and Vice President Ismail Bouchnafa. Nearly 500 people attended the event: it included entire families coming from various cities of Sicily, wherein a bond of friendship has already been built between the Focolare Movement’s local community and some Muslim families. The Christian vision of the family and the enrichment brought by the Muslim family in the Italian society were among the main speeches, respectively presented by the couple Gaetano and Grazia Maria Amore, and Imam Kheit Abdelhafid. The latter voiced his satisfaction with the event as well as the long preparatory work involved. The family is a central reality in both our religious traditions, especially with regard to the future of our children, whom we would like to live in a world without barriers, which considers diversity as an enrichment”. The lived experiences confirmed what was spoken: they were shared by a family from Scicli; Giosi and Zanja, school mates from Ispica; Fatima and Hamed from Rosolini with their daughter Rabia and some Catholic friends. Among them were people who have been hosting education programmes for immigrant women in their parish premises since years. The afternoon programme was conducted by the youth. Christian and Muslim youth had shot a short movie in the earlier weeks to depict with irony, the common prejudices encountered when one does not know the different cultural and religious traditions. The archbishop of Catania, H.E. Monsignor Salvatore Gristina, who was present at the event, encouraged the organisers to continue on this endeavour. He said, “Let’s trust in God’s help. Let’s hold hands and go ahead.” Among the public figures who spoke, there was also the mayor of Catania, Raffaele Stancanelli, who thanked the organisers for having chosen his city to host this important event that is “capable of positively influencing our national community”. The 14^th April event at Catania forms part of the experiences of fraternity promoted since a while between some Muslim communities and the Focolare, as part of the Progetto Italia (Italy Project), and which figured significantly last November at the event at Brescia.

Chiara Lubich is remembered in Stockholm

Apr 22, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

Focus on Sweden: This Scandinavian country with a strict Lutheran tradition has been marked by widespread secularism, like in the entire peninsula, which is expressed not only through a scanty participation at religious celebrations, but also by a lifestyle that seems to have put aside any reference to the transcendent. The experience of the “Court of the Gentiles” to open a dialogue among believers and non-believers, which was launched by the Pontifical Council for Culture, has contributed in these years to a greater mutual understanding among Lutherans and Catholics, and it can be strengthened and enriched by putting the gospel into practice, and sharing the fruits it produces. In this context and keep this end in mind, we would like to situate two initiatives promoted by the Focolare Movement to mark Chiara Lubich’s 5^th anniversary. ““May none of those you meet be deluded, but may each one find in you light for their own lives, warmth for their own hearts, support for their own steps; (…) Remain faithful to your charism and witness to Christ in this world that is so confused, and at times weary and without enthusiasm”. These were the words of entrustment and exhortation directed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Sweden, Mons. Nowacki, to the Focolare Movement’s members. During his homily at the mass on the 14^th March on the occasion of Chiara Lubich’s fifth death anniversary, he remembered her as “an extraordinary woman who (…) inflamed the world with the fire of Christ’s love and who discovered in Jesus’ cross a fundamental reason to live in intimate union with Him (…), each day as an expression of love for God and neighbour”. Is the gospel still relevant today?”. Testimonies and life experiences were shared at this meeting, together with updates on activities of concrete solidarity, and a spiritual deepening with artistic contributions. Some of the feedback received best express the tone of the evening: “I had thought of going back to work on Monday and asserting my point of view, but after hearing the experience in the hall I understood that I must be the first to love”; and another: “I realised that it’s possible to live the gospel even today. I want to try it out too”. The next Focolare Movement appointment in Sweden will be the Mariapoli at Kumla (Örebro) from the 27^th – 30^th June.

Philippines: Youth Camp 2013

Apr 21, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

During 4-7 April, the young people from Metro Manila, Aklan, Baguio, Cavite, Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, Masbate, Tacloban, Tarlac, Palawan, and Rizal gathered together in Tagaytay City for a different kind of adventure. As they left the comfort of their hometowns and distanced themselves from technology, they braved the challenges of facing diversity and opted to be in touch with nature, while making new friendships from across the islands. With the theme “The other… an Other me,” they were exposed to four full days into discovering what living in unity must be like through a life led by love.

During the “Let’s Colour Our City” activity, the youth campers visited various social institutions like orphanages and the local prison. They also went to remote villages in the city of Tagaytay, where youth campers planted about a hundred trees in coordination with local village leaders. The whole exercise was a concretization of the very theme of the Youth Camp, especially in living the Gospel phrase, “Whatever you do the least of your brother, you do it to me” (Mt. 25:40).

The “Let’s Colour our City” activity left an indelible mark on the campers, as one of them commented, “I understood how much I am taking for granted the privileges and gifts that I have”, after he had served persons with cerebral palsy in the San Rafael Hospital for the Disabled. After spending a few hours with the orphaned children residing with the Augustinian Sisters, a camper commented: “In the short time spent with these children, I felt that I had become a father to the child who had no parents”.

At the Tagaytay City Jail, those who visited the prisoners were very touched by the testimonies of the inmates who were striving to pick up their broken lives; they even advised the youth campers to lead a moral life and to avoid major mistakes so as not to end up in jail and destroy other people’s lives. Workshops were provided as campers engaged in arts, theatre, dancing, music, journalism and sports. Moving life experiences were also shared like that of the family of Lito Bulan: in spite of difficulties like the illness of his wife, he had faced life with much love and perseverance, and so did his daughter who tried to live the art of loving, by being the first one to love in the family so as to keep their unity in the family intact. She affirmed that trials in life serve like filters for a stronger and deeper bond of love in the family.

An Amazing Race type competition took place during the camp. Actually, it was a race to test the unity and teamwork of the 15 groups as they played the various games, the most challenging of which was the mudslide which proved to be a great lesson in trust and courage in life, and the obstacle course which was a real test in perseverance.

The last day was dedicated to prayer, reflection, and to the sacrament of confession. It was a moment to recollect and to ponder on the four-day camp, as well as to integrate all the learning experiences of these meaningful and adventurous days. As in every youth camp, held over the past 5 years, it was always hard to say goodbye to one another but the challenge to love our neighbour and to colour the dark corner of our cities was stronger in most participants. Echoes in the social media had filled the Facebook pages of the campers exchanging pictures, stories, and experiences which described and expressed that this was “the most unforgettable and memorable summer” of their lives! Now, 300 young Filipinos will transpose the experience of unity lived at the Youth Camp within their own environment.

Jerusalem, “Be the bridge”

Apr 20, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

LIVE STREAMING EVENT 1 maggio: http://live.focolare.org/uww2013/

Video of May 1st meeting at Loppiano

The explicit motto “Let’s Bridge” of the Genfest in Budapest last September, was chosen by the Youth for a United World of the Focolare Movement as the title for the United World Week 2013. The main event will be the 01^st May with 4 major gathering locations: Jerusalem, a symbol of peace; Loppiano, which had always been linked with the Youth for a United World’s history; Mumbai, on the route to interfaith dialogue; Budapest, the capital that hosted 12,000 youth for the Genfest. During the 01^stMay event, there will be live link-ups among these 4 cities to render visible this worldwide network that is already in place.

To be bridges then, to build bridges of brotherhood on the United World Project (UWP) guideline, which was launched precisely at the Genfest. In these months, many youth have undertaken this journey in various parts of the world, recognising the “brotherhood afoot” in their own lives and around them, increasing activities and initiatives to raise public awareness in their own countries, contributing as active citizens to bring about a culture of peace and dialogue that welcomes diversity and multiculturality. Such as in Chicago, where the Youth for a United World together with the Mosque Cares association met at the Ephraim Bahar cultural centre to prepare 150 meals, “survival kits” and a selection of men/women clothes to distribute to the homeless in the neighbourhood. Or as in Montevideo, where a Youth for a United World delegation from Uruguay together with some professionals involved in the field of education, were received by María Paz Echeverriarza, responsible for the area of Education at the UNESCO Representation for the governments of Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. It was an occasion to present the UWP and to share about the network that has emerged around the Nueva Vida social project, which has seen the successful onset of small businesses, despite the context of marginalisation. And also the “Goodwill Week” in Serbia: in an alternative cultural centre, the youth held forums on social initiatives, film projections, initiatives to help people in difficulties, which also included a blood drive, besides the collection of provisions.

The United World Week will be an occasion to take stock of the situations, and many activities will simultaneously take place during those days in various parts of the world. In the Holy Land, 120 youth from various countries will meet together from the 24^th April to the 02^nd May. There’s a intense programme planned that includes a “Forum on universal brotherhood” at the University of Bethlehem with Muslim and Christian speakers, a meeting with the mayor Vera Baboun, an interfaith evening, a desert outing, workshops in singing, music, dance, and percussion with the Gen Rosso and the Gen Verde who will be present for the occasion. These workshops will showcase together in a concert planned for the 29^th April in Haifa. The 01^st May event will end with a flashmob at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem where Jews, Christians, and Muslims will meet up.

However, the project will continue, and the subsequent phases will take place in Africa, and precisely at Nairobi, where the Sharing with Africa site will kick-off with the “Inculturation School” on the value of the person in African tradition.

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More information:

Be the Bridge website

Children and the Gospel

Apr 19, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

«Many of my companions at school ask to borrow my sharpener as it’s a good one that sharpens pencils well. I always lend it but one morning they had asked me many times. So when another companion asked me again I said “NO!” quite strongly. He returned to his place quite sad and in that instant I remembered: “But Jesus is present even in him. I can’t refuse him!”. I called him back and gave him my sharpener with a big smile. He was happy and I too felt a joy within me. In the evening, I along with my father and brother were watching a football match sitting on a sofa. My mother entered and said: “Don’t any of you care about me. I’ve just come home from work and I have to get dinner ready. Now, who’s going to help me set the table!?” I wanted to watch the game but I thought: “I need to love Jesus even in my mum!” I got up and went to the kitchen to set the table. I made my mother happy and then our team won 4-0!!! ». (E.M. 8 years old, Italy) «We kids like to collect and play with cards of games like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh and of football players. We carry them with us to school. I have 83 of them and some are rare. One day I was returning home with the school bus and I took out my Yu-gi-oh cards. One of my friends Lorenzo asked me to gift him a super rare card called Steelswarm Moth. At first I didn’t want to because it was really important to me. But then I gave it to him to do an act of love and he was overjoyed.» (V.F. – 7 years, Italy) «One day I returned home tired from the swimming pool. My mum asked me to tidy up my room and I didn’t feel like doing it just then as I wanted to rest. Then I thought that there’s Jesus also in my mum. I began to tidy the room and I felt so much joy in my heart that I didn’t get more tired.» (L.A. – 8 years, Italy)

Towards Pentecost 2013

Apr 18, 2013 | Non categorizzato

In these first days of Pope Francis’ pontificate we can find strong signs of the charismatic profile of the Church. What do you think of this?

«First of all I’d underline two words: service and poverty. Pope Francis spoke about these, but he especially bore witness to them with gestures and facts: poverty to express a simple lifestyle, a greater sharing of goods with those most in need and a greater protection of the creation that God put at the disposal of humankind. A particular point then is his capacity to create occasions for dialogue and communion with the people he meets during the audiences, among whom children and the sick, as well as the workers of the Vatican City State whom he invites to his morning Masses. These and other gestures express the attention Pope Francis has in favouring, so to say, the horizontal value of the Church which is the charismatic value. This dimension is inherent to his truly institutional person, which offers a more complete vision of the Church, containing teachings and love, hierarchical interactions and relationships in pursuit of simplicity and “tenderness.” We are often used to considering the hierarchical aspect of the Church as if it were a pyramid, with an exaggerated oligarchy. Instead, Pope Francis makes the reality of the Church as communion come to light, certainly with a centre, around which converges all the gifts that God has granted her through the charisms.»

Maria Voce

This coming May 18th, the Pentecost vigil, Pope Francis will encounter the Movements and lay associations at St. Peter’s Square, in the context of the events of the Year of Faith. How are you preparing for this? What do you expect from this meeting?

«More than expecting something we would like to be able to offer something. We would like the Pope to feel that these thousands of people only longed to bear witness to the vitality of faith, the richness of God’s gifts and the capacity to respond to the most important challenges of the present moment through the different charisms which movements and associations carry within themselves. As Focolare Movement, we would especially wish that the Pope feels that we are totally at the service of the Church, to be instruments of unity among her various constituents, starting among the sons and daughters of old and new charisms, at the service of a Church as communion which is what humanity hopes to see today.»

Source: Focolare Information Service

Muneeb Sohail

Apr 17, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

The young Pakistani who was hit by a stray bullet during clashes in Karachi. “Go ahead, with the firm decision to live our great Ideal radically, to offer the society around you the love that shines in your hearts, and that Muneeb too would have wanted to gift to many. Certainly he will continue from heaven to live and work with you and with the whole Movement, so as to give rise day after day to a new, united, peaceful and supportive people”. With these words, the president Maria Voce encouraged the gen (youth of the Focolare) in Pakistan to follow the path of Muneeb Sohail. He died after being hit by a bullet during the heavy and violent clashes last January in Karachi, while he was returning home with another gen after an English lesson. Unfortunately, such clashes frequently occur in this southern metropolis of the country. Muneeb would have turned 20 next May. Right from an early age, he had begun to live and appreciate within his family the spirituality of unity. He had lost his father as a child. When he grew up, he took it upon himself to pass on the lifestyle he had discovered to youth as well as to younger children. He used to say that in order to “deepen and understand it better”, he went to live together with other gen during the spring of 2012. He made an indelible impression on them. Speaking of him they said: “For me he was an angel. He taught me to live with God. He was a true friend for us children”; “When I first met him, he immediately shared with me his experiences and his life, and he never missed an opportunity to love concretely”. On 7^th October last year, a month after the large international event in Budapest, the Genfest was also held in Karachi despite the tense situation prevailing in the city. Muneeb was at the forefront during the preparations and in the programme, adhering to and spreading the ideal of a United World. On 17^th January, while greeting his mother, Muneeb said: “I’m happy to give my life to Jesus”. And now the baton passes on to all the gen in the world, to all those who support the United World Project – UWP, and to all those who feel called to build bridges of peace and brotherhood everywhere.

Boston Marathon: “There’s more good than bad.”

Apr 17, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

Joanna: “I was so anxious
to know if my friends
were ok.”

Two days after the bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the city remains traumatized, partly paralyzed. The inhabitants, though shaken and shattered by the violence, want to stand up against the sense of fear: “We’re the ones to decide when to finish the marathon,” says Joanna, a 19 year-old college student in Boston. An event has been organized for Friday evening – to walk the last five miles of the marathon, which is where the police forced them to stop. The walk will be a sign of hope to show the world that there’s more good than bad in the city of Boston.

Joanna was cheering for several friends who were running in the marathon; she was standing about five miles away from the finish line. “All of a sudden, there was chaos; there were cops everywhere telling the people that the race was over.” Joanna was scared; nobody knew what happened, more-so because the cell phones were not working. There was talk that there had been two explosions, then she overheard two policemen speaking about a bomb attack. “I started to realize that my friends were right there in the middle of it all, and I was so anxious to know if they were ok”. Feeling helpless, Joanna took refuge in a cafe’ when one of her friends who had participated in the marathon walked in the door. “I bought him something to eat; I listened to him”. By doing these simple acts of love, Joanna realized that we can’t remain paralyzed with fear.

She found out that all her friends were fine, though one girl was very close to the bombings. “Unfortunately, a lot of families and other students cannot say the same,” says Joanna, “I’m praying for them.” Every evening, Joanna goes to Mass at 10 pm, and she invited all her friends to go with her. To her surprise, they all turned up. Mass there was normally attended by just a handful of people, but this time the Church was full. They weren’t all Christian, but everybody felt the need to pray.

More than 12,000 people have already signed up for the Friday walk. Though the sad, strange atmosphere still lingers and continues to be a suffering, Joanna is sure of one thing: “We have to show the world that love is stronger. We have to believe more than ever before in a united world, and to do our little part.”

By Susanne Janssen (Living City Magazine, NY – USA)

We are responsible for one another

Apr 17, 2013 | Non categorizzato

We are offered a very simple criterion to judge whether we are right with God. We are right with God if we are right with humanity. We love the One in heaven if we love the other on earth. It could be said that our brothers and sisters have been given us to remind us, because of their likeness, of God.

I would not like to be spoken ill of, starved, kept homeless, workless, joyless… and so, as much as it is in my power, I should be active so that others may be honoured, fed, housed, employed and filled with consolation. Then we establish a kind of equality, which is, as I treat my brother and sister, so God treats me; as my brother or sister treats me, so God treats him or her.

It could be said that God is the first to practice the key precept of the Gospel: ‘Love you neighbour as yourself’, and he loves according to his nature as God, that is, infinitely. In fact this love urges him to the point of wanting us one with him, making us sharers in his nature. Did he not, for this very reason, make himself share our nature? And this puts us in our place so as to bestow on us a life together with him.

Individualism, with its closing down and swelling up of the ego in the shell of it is own personal exclusivity, suffocates the soul and, as it lacks the circulation of warmth, it is extinguished. And the soul suffers cold, dies frozen. It is enough, though, that one should love a brother or sister, because bringing warmth back to the spirit of the other, the soul warms up itself. A warning habitually made to us is the exhortation or the prohibition to mix with these or those people… Yet Jesus spoke even with the Samaritan woman, scandalizing his friends. And he wanted us to leave the 99 obedient sheep to seek out precisely the disobedient hundredth.

In coming close to a brother or sister, I come under a responsibility for that person’s eternal future and hence also for my own, given the solidarity that lies beneath our relationships. However many times our brother or sister sins, in a minor or major way, it is also our sin, a collapse created by our lack of love.

How often a criminal is an individual who has had a lack of love, so much so that the Crucified One, over the heads of the judges in session could utter: ‘Let anyone who is pure cast the first stone!’ How many brothers and sisters have been lost because they have been abandoned by us!

Igino Giordani, Il Fratello (The Brother), (Rome: Città Nuova, 2011; first published by Figlie della Chiesa, 1954).

Romania, Catholics and Orthodox in dialogue

Apr 16, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

“We have a chance… we can speak on common themes of Christian theology.” With these words, Prof. Stanciu, Dean of Orthodox Theology at the University of Babes-Bolyai, recommended to aim at what unites rather than divides. “We all know that there’s need for love and there are no elements of disagreement when one speaks of love. Why not benefit from this opportunity?”

This second meeting was held on the 16^th April at the department in an atmosphere of harmony of thought and life. It was entitled: “Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1Jn 4,16).

Orthodox and Catholics in turn presented academic papers and life experiences in an atmosphere of intellectual and spiritual productiveness, as a fruit of the shared intention to live this moment in the light of Jesus’ words: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (Mt 18,20). “From the presentations it seemed to be that there was not just a dialogue of concepts among the speakers but also of hearts”, commented an Orthodox professor. “We not only spoke but also lived”.The friendly and fruitful relationship among some Catholics and Orthodox has in fact developed over several years.

Bishop Vasile

The Meeting began with the Metropolitan of Cluj Andrei’s greetings to the nearly seventy participants present, and ended with the speech of bishop Vasile, the Metropolitan’s deputy. He drew a parallel between the birth of the Focolare and Saint Basil’s activity or the message of Assisi “because in the difficult times the world was passing through, they knew how to bear an extraordinary witness to Christ, uniting forces with whom they helped society advance, mobilizing all the Church’s energies in order that it might mirror that what it ought to be and for which Christ founded it.” He also wished that these meetings of mutual enrichment, knowledge and fruitful exchange, would continue to be held on a regular basis.

In order to highlight the importance of the event, the Metropolis radio hosted a programme with various interviews.