Maria Voce in Portugal

Aug 16, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

This time it would be appropriate to say that the time has finally arrived for Portugal! The time has arrived for the long-expected visit of the president and of the co-president of the Focolare Movement to the land of Portugal. The trip, which had originally been planned for last January, was postponed for health reasons. But now neither the fierce summer heat nor Maria Voce’s busy schedule have prevented the Focolare community in Portugal from gathering together to give a warm welcome to the president and co-president Giancarlo Faletti.

There are two antecedents which the Portuguese proudly include in the history of the Movement in this country.

The first goes all the way back to 1948 when Igino Giordani (known as Foco), then Deputy of the Italian State, held a conference at the Geographic Society. During this conference, Giordani, who had met Chiara Lubich only three months earlier and was left fascinated by her spirituality of unity, met then Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, Manuel Cerejeira.

The second antecedent is particularly dear to the Portuguese Focolare community. It was Chiara’s visit to the Shrine of Fatima in 1955 when the Movement had not yet begun in Portugal. She wrote about it in her diary three years later: “It was September 1955 when a truly exceptional circumstance procured for us the great fortune of meeting with Sister Lucia of Fatima. . . I don’t remember much from that much loved trip, which lasted from 8 September (the Nativity of Mary) until 12 September (the Holy Name of Mary), perhaps because my heart was completely taken by the Cova da Iria, where Our Lady had presented her message to the world.”

Many years would go by before Chiara could personally meet with the Portuguese Focolare community at Santiago di Compostela (1989) along with the community of Spain. Later in 2003, she was preparing to visit Lisbon when her health prevented her from going. On this occasion as preparations were underway for the 60^th Anniversary of the Focolare’s arrival in Portugal, she wrote to the members of the community who were gathered for the festivities: “Dearest Everyone, I am imagining you all gathered there in Fatima (…). Even though it hasn’t yet been possible for me to be with you, may you feel that I am with you more than if I were there in person. I know that you’ll welcome this opportunity to renew the unity among you. . . to spread Love through the world.”

Now, with Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti in Portugal, it is as if they are fulfilling the desire of the founder.

We shall remain watching and reporting on their visit so that all those interested from around the world will be able to share in the happenings among the Focolare community in Portugal.

By our correspondent Gustavo Clariá

Photos © M. Conceicao / M. Freitas

A Strong Faith in Syria

Aug 10, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

Life has become hard for people in many places in Syria: bombings and conflict, fear, rising food prices, scarcity of gas for cooking. It is possible to leave the house, but life has been slowed down by fearful roadblocks. Many Christian families are tending to escape to Lebanon, at least for the time being.

They tell us from Syria: “We were already hoping for a peaceful resolution in November 2011, but things gradually dissolved into the state of affairs that we have today, the country gripped by violence with unforseeable and certain diastrous consequences. For us who believe in a united world it is quite painful to see the lack of any real will for finding a political and diplomatic solution. Right from the beginning of the events we realized, together with many other people in the country, that the priority wasn’t the one acclaimed by many newspapers and Arab and Western satellite news channels: pluralism and freedom but a game of power that is destroying the country at every level, a country known for the way people of diverse confessions have lived together in peace.”

From the first disturbances and disorientation the members of the Focolare Movement saw “the fruits of the Gospel life that has been sown over the decades and the total communion in and among the various communities spread throughout the country. “This trial that our country is living through,” they go on to say, “has brought us back to what is essential in our relationship with God, with the Word and with the people around us. It has manifested itself in a growing effort to depend on Him.”  

Believing in God’s love, being attentive and in an attitude of giving ourselves to the needs of the people around them is the modus vivendi for both young and old. The vitality that is found among the young people is quite striking. The Movement’s youth in the city of Aleppo distribute free meals to poor families. They have also begun a support drive among their friends and families, so that they can provide regular food and basic supplies to people in need. Some of the Focolare’s Gen3 (children) have prepared and sold snacks to students who regularly go to the parish library in order to study for their university examinations. The small children, the Gen4, gather and sell bottle caps. The young people from Damascus have held cineforums and meetings in which they try to spread the culture of peace and brotherhood. When the first refugees began to flow into the gardens and schools of the city, youths from the Focolare and others immediately did everything they could to meet their needs.

A series of difficulties had begun for engineer Walid and his wife Sima regarding the contract on their house, the car payments that had to be made and the children’s school fees. We began to be invaded by fear”, they recount, “as we saw that we would eventually lose the house, and Walid had already lost his job. But we gained courage by believing in God’s love, knowing that He would intervene at the right moment. The nex day, in fact, some help arrived for us in the form of some money that corresponded to the chidren’s school fees.” Another family who were left without anything also received help from the villagers. “They offered us everything that was lacking in our house,” Mariam and Fouad recount, who had not seen a paycheck on four months, “even a carpet and a television.”  

Just the same, the difficult situation also instilled a lot of mutual fear and mistrust, and everyone looked at everyone with suspicion. Our attitude of building fraternal relationships with everyone went against the current. This is what Rima experienced who works for a project in support of  Iraqi women professionals. One day a woman showed up to enroll in the course. Her attire –totally veiled – cautioned prudence. She could have generated suspicion among the other members of the course. With another excuse I found a way not to enroll her, but then a more powerful thought entered my mind: “Jesus loved everyone and came to save everyone without exception. We should also have the same love that doesn’t make distinctions.” And so she did everything she could to trace the woman down and enroll her in the course.

Fahed is a taxi driver. “Now, working is a challenge and a source of growing stress. One day an old Muslim man began cursing against a bombing attack which, in his opinion, had targeted a mosque. I listened to him attentively, then I tried to comfort him saying: “Don’t be saddened, because houses for God can only be built by God.” Four months later the same man got into my taxi, but he didn’t recognize me. During the drive he confided to me that he had been so struck by one of our Christian “brothers” who had said to him that only God can build His houses.”

Youssef is a young gynecologist. Amid the anger of the first disurbances in the country, he at once placed himself at the service of the wounded, going out to assist them where they were. His unusual decision to care for patients of all confessions, at the risk of being misunderstood turned out to be a seed of reconcilliation. A network of medical workers was created around him, who sought to heal both physical and the non-physical wounds as well.

Then there was that young professor who had been recruited by the army a year earlier. Prayer, unity with the other young people who lived the Christian ideal, and his decision to offer his life to God were his daily support, even when it was his duty to go and inform the famlies of fallen soldiers.

Mona is a young woman who fled with her family to a village near the city. Several months earlier she has returned to the city to offer her help at a Centre run by a religious Order that helps children of all confessions to make  up school work and, most especially, to recuperate the desire to go on living.

“In my quarter,” recounts Bassel, “just after the first manifestations, real and strong attacks began against the police. Many times, closed in our houses in order to find protection from the bullets that were flying all around us, we grasped the Rosary in our hand, convinced that Our Lady would have protected us. Recalling the power of a prayer said in unity, with a friend we began having the “Time-Out” at eleven in the evening, which is when the clashes usually began. Many people joined us. In spite of it all, we continued to believe that in the end, armed weapons would not have the final word.”

Hunger to be heard

Aug 9, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

‘I belong to the Dominican Sisters of Bethany, a contemplative congregation founded in 1866 by Fr Lataste, a French Dominican. When he was sent to preach in the women’s prison of Cadillac, he had the idea of opening up contemplative life also to those women, once their sentences were over, and he founded a community in which ex-offenders, together with women with no criminal convictions, lived a life of prayer and work together on a completely equal basis and drawing a veil of silence over everyone’s past life.

‘The spirituality of unity and the Word lived and communicated made us realize the value and the relevance of our charism better. Once a week we go to the women’s prison in our city of Turin. Just as in Cadillac, we try to give witness to the hope that comes from God. We meet many women, we offer them the possibility of coming to us when they are released on licence, respecting their legal obligations, for example the need to check in with the police on a daily basis.

‘In the prison we listen to their sorrows, their worries, their pains and their unexpected joys. To extend our charism to the world today, we have started spending time with the people of the night: drug users, the homeless, unscrupulous people on the make both foreign and local, who live in Porta Nuova. We offer them friendship with no strings attached and a chance to meet without demanding that they change. “Are you hungry?” I asked young man from Morocco a little while ago. “Yes, I hunger to be heard, to have relationships, not bread. This is a kind of hunger too.”

‘They know and wait for us at Porta Nuova. As in prison, here too we are spectators of the miracles that sharing out Love makes happen. We could tell many stories. One evening I heard someone calling me. The voice, distorted, came from a pile of blankets. It was a boy obviously going cold turkey. “Tell me, sister, was Jesus Christ tall, blue-eyed and blond?” “I don’t know,” I answered, “I’ve never seen him in person.” He carried on, “He is followed and loved by lots of people.” I responded “He also had problems with the people close to him.” “Physically I look like him, but nobody likes me.” I tried to understand why he was so angry. The tears coursed down his hollow cheeks. “Can I stay for a bit?” I said quietly. Sitting on a station trolley, I listened at length to his story. He spoke like a river in spate. Some years went by. Then, one day, while walking along the street, I hear myself being called. I instantly recognize his blue eyes, which now seem clear, healthy. “I still remember what you said about Jesus Christ! Look! I’m still around!”

‘While I am at Porta Nuova, my community supports me by their adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, so that Jesus may pass through my words and I can recognize him in the faces of the women and men I meet.’

(Sr Silvia, Italy)

Excerpt from Una buona notizia. Gente che crede gente che muove – Città Nuova Editrice, 2012

A Story from Syria

Aug 9, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

“When the problems began in the country, I was drafted into the army for military service. Despite the fear that I felt, I also felt that even this was part of God’s plan for me. What gave me strength was the Word of Life, the only spiritual food I could have. Every once in a while I managed to telephone my family and give them some news. Then I would telephone the focolare and the Gen – other young people with whom I share this path – in order to share my experiences with them.

My troop in which I was the only Christian, was comprised of fifty officers from all over the country and from all confessions. There was a sincere relationship among us, one that didn’t take differences into account, one built upon sacrifice and altruism and generosity on the part of everyone. At the end of November 2011, we were informed that we were to be transferred each to a different part of the country. This created suspension in everyone. I was also wondering how it would turn out for me. Little by little, I began to notice a small voice in my heart that said to me: “Entrust your whole life to God,” and this gave me peace. Before taking leave of one another, we met on the last night for a send-off and to say goodbye to each other. To my surprise each one of us expressed what he had learnt from the other and, in the end, we embraced like real brothers.

From the month of March 2012 I was assigned to taking charge of new recruits, besides notifying the families of fallen soldiers. These are dramatic moments in which I try to share the family’s pain. As far as my work as an officer, I try to act with transparency and promptness, and to see that every decision I make is for the good of the person. For example, one recruit had to be dismissed for health reasons, but someone had forgotten to draw up his papers. As soon as I realized this, I did everything I could to speed up the process, and he could return home as planned. I even worked extra hours in order to finish all the paperwork.

Right from the start, I decided to live as a real Christian bringing love even into this environment. There are always occasions to live my choice in concrete ways, even risking my life sometimes. For example, one time a colleague had to go and pick some new recruits in a far-away city. There was the danger of attack during the trip and she was frightened. I proposed that I accompany her to the place, and so it happened. At the last moment, the administration decided to send me in an airplane.

One day, coming back from Mass, I heard the news that one of my colleagues, a soldier, had been killed during an attack at the bus station. It was a shock that remained with me for days. Recalling that I had given my life to God gave me strength to believe in His love and it rekindled my hope that God could draw good from all this suffering. In a situation like this there is the risk of becoming accustomed to death. One day they telephoned me with a list of soldiers who had been killed. I was mechanically writing down the names, when I suddenly realized that behind every number was a human being and this made me want to begin praying for each of them and for their families. It seemed the only useful thing to do in this tragedy.

My faith each day is a conquest, and my Ideal is put to the test. This is the only weapon I have along with that of living love completely in each moment with the assistance of the many people who are praying for me.”

(Z. M.– Syria)

Bishops with Chiara Luce

Aug 8, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

The last visitors left a few days ago. A coach of young people from Oporto, the second city of Portugal, accompanied by their bishop, was among them. They came to Sassello, a province of Savona in Italy, to visit the place Chiara Luce Badano had lived and to get to know how she lived the Gospel in everyday life.

Since her beatification in September 2010, the town where the eighteen year-old was born and grew up, has become more and more a place of convergence for young people from all over Europe and beyond. Monday 6 August saw another, quite particular, proof of a fame that is spreading far and wide and of a holiness with universal appeal, because 65 bishops and cardinals from all over the world came to the town of 1900 inhabitants on the border between the Italian regions of Liguria and Piedmont.

Of course, these bishops are friends of the Focolare Movement and live the same spirituality as Chiara Luce. But as they point out to Maria Teresa and Ruggero (Chiara Luce’s parents), Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti (Focolare President and Co-President), from the outset the beatified young woman’s influence has spread beyond the Focolare Movement.

‘Now lots of young people from all over the world are coming,’ Chiara Luce’s mother confirmed. ‘There is one coach after another. Large numbers of boys and girls who don’t believe come to our home and look and listen and when they come out of Chiara’s bedroom they make the sign of the cross, as if taking away a gift from my daughter.’ The bishops, in small groups, also went into the room where she had suffered and died. They saw her king-size bed transformed into an altar by the pain she offered and into a pulpit by her example of suffering transformed into joy.

Monday was the feast of the Transfiguration and Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, until recently in charge of the Pontifical Council for the Family, presided over the Eucharistic celebration at the conclusion of the day at Sassello. He pointed out an aspect of Chiara Luce’s holiness ‘precisely in her capacity to show that life conquers death, showing the transfiguration of the human person.’ Shortly before she died, indeed, she said to her mother, ‘Please be happy, because I am happy.’

Such a large number of bishops all in one go have never been seen before in the town, and the mayor, Paolo Badano (the surname is common there) found himself filled with admiration and pride. He expressed his gratitude to Chiara Luce and, after reading out a message of greeting from Claudio Burlando, the Regional President, he called her ‘the smiling saint.’

The bishops went to the tomb ‘to ask Chiara Luce’s intercession and protection for the path to holiness along the way of the spirituality of unity opened up by Chiara Lubich,’ as Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, Archbishop Emeritus of Prague, emphasized.

One moment of the entire day seemed to be the climax, both for its meaning and for its symbolism. A brief moment with the Badanos in their garden had been arranged for the large group of bishops. The skies were darkened by clouds and a slight wind was rising. The couple were concerned. The bishops carried on and asked their questions: what kind of young people come here? Does Chiara Luce only have an effect on young people? How do you become a saint? Chiara Luce’s parents drew from their daughter’s wisdom, telling the bishops about things she did or said. It was, as it were, 45 minutes of catechesis by this attractive eighteen year-old girl: almost a foretaste of what she would like to do on earth in the future. In the end a warm sun shone down from the heavens.

‘The Church has now a very contemporary example of what it means to live the Gospel and Christian love,’ commented Archbishop Francis Xavier Kreingsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok. ‘But we have seen the nature of a Christian family that walks in faith during trials, suffering and death.’ Archbishop Francisco Pérez González of Pamplona in Spain agreed: ‘’Jesus has shown himself to the young and uninstructed. I saw it yet again in Chiara Luce and I have reflected on the humility displayed by her parents.’

‘We may be in front of another two saints, seeing the simplicity and wisdom of the Badanos,’ said the Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life. ‘Chiara Luce shows us a fulfilled life that teaches the joy found in accepting the unforeseeable plan of God. By choosing love she hit upon the heart of Christianity. Her greatness comes from having remained a normal girl. We need people like her. Young people who don’t go to church find in her an example of normality that takes them to God and then leads them to the Church.’

Before the bishops arrived, Maria Voce had visited Chiara Luce’s room for the first time and had stayed for thirty minutes with her parents. ‘I feel she’s like a sister because of the charism of unity linking us,’ she confided to Maria Teresa and Ruggero. ‘A younger sister because she is a child of the Focolare Movement I am President of and an older sister because, running like an Olympic athlete, she has gone before me in holiness.’

From our correspondent Paolo Lòriga.

Education & Fraternity: Board of Education and International Meeting

Aug 4, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

The educational crisis is one of the urgent challenges of our time. There is need for a renewal in formation programs to meet the demands of students who wish to achieve their goals in an era of globalization.   

A group of Italian educators, which includes teachers, youth group leaders, psychologists and pedagogists have come together in a “National Board of Education” which, since 2010 has met in Grottaferrata, Rome at the headquarters of the New Humanity Movement which promotes the project in collaboration with “Action for a United World”, “Education for Unity” and “Teens for Unity“.

The latest novelty to come out from the work of the Board has been that of placing on the 2013 agenda an “International Meeting for the World of Education”, which will be held in Castelgandolfo, Italy on 6-8 September 2013. The meeting will gather people who are in any way involved in the world of education: family, school and catechesis, youth groups, researchers and teens. The declared objective is to lay the groundwork, on an international level, through an exchange of ideas, educational approaches and best practices, and to implement projects in various countries.

In Italy the Board publishes online educational, didactic and methodological projects from several parts of Italy, like education for peace, citizenship and comprehension which demonstrate that only an authentic interpersonal relationship of reciprocal giving, can be the principle of every great educational event, capable of favouring the full realization of the personality of each and every one.

Some students from a science high school in the province of Catania are a witness to this. Educational programmes in education for the common good, for appreciating not only the cultural patrimony of the individual disciplines, but the unity of human knowledge and universal values, with the goal of helping students to interiorise the messages and bring about a transformation in their way of life. With the involvement of experts from various fields, meetings are planned with associations involved in the field of development and cooperation and volunteering.

The teenagers themselves become the protagonists of projects of solidarity and sharing, as with the “distant support” project for children who live in difficult situations, but also within the classrooms, sharing their materials, talents, abilities.

Cecilia Landucci teaches literacy in a first class school in the province of Rome. She is the coordinator of field projects with the commission for “Education and Culture” of New Humanity: “The Board is a concrete network of educators. Knowing each other’s experiences promotes collaboration, brings us out of our isolation, favours the spreading of what is already happening and becoming a cultural way of thinking in the field of education within the light of the charism of unity; the elaboration of a project for Italian schools, which can help redefine them.”

Gymnastic Trials: Looking Good?

Aug 2, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

Her mother writes: “A. was performing her piece at the end-of-the-year gymnastic trials and many people had come to watch. At one point one of her companions dropped her hoop. A. immediately gave her own to her companion and went to fetch the one that was dropped. Then she re-joined the choreography.

The trainers were open-mouthed with surprise. One of them said to me: “In all my years of training, I’ve never seen anything like this: an athlete who leaves her place in order to cover the mistake of another.” I responded: “It’s love that urges you to go beyond looking good; thinking of others makes you capable of things like this.”

The trainers all congratulated her. Then when were alone my daughter said to me; “Mamma, I didn’t care about looking good. My friend was in trouble and I had to help her.” It made me see how the Gospel that is slowly entering into her is making her a witness of her yes to Jesus. This episode occurred shortly after her return from the Gen4 congress that was entitled: “Love that embraces the whole world”.

(A. F. –Italy)

Brazilian and Italian Sociologists Compared

Aug 1, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

It was the first seminar to be curated by the Social-One research group outside of Europe in cooperation with a group of Latin Americans from the Anti-utilitarian Movement in Social Sciences (M.A.U.S.S.). On 6-7 July 2012 about fifty people, including professors, researchers and students from various regions of Brazil gathered inOlinda, north easternBrazilwith an Italian delegation. Agapic Action (i.e. action motivated by fraternal and disinterested love) was the central topic of the two-day seminar, and it is also at the heart of the thinking of the group of researchers connected with Social-One. But it is certainly not a common topic for the field of Sociology.

“Free Gift and Agapic Action: Diaologue Towards A New Prospective for the Social Sciences” was the title of the seminar, which was opened by Brazilian Dr. Vera Araujo who underscored the need for new ideas – like agape and free gift – to inspire behaviours and the collective dynamic.

Twelve hours of intense work. Four conferences and four parallel sessions, enriched by an open dialogue that involved all the participants.

There were three Italian presenters: Prof. Michele Colasanto from the Catholic University of Milan who discussed the role of the concepts of agape and free gift in the construction of the common good; Prof. Gennaro Iorio, member of the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Salerno who, after his presentation of a reflection on the theme of agapic action  as developed by Social-One, then spoke on the relationship between agape and conflict; Dr. Licia Paglione, member of the Department of Social Sciences and Communication at the Sophia University Institute of Loppiano, Florence who proposed a study of the relationship between the concepts of gift and love, beginning with the work of Russian sociologist P. A. Sorokin (1889-1968).

In the parallel sessions five projects were developed by Brazilian students and professors from several universities, who are familiar with topics under discussion in a Brazilian academic and social setting.

Twenty year old Maria Julia Izidoro speaks of wide horizons, “talking about love in the lecture halls of a university.” For Maria Eduardo Couto: “A wall has come down between the youth and the old “dinosaurs” of the Social Sciences. Here we found ripened scientists who listened to us with such great interest and attention.” Young Lucas Francisco da Silva Jr said that he was “impressed by the idea, given that society is in need of change and of the concept of agapic action in its social interactions, to make the world better.” Saulo Miranda was struck by “the presence of so many young people who are interested and prepared to examine such topics in their academic studies.” Simone Alves made an interesting comment; “I’ve acquired some important theoretic academic baggage here, but the basic thing has really been the experience of love, of that agapic action that I found in the relationships among the people here.”

“This seminar will leave as a legacy,” says seminar coordinator Lucas Galindo, “an openness of mind, heart and spirit in favour of dialogue that is fruitful and allows one to hope that agapic action (love) will have a strong effect on social life.” 

Together For Europe, in Portugal

Jul 24, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

This was the message that was launched by representatives from Movements and Communities of Europe, as well as leading figures from the institutional and political landscape who met in Brussels on 12 May 2012. One hundred and fifty European cities were linked up via satellite or internet with the Square Meeting in Brussels for the Together For Europe event, which gathered together 300 Movements and Communities from different Churches. There were many stories of reciprocity shared by those present. There were experiences of incarnating the Gospel with social consequences. Zoom on Portugal for knowing the country better, will welcome the visit of Focolare president Maria Voce and co-president Giancarlo Faletti on 15-22 August 2012. Five Lusitanian cities are involved in the events that are being presented as an occasion for knowing one another better and building relationships of mutual respect and friendship. The story from the communities. Lisbon. A hundred and ten youths spread out through the city, to all the tourist spots, distributing flyers with the 7Yeas and descriptions of projects for building a more inclusive Europe, which were being done by seven Movements: Schonstatt, Emmanuel, Cursilhos, Equipas de Nossa Senhora, Verbum Dei, Metanoia and Focolare. In the afternoon there was an event in the Auditorium with 350 people for an open dialogue with several personalities who gave presentations and testimonies on the progress made so far. Porto. There were year-long preparations, in which working together became a true experience of fraternity. The testimony offered by the Bishop of Port, Bishop Clemente, was quite touching: “The best guarantee for the future is this Christian inspiration, in which we, together with other men and women, can be active protagonists.” Coimbra. Families as active builders of European unity. Two hundred and fifty people of all ages, from small children to grandparents take part in a walk from Parque Verde to the University, in conclusion to the transmission from Brussels. The characteristic highlight of this year’s edition was the award ceremony for the “At the Roots of Christian Europe” Competition that was geared toward schools and included music, photography, poetry, filming and drawing. Funchal, Madeira Island. This was the first time that the city of Funchal took part in the “Together For Europe” event. Nine Catholic Movements were involved: ACI, ACR, Cursilhos, Equipas de Nossa Senhora, Equipas Jovens de Nossa Senhora, Focolare, RnS, Schonstatt, and Verbum Dei. There was a link-up with Brussels from the University of Madeira and, in a side event, a collection of food staples for the Diocesan’s Caritas campaign “Funchal, a city that supports”. Faro, nell’Algarve. Faro (Algarve). Located in the southernmost zone of Portugal, Faro has a large multi-ethnic presence and known for its lack of religious practice. The course taken by the six Movements – Cursilhos, RnS, Fraternal Gatherings Movement, Boy Scouts, Liga de Acao Missionaria and Focolare – had a particular highlight. A hundred and fifty people attended the moment of prayer between Catholics and Orthodox. On 12 May there was a boy’s relay race and a food bank and, at the opening events, some words from Bishop Quintas. An invitation to “Together For Europe” at one of the most popular national TV programmes “Pros e Contras”  to take part in a debate entitled, “What are civic organizations doing for the crisis in Portugal?”

Crisis & Hope. The Finance Commission of Rome

Jul 20, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

The great financial crisis that exploded in 2008 had very serious consequences for businesses, families, and associations. Though there does not seem to be a way out of the situation, this crisis also rattles consciences and along with the desperation and waiting, it also moves thinking and creates new ways.

One group of workers from the world of finance and banking in Rome have discovered this for themelves. Daria, Domenico, Paola, Rosapina, Sandro, Gabriele and Assunta have been friends for a long time. They have also been working together professionally for some time but, most especially, they have been belieiving in the values of the Gospel and they think that they can be lived out in banks, post offices, credit and insurance agencies, in their fields of work. With the outbreak of the crisis they have each received requests for help to renegotiate a loan, to read a bank document, to make a more sensible investment.

In time, the group gave itself a name, “Finance Commission” and linked itself to the New Humanity Movementof the Focolare in Rome. Their meetings became an occasion for sharing their experiences and for discussing the problems and the crises of conscience that each day every member of the group was asked to face. It gave them a new sense of professional commitment in a work environment that is difficult at times.

One significant fruit of this dialogue has been the “Risparmio & Finanza” (Saving & Finance) Newsletter whose scope is precisely that of providing “professional” assistance to people in the area of economy and finance.

Each newsletter gives an overview of the current financial situation without a lot of technical language and offers a discussion of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church; it announces what is new on the markets, as well as news relating to financial products. “But first of all, the newsletter is an occasion for dialogue through an email address. This work has made us realize that sharing problems and decisions is critical because in our work we often lose the sense of the “common good” because it is subsituted by what we are expected to do.”

The wide diffusion of the magazine through the internet and social networks has allowed us to extend this experience and share it with other business operators and professionals in several regions of Italy: “We’re creating a network community from which there emerges ever more strongly the need to establish a relationship of truth, where communion becomes a concrete work method, which accepts the other with all of his problems and situations. And this enables us to find the most appropriate solutions.”

One example is what Giovanna and Carlo share,whoare from Rome: “Thanks to this online community we were able to help several people in need, with several small no-interest loans that were always repaid with punctuality. The nice thing is that when we were in need, we were offered the sum of money that we needed. It was a matter of 20,000 Euros that we were able to repay with tranquility and it saved us all the time and bureaucracyof doing it through a bank. We can assure you, in our own small way, that the “Give and there will be gifts for you” that the Gospel speaks of is really true and that Providence never makes you wait.”

Evangelizing Ourselves and Others

Jul 17, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

“In 1978 I left for the mission in the Congo. It was a hard moment for me. Africa, the rainforest, a new world to be discovered and loved.” This is how Sr Valeria of the Sisters of St Joseph Cuneo begins her story. She was speaking at the “Charisms for the New Evangelization” Convention being held in Turin on 17 March 2012. Sr. Valeria’s story is intertwined with that of Sr Nicoletta from the same Order. Arriving in Lolo – a small diocese on the outskirts of the rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Sr Nicoletta “discovered a place inhabited by simple folk” mostly fishermen and farmers.

On the other side of the river Sr Valeria had already begun a series of meetings for a group of New Families of the Focolare. Their “serenity, involvement and unity” fascinated Sr Nicoletta and she decided to invite Sr Valeria and the families to Lolo, so that they could share their experiences there as well.

“Then I felt I was also being strongly invited to live the Ideal of unity,” Sr Nicoletta recounts. Families in Lolo began to meet, and the monthly commentary on the Word of Life was translated into the local language. It’s power was stronger than that of many of the ancestral traditions that divide the life of men and women.

Despite the difficulty, the two sisters were also able to find time to meet and share with each other recounting the fruits of living the Gospel. The Bishop as well as their General Superior encouraged them to take things forward. In 1988 the first Mariapolis was held in Lolo with over a hundred people.

Today, even though the mission has been closed down, the Bishop has notified us that many of those families are now very actively involved in the diocese.

Since a few months the two sisters have been living together in the same community in Italy: “We help each other in living the Ideal of unity as it sheds new light on the charism of our founder, Jean Pierre Medaille. All the way back in 1650 he invited us to live the communion with God, among ourselves, and with each neighbour; a communion founded on the Word of Jesus: ‘That all may be one’ (Jn. 17:21).

“This is the New Evangelization:” explains Sr Valeria, “loving and allowing our life to say to everyone: ‘God loves you!’” She also shared about a group of teenagers from the middle school who meet once a month to move along a Christian journey together based on the Word of God. They are brought ahead on this journey by Sr Valeria, another Sister of St Joseph, a Daughter of Our Lady Help of Christians, and a Cottolengo Sister. “There’s much communion among us – she concludes – and the beauty of each charism is brought out.”

Alzheimer’s Cafè

Jul 14, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

«Some time ago I accepted a proposal, which was also a challenge: to become a caregiver to my aunt suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Caregiver This is how I started to take care of her daily, by helping her with the meals and with the cleaning, besides offering her company.

Being near to her I have lived and am living with pain the slow and progressive deterioration of her identity. I accept her relying on me. In moments of lucidity, she asks me to be the one to understand each of her losses. By going through the sufferings, I experienced personally the void the solitude, the fears and the inhibitions. I have also discovered “the emptiness” of the institutions. In this situation I was strengthened by thinking of Jesus Crucified and Forsaken, who continued to love also in the suffering.

Three years ago, I asked the geriatrician, a specialist in Alzheimer and who takes care of my aunt, to deal with this disease together with me in a different way. Through this comparison patient-doctor-doctor-family, the desire to create an Association was born and which will be able to give a collective response to this suffering. At first there were only two of us: the doctor and myself. Then I contacted some friends and ten of them joined. Se we legally constituted an association: “New Humanity – “The house of dreams”. In fact there is the need of dreaming, but if one dreams on his own it is easy that the dream remains a dream. If you are in many, learning to share the sufferings and the needs, then that dream becomes a reality.

The purpose of the Association is to keep alive the attention on the problem of dementia and how to deal with it: Alzheimer is a disease, which we live as a real challenge to accept and to win, with the collaboration of all the protagonists: patients, families, society and Institutions.

Our first task is a course for volunteers and the relatives of the patients with the title: “The Alzheimer’s disease and the other dementias”. Free contribution is given by physicians, psychologists, and hospital volunteers during the meetings and in which thirty persons participate,

At the end of the course, the idea of opening and “Alzheimer’s Café” was born: we wanted to live as a family together with the patients, not in the solitude of the four walls of the house, but in a coffee shop, a symbol of social life! Thus we accompanied them in the bar to share a hot chocolate or a fruit juice. Currently we accompany 35, of whom 20 are suffering from Alzheimer. One of them had not been out of the house for three years and another one did not want to participate because he did not have shoes, he accepted when we told him that he could even come in his slippers.

The news of this initiative soon spread in the city. Shortly after, even the Bishop wanted to pay us a visit to share the festive evening of our first anniversary of the Association, with us. He was interested in our activities even the Department of Social Services, who for a long time had sent us a car with a driver to transport our friends to meet at the Alzheimer’s Café.

In the summer of 2009, we had another idea. In the nearby town of Foggia there is an Institute for promoting horseracing. So we organized a visit to the old coach house and the stables. We have asked the parents of the patients to bring their wedding albums. The time was in fact the one in which coaches were used even for weddings. It was a success and the joy was great. We wanted to repeat the experience with a novelty the following year: we adopted some donkeys who were destined to be put to sleep, to stimulate the relational capabilities of the patients.

Our Association also organizes annual courses for the training of health professionals and support to the patient’s relatives. These courses are increasingly improving and are an occasion to spread the Ideal. Currently we are in 70, between patients and volunteers and we are self-supporting.

Amongst the therapeutic proposals, then we take advantage of aromatherapy and music-therapy. The whole town knows about our experience and like us many are available if we need help. We even thought of offering our service to the town community by giving a training course to foreign caregivers entitled: “Taking care of lost memory.

Read more: Association “The house of dreams” – San Severo (Foggia) – Italy

www.lacasadeisogni.biz

A Mariapolis in Macedonia

Jul 12, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

On 28 June 2012 – 1 July 2012 a Mariapolis was held in the hills that overlook Kicevo, halfway between the capital city of Skopje and the historic city of Ohrid in the south. The guests were welcomed at a unique hotel, a centre for meetings of artists, which was decorated with different types of artwork both inside and in the beautiful outdoor park.

There were some eighty people, especially from the Republic of Macedonia, but also from Kosovo and Serbia. The majority were Catholic and Orthodox family groups, and many Muslims.  

Their four days together were devoted to the Word of God and the dialogue among religions. Dialogue was the keyword at this Mariapolis, as was underscored by Bishop Anton Cirimotic from Skopje, and by Cristina Lee and Roberto Catalano from the Focolare Movement’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. The dialogue that the Focolare promotes is founded on its spirituality and the centrality of love. And this finds an immediate echo in other religions and cultures, thanks to the Golden Rule: “Do to others what you would like done to you.” This often requires one to take the first step towards others, without expecting any return, an up to the point of giving one’s life.

One day was dedicated especially to the family, with a series of experiences that highlighted the challenges of a globalized world as well as local ones. The family here still holds on to significant values. Together with his wife, Professor Aziz Shehu shared what the spirit of communion signified for him as an academic. Aziz is the father of Le Perle Kindergarten, and he told of how this pilot experiment had made a great contribution to Macedonian society at a time when it was so necessary to work together for true integration.   

Another day was devoted to the youth: a presentation by the young people, followed by spontaneous impressions that were shared on the spot and sometimes quite personal. The young people were accompanied by a choir that formed the background to the whole presentation. There was a dance expressing authentic relationships despite diversity, which had been the experience of the Mariapolis.

One young Catholic woman confessed that she had undergone deep change during the days of the Mariapolis. Her Christianity was they type that allowed her to exclude Muslims, atheists and even Orthodox. But at the Mariapolis she had discovered that persons of different faiths and cultures could live together and that each person with his faith helps to bring some light. “I understood that God sends the sunlight for everyone. Not only for us Christians, and so I should act accordingly.”

Many of the other impressions made the same point: a small girl from Kosovo who came with her mother and brother, only spoke Albanian. She told the audience that she didn’t think she was going to have an experience like this and to be accepted as she had been accepted. A Muslim ministry official said that he was deeply struck by how dialogue was actually lived and now was leaving the Mariapolis convinced that this is the only solution to the problems in Macedonia.

An Orthodox woman artist said she felt perfectly at home in this environment. So too for a young teenager girl who shared how she had discovered that openness to tohers helps us not only to be better Muslims or Christians, but also true men and women.

The departure of the eighty people who attended this summer gathering in Kicevo leaves one with the certainty: This experience has given them the sense that unity between diverse types of people is possible. The left with an increased awareness of being actors in building dialogue in their land.

Prescribing medicines isn’t enough

Jul 11, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

«I’m a doctor and I work in a state hospital. One day the police brought us a man with two bullets in his leg. This was the type of patient that no one in the clinic wants to deal with: a thief caught in the act.

He had been seriously wounded during a clash with the police who had brought him to us.

He was motionless on the bed with no one to assist him; not even his relatives showed up, according to the custom when a person has been thieving.

In most hospitals in Africa it’s the job of the relatives to bring food for the patients, to bathe and dress them, to help them with their daily material needs. In the absence of relatives the patient is totally abandoned. The medical staff is only obliged to provide medical care.

Moreover, the other patients and the medical personnel were not very happy to have this evildoer around. And so he was finding it diffult to find something to eat and, confined immobile on his bed, the smell around him soon became unbreable.

I complained to the Commissioner of Police that they had dumped such a person on us without anyone to help him. “That’s the job of the medical personnel!” was his rude reply. It came to my mind that in other countries caring for the patient does involve the healthcare staff. I explained to my colleagues that perhaps we should take an interest in this patient, but was unable to convince them.

I tried to make the other patients aware that they needed to accept this patient, though I wasn’t very successfully to tell the truth.

At one point I asked myself: “I would exhort others? And myself?” What am I doing for him? Yes, I prescribe medications for him to take. I give him a place on the ward. But this is only what I’m obliged to do. Now I have to do what I would ask others to do, to go beyond the minimum requirement.”

I removed him from his bed and bathed him. “Oh! I haven’t bathed in two months!” he joyfully exclaimed. “How good to feel the rays of the sun on my skin!” Then I paid one of the hospital workers to wash the patient’s clothes. Together with another colleague we changed his mattrass, since the one he had been using was in horrible condition. Finally, I left a bit of money for the patient himself, in case he was needing something.

This gesture of mine bore fruit. The workers, for example, began to take away the rubbish from his bedside. It raised compassion in the other patients also, who now share their food with him.

After a while he was able to leave the hospital. He was cheerful and in high spirits. He told me that he was going to give up thieving. He even followed my advice to go first to the police in order to accept the judgement of the court. He felt that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions.”

Dr. H.L. (Burundi)

The Philippines: Between Mountain Villages

Jul 9, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

“I’m an elementary school teacher. Often, I’m sent to teach in mountain villages. There are terrorist groups living in these remote areas, who call themselves liberators of the people. It happened that I ran into some of these terrorist squads, but I managed to escape by finding a hiding place in some rocks.

But one time, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hide myself quickly enough. They caught me and brought me back to their camp. For days on end I was put through lengthy interrogations.

Despite the fear, I tried to answer as repectfully and truthfully. One of them in particular tried to indoctirnate me with their ideology. He wanted to convince me to espouse their cause. When he asked me what I thought, I didn’t want to comment. On the following day he repeated his speech. I objected that it was necessary to begin by changing ourselves if we wanted to transform the power structures that seem unjust to us.

‘What should change is the love we have for each other,’ I tried to explain. Perhaps my words touched something inside him, perhaps they made him recall things that he had once believed. The fact remains that after this interrogation they let me go.

Ever since that day I continued to pray for that man and his companions. Recently, to my surprise, I recognized him on television, as the news was given of a terrorist who had handed over his weapons to the military and left the terrorist group.”

Nelda, from the Philippines.

From: “Una buona notizia”, Ed. Città Nuova, Rome, pp. 56, 57.

A book that offers a positive contribution to the New Evangelization, in view of the October Synod. It contains 94 brief stories from around the world.

Studying And Living: Fraternity Amidst Conflict

Jun 30, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

I am hurt by the injustice of it all and, since my culture encourages people to respond to violence with violence, I also found this violence within me and would justify it when I saw it in others.

I’ve come to study in Italy at the Sophia University Institute. I had so many questions. I’m experiencing something new here, something powerful. I took the political direction for my course of study, and I began to enter new surroundings. I discovered, for example, that the principle of fraternity can be a true and proper political category alongside freedom and equality. I’ve understood that fraternity is a choice, an answer that repairs injustice. Here you don’t only study, great importance  is given to experience, and the more you live the more you understand what you are studying.

A few months back, I was enormously shocked by the news that Israel and Palestine had agreed on a prisoner exchange. I had seen it on the Internet that there would be 1 against 1027. It was incredible news! Many of these Palestinians had been in prison for thirty years. I would have desired so much to home in order to celebrate this moment with family and friends. I was really moved. I spoke at length with my fellow students about what was happening in my land and they, who are of different nationalities, feasted with me!

A few of us went to church and prayed for the freed prisoners and their families. But as we left the church one student said to me: “. . . I pray also for that Israelian prisoner.” I didn’t agree. How could she say such a thing! Exchanging one prisoner for a thousand seemed deeply unjust.

When I returned home, I took up my books again but was unable to study. I was furious. A thousand thoughts. . . then a question: what is the sense of a theoretical study of fraternity, if I don’t try to experience it? Maybe I should also pray for this one prisoner and his family. . . I had to overcome many things within me, it was difficult, it cost me much, but in the end I managed to really do it with my heart.

Now, months later I still feel so much gratitude towards those who shared that moment with me, the students and professors at SUI. I’m not merely studying fraternity, but now I’m experiencing it both in my relationship with them and within myself. Samar Bandak – Jordan”.

(Source: official website of Sophia University Institute: http://www.iu-sophia.org )