While visiting Poland, Maria Voce and Jesús Moran, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, respectively, held a meeting on 26 May in the Mariapolis Fiore (Poland) with a group of priests and religious who were bound in various ways to the Focolare. Fr. Zdzislaw Klafka, a Redemptorist, recounted his encounter with the spirituality of unity and the positive effects in living his specific vocation in a more radical manner. «I feel so grateful to Chiara Lubich for having been God’s docile tool in bringing about in the Church, a spirituality that has helped me face the difficulties in life: When I was nominated the Superior of my congregation, I found a challenge before me. I was in Rome and before returning to Poland, I asked her to suggest a phrase of the Gospel that could enlighten my path. She answered: “No one has greater love than he who gives up his life for his friends.” I was then 29 years old and that phrase became the compass that showed me the way. In living the spirituality of unity I started to look up to my founder, St. Alphonse, in a new way. This was how I rediscovered not only my roots but the evangelical force that lies within every other charism of the Church. Someone asked me whether my adhering to the spirituality of the Focolare was not time stolen from my duties as a Redemptorist. The fact is, and I have experienced it repeatedly, that when I return from my meetings with the religious of other orders, I feel the desire to live my own choice of God even more radically.»

«The numerous family I come from – Fr. Zdzislaw recalled –helped me to live for God, but “together with others.” After my novitiate with the Redemptorists, Prof. Wlodzimierz Fijalkodwski came to hold a conference, and among other things, told us that he had met the focolarini. He left us their address and we went to visit them. I shall never forget that encounter. I saw people who were fulfilled, and who gave me the key to building charitable relationships, up to experiencing the presence of the Risen Christ. And another key that would give us peace was: Jesus Forsaken, Chiara Lubich’s great intuition that helps us not to succumb to fear. I still had not finished my studies in Rome when another religious and I were called back to Poland, where we were entrusted with the formation of the seminarians. We invited them to take up the responsibility for every aspect of life in the seminary. On our part instead, we decided to be by their side, listening and treating them seriously. And life in the seminary changed completely. We covered this role for three years and then we returned to Rome where we were recalled to complete our studies. Since many in the Movement asked me to speak about my founder, and especially on seeing how Chiara loved the saints, I achieved my diploma and doctorate on St. Alphonsus Liguori. Despite my youth, I was chosen for six years to be the Superior of the Province of the Redemptorists. In1991, after the fall of the Berlin wall that had marked a new era for the Catholics in Europe, a radio station was created. This facility became instrumental in moulding the conscience of the Catholics who had been paralysed during the Communist era. Then came the idea to set up a TV network and the Higher Institute of Social Culture and Media, of which I have been Rector for 14 years now. The Institute now has over 400 students». As to the President of the Focolare, Fr. Zdzislaw concluded: «What I admire in Maria Voce is her simplicity and wisdom. I am fascinated by the liberty with which she lives the ideal of unity, and this is the essence of Chiara Lubich’s life.