In the light of the recent positive news regarding the agreement for the Gaza Strip, I want to express my sincere hope that this represents a first step toward a just, comprehensive and sustainable peace.
There is certainly still a long way to go, yet in this moment my thoughts are with the hostages, the Palestinian prisoners and the residents of Gaza. We trust that they may begin again to glimpse a renewed hope for a life worthy of its name.
We also hope that those entrusted with the fate of nations will continue to make decisions guided by the highest good we possess: life itself.
We commit to joining our efforts, both practically and spiritually, with all those who are working tirelessly for a better world. In this spirit, we want to unite to the Day of Prayer for Peace proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV, to be held on the 11th of October.
To all those who belong to the Focolare Movement in the world
We, the leadership of the Focolare Movement, gathered in Rome, representing those who belong to the Movement in 140 countries where it is present, express how much we are suffering at the continuing escalation of armed conflicts that are devastating the Middle East and many other parts of the world.
We express our firm and unwavering closeness to the people and nations who are suffering, and we condemn all forms of violence, injustice and oppression.
Aware that peace begins with our daily actions, we would like to invite everyone to embrace and endorse the following commitments with their lives:
• to be ‘artisans of peace’, prepared to overcome ideologies and divisions,
• to promote and support networks of solidarity in order to provide material, psychological and spiritual support to the victims of all wars,
• to ensure that each of our communities becomes a ‘home of peace’, where we learn to defuse hostility through dialogue and mutual understanding, where justice is practised and forgiveness is fostered,
• to promote educational programmes to develop a culture of peace, inclusion and non-violence, especially among the new generations,
• to encourage all local and global initiatives that generate encounters and interreligious and intercultural dialogue, which are fundamental for reconciliation.
We commit ourselves to ensure that forgiveness, dialogue and fraternity are not mere words but become real pathways that open up the future and prevent violence from having the last word.
May an unceasing and confident prayer rise from every corner of the earth to the God of peace, so that he may enlighten the hearts of those who have the power to act so as to put an end to every conflict.
Come exiled brother, let us embrace. Wherever you are, whatever your name, whatever you do, you are my brother. What does it matter to me if nature and social conventions try to separate you from me, with names, conditions, restrictions or laws?
The heart cannot be restrained, the will knows no limits and by making an effort to love we can overcome all these divisions and reunite as a family.
Don’t you recognise me? Nature placed you elsewhere, made you different, within other borders, you may be German, Romanian, Chinese, Indian… You may be yellow, olive-skinned, black, bronze, copper-toned… but what does it matter?
What does it matter that you are from a different country? When this small, still-glowing globe consolidated, no one could have imagined that for such accidental outgrowths, people would kill each other for ages.
And even today, in the face of our political systems, do you think that nature ever asks our permission to express itself through volcanoes, earthquakes or floods? And do you think it cares about our disparities, appearances or hierarchies?
Unknown brother, love your land, your fragment of the shared crust that supports us, but do not hate mine. Under all the trappings, under the all the social classifications, no matter how codified, you are a soul that God created as a sister to mine, to that of every other person (there is only one Father) and you are like every other person who suffers and perhaps you cause suffering, who needs more than he possesses, who falters, who gets tired, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, like me, like everyone else.
“Unknown brother, love your land, your fragment of the shared crust that supports us, but do not hate mine. (…) In you I recognize the Lord. Free yourself and even now, brothers that we are, let’s embrace. “
You are a poor pilgrim following a mirage. You believe yourself to be the centre of the universe and yet you are nothing more than an atom of this humanity that from millennia to millennia struggles more through sorrow than through joys.
You are a speck, brother, so let’s join forces instead of fighting. Do not be proud, do not isolate yourself, do not accentuate the marks of differentiation devised by man.
Didn’t you cry when you were born, as I did? Will you not groan when you die, as I will? Whatever its earthly shell, the soul will return to be naked, equal. So come. From beyond all seas, climates, all laws, from beyond every social, political or intellectual compartment, from beyond all boundaries (man knows only how to circumscribe, divide and isolate) come, brother.
In you I recognize the Lord. Free yourself and even now, brothers that we are, let’s embrace.
