“We were happy because we finally understood and Chiara Lubich confirmed it to us, that we were not made to remain closed in on ourselves, but we were called to go out into the world and meet all the children of the earth”.
Maria Chiara Biagioni, now a journalist, described it as a real mandate received directly from the founder of Focolare 40 years ago; the birth of a reality, of the Teens for Unity, which changed her life and that of many young people.
It was Easter 1984 and for the first time, the schools of formation for boys and girls of the Gen 3 Movement were underway in Castelli Romani (Rome). There were about eighty from all over Italy and a few representatives from Germany, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium and the Philippines. No-one imagined being part of the beginning of a “new era”.
Chiara Lubich invited them to the Focolare Centre in Rocca di Papa (Rome) at 5 p.m. on Easter Sunday. Something amazing was waiting for them there.
Chiara had prepared a gigantic Easter egg for them. Inside, like in a series of Russian dolls, there were some envelopes and, in the end, a huge surprise: a message from her in which she announced the foundation of the Movement “Teens for Unity”.
Federica Vivian told us, “That moment was very important for me (…). Chiara Lubich sent us her gift, a long letter and I felt that it perfectly expressed what we were experiencing with our friends and with many others. We did many things to show that we believed in fraternity (…) and that seed gave rise to the desire in me to never set limits, to build bridges with everyone”.
In her message, Chiara Lubich urged the young people to live the Gospel concretely and to bring to many others that ideal they had in their hearts, with a single great purpose: to unite the world. The answers were not long in coming. The “Yes” to this mission resounded in the room and very soon many other answers arrived from all over the world.
Fiammetta Megli, a teacher, said, “I was 12 years old and when that big Easter egg was opened, I felt an immense joy, but I didn’t even realize what was really happening. I felt like I belonged to a big family. Everything I learned in those years, as a young person, not only remained, but is the basis for everything I do today, including the work I do with my students at school”.
Today, after 40 years, Teens for Unity, (the teenagers of the Focolare Movement), is present in 182 countries of the world. They speak different languages, belong to different religions or none but what unites them is that common goal: to work to achieve universal fraternity. They are engaged in the most diverse actions, at all latitudes to break down barriers and divisions, so that a united and peaceful world will soon be a reality among all the peoples of the earth.
Since that day, continued Maria Chiara Biagioni, “indifference had no place in my heart. Everything I saw around me, everything that happened in the world, belonged to me, somehow it involved me and I was committed to meeting the needs, problems and challenges that were also facing me in my life. The second thing was to believe (…) that good is stronger than evil. Believe despite everything, despite people’s tears, the bombs that continue to fall in many countries of the world, despite the many evils that we find around us (…) believe that light is stronger than the darkness, always”.
At the traffic light Once a week I take a trip from my town to a larger city to meet with friends with whom I share the same ideals. I try to take extra money with me to help people who ask for alms at traffic lights. Last week, on my way home, I stopped at a red light and was approached by a young man ready to clean my windshield. I rolled down my window and while looking for money to give him I told him not to clean it because he would not make it before the light turned green.
He looked at me and said, “Can you give me a little more? I need to buy some chicken for my children.” I answered yes. In fact what I was giving him was not going to do him much good. He took the money and said, “Will you let me earn it? I promise I will do it quickly.”
Almost without waiting for my response, he started cleaning the windshield, finishing just before the traffic light turned green. Immediately afterwards he approached the window of the car and, with a happy face, shaking my hand, thanked me and wished me well. As I drove home, I thought about what had happened and realized that small gestures sometimes edify us and teach us more about ourselves than the people for whom we do them. I know that God is everywhere, but it never occurred to me that He was waiting for me at a traffic light. (S. Z. – Argentina)
In prison For dealing drugs I had ended up in juvenile detention, but where I continued to receive visits from Valerio, my teacher from when I was in school. And that could not leave me indifferent. In life, I had been involved with bad people who I thought were my friends, but not with Valerio: he loved me without any interest. Moreover, he would tell me stories of other boys, who had made a different choice from mine, gospel facts. One day a new “guest” arrived in my cell: a boy so dirty he was smelly. The cellmates began insulting him, spitting on him, intimidating him to go wash up. Since he had no soap, no towel, and no spare clothes, I intervened in his defense and gave him my clothes, soap, and towel. He went to take a shower and peace returned. This experience was the beginning of a turning point. I thought that because of everything I had done, love had disappeared inside me. Instead it was like a seed that, more alive than ever, was beginning to blossom. (T. – Italy)
Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from The Gospel of the Day, Città Nuova, year X- no.1 May-June 2024)
The fourth international six-year meeting of the Global Christian Forum took place in April in Accra, the capital of Ghana, bringing together about 250 people from over 50 countries, representatives of various Churches and global ecclesial networks and organizations.
The event is always held in a different city and on a different continent. Four members of the Focolare Movement attended the event in Ghana.
Alongside the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Global Christian Forum is perhaps the only other platform through which unity among the Churches is promoted on a global scale. Founded in 1998, it aims to promote dialogue with the vast world of Pentecostal Churches and ‘Free Churches’, most of which are not affiliated with the WCC. The approach has been and remains a dialogue “of the heart” rather than a theological dialogue. As the current Secretary General, Casely Essamuah, of Ghanaian origin, explained in Ghana: “It is a space for a profound encounter of faith. This is how we learn to discover the richness of Christ”.
Central to these meetings is the exchange of personal ’faith stories’ in small groups which was a significant feature in Accra. Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, representative of the Methodist Church at the WCC explained, “Seeing Christ in others is the goal of this exercise. Letting the Holy Spirit guide our words and listening carefully to the stories of others.” This truly gives rise to a spiritual friendship and a fraternal unity that generates great joy among all”.
The theme chosen for the meeting was “That they may all be one, so that the world may believe” (Jn. 17:20). Billy Wilson, president of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, highlighted three aspects of this unity: it is above all relational; it is realized in the mission: “so that the world may know and believe” and it is spiritual, like the relationships between the persons of the Trinity.
This gathering in Ghana was an experience of great spiritual richness, reflecting an image of the Church of the future that is already being realized through such encounters.
Violence, hatred, and bitter disputes are often present even in those countries that live “in peace”. Every people, every person feels a deep yearning for peace, for harmony, for unity. Yet, despite our efforts and goodwill, after millennia of history we are still incapable of achieving a stable and lasting peace. Jesus came to bring us peace, a peace – he tells us – that is not like the peace “the world gives”, because it is not only the absence of war, fighting, divisions and trauma. “His” peace is also this, but it is much more: it is the fullness of life and joy, it is the integral salvation of the person, it is freedom, it is fraternity in loving all peoples. And what did Jesus do to give us “his” peace? He paid for it himself. It was while he was promising us peace that he was betrayed by one of his friends, delivered into the hands of his enemies, condemned to a cruel and humiliating death. He put himself in between the opposing parties, took on the burden of all the hatred and division, broke down the walls that separated nations. By dying on the cross, after experiencing the abandonment by the Father out of love for us, he reunited human beings with God and among themselves, thus bringing about one universal family on earth. Building peace demands of us the same powerful love, a love capable of loving even those who don’t return our love, a love able to forgive, to see beyond the label “enemy”, to love the other person’s country as our own.
Peace begins with the relationship I am able to establish with each of my neighbours. “Evil originates in the human heart,” wrote Igino Giordani. And he added, “To remove the danger of war we need to remove the spirit of aggression, exploitation and egoism that are the cause of wars. We need to reconstruct a conscience”. … The world will change if we change. Of course we have to work, each of us doing whatever we can to resolve conflicts and to make laws that foster peaceful co-existence within communities and among nations. But above all, by underlining all that unites us, we will contribute to the creation of a mentality of peace and be able to work together for the good of humanity. We should bear witness to authentic values and spread attitudes of tolerance, respect, patience, forgiveness and understanding. As these increase, other approaches opposed to peace will gradually disappear. This was our experience during the Second World War, when there were just a few of us young women and we decided to live only to love. We were young and fearful, but as soon as we made the effort to live for each other, to help others, starting with those most in need, to serve them even if it meant risking our own lives, everything changed. A new strength was generated in our hearts and we saw society begin to change its appearance: a small Christian community came to life that became the seed of a “civilisation of love”. It is love that, in the end, wins out because love is stronger than anything else.
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, Parole di Vita, Città Nuova, 2017, p. 709/12)
“Embracing Hope.” With this wish, about 200 people from the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and all over Europe met at the Mariapolis Center in Castel Gandolfo (Rome) from May 16 to 19.
They are the contact persons of the Umanità Nuova, movement, the social expression of the Focolare Movement, New Humanity the NGO with consultative status in the United Nations, along with representatives of disciplines that dialogue with contemporary culture, the contact persons of Ragazzi per l’unità and of AMU (Action for a United World), the NGO that deals with special projects and development.
Also in attendance was a delegation of very young high school students who are part of Living Peace International, along with young ambassadors for peace, such as Joseph,
from Sierra Leone, who narrated how at the age of six he was recruited as a child soldier and has now become a young peace leader.
For some time now, these various social expressions -each with its own characteristics and goals- have been working together to help provide concrete responses to the burning issues and expectations of the contemporary world: “Together for Humanity” is their new name. Taking up the Pope’s invitation to the Focolare Movement during a private audience on Dec. 7, 2023, which was to “be artisans of peace in a world torn apart by conflict,” they wanted to dedicate the meeting precisely to peace.
An experience of listening, communal reflection and concrete planning, carried out in the eight communities distinguished by areas and passions. A journey that will continue with the Genfest in Brazil next July, intertwine with the United Nations Summit for Future in September 2024, and with the event in Nairobi with the youth and cities of the world, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the United Nations. During the meeting, those present, with the help of experts and testimonies, professors, diplomats, social and cultural actors, and organized citizens, reflected on the issue of what is peace, if it is indeed possible to achieve it and by what means.
So many touching experiences from countries in conflict. From Syria, they recounted the brutality of the war they have been experiencing since 2011, aggravated by the embargo affecting an exhausted population. AMU projects such as RESTART, which supports micro businesses with loans and personalized mentoring, have helped slow constant migration processes. Christiane, from Lebanon, despite the situation in her country, characterized by very high inflation and high emigration rates aggravated by the impacts of the war in the Middle East, did not give up: she set up with her husband a productive enterprise for family support and to also help other artisans and rural producers sell their products. The productive initiative also extended to Egypt. From Congo, the fruits of the school for training leaders for peace were presented. A graduate of this school, Joëlle, a journalist and a presidential candidate of the Republic of Congo, launched her presidential platform with the values of peace and social justice. Youths from Ukraine greeted those present with a video, and so did some youths from Bethlehem, Pakistan, Cuba, and the Philippines. The “Together for a New Africa” (T4NA) project for African youth interested in changing the continent was presented: trained hundreds of youth and involved another 9,000 youth in an experience that reached 14 African nations. The same is being done in Mexico with the National Agenda for Peace, in the United States with courageous conversations against racism.
There is a need for true peace and human rights education as well as the need to name conflicts, exploring their reasons, trying to resolve them with a community strategy that listens to diverse and plural positions which precedes and accompanies every negotiation. It has been said that peace is not only the absence of war. Not everything that is called order is peace. It is not ideological: it is not pacifism. It is the condition in which each person can think and realize his own future. But we need to learn dialogue as a methodology, with which to be willing to lose something for the greater good. This is basically the reason for which perhaps negotiations are not progressive and even international organizations do not seem to be able to handle the crisis. Dialogue, trust, local and global networks, inter-generation, community. We start from here, from these key words, encouraged also by Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán , President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, who were present on the final day. This is the road to peace, to which we want to contribute concretely, and together.
