{"id":290772,"date":"2004-03-16T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-03-16T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/a-message-of-unity-for-ireland-now-taking-its-turn-in-the-presidential-seat-of-the-european-union\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T20:36:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T18:36:49","slug":"a-message-of-unity-for-ireland-now-taking-its-turn-in-the-presidential-seat-of-the-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/a-message-of-unity-for-ireland-now-taking-its-turn-in-the-presidential-seat-of-the-european-union\/","title":{"rendered":"A message of unity for Ireland, now taking its turn in the presidential seat of the European Union"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/10.0.0.128\/2010focolare\/layout\/foto2004\/20040317a.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"8\" \/>Chiara Lubich\u2019s first visit to the Emerald Isle was characterized by <strong>meetings with top-level figures in Ireland\u2019s political, economic and ecclesial circles.<\/strong> Such meetings received coverage by the nation\u2019s two most important national dailies <em>(Irish Times and Irish Independent).<\/em><\/p>\n<p> In this semester when Ireland will occupy the presidency of the European Union, <strong>Europe\u2019s situation<\/strong> was the theme that came into particular relief in Chiara Lubich\u2019s conversations with Ireland\u2019s President, Mary McAleese and the Prime Minister Bertie Aherne. <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/10.0.0.128\/2010focolare\/layout\/foto2004\/20040317b.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"8\" \/><strong>After the economic boom enjoyed by the country in recent years, the search for a profound ethical dimension comes to the fore.<\/strong> This fact was highlighted during the meeting held at the University of Dublin\u2019s Faculty of Economics, where the Economy of Communion was offered as a way to give globalization a human face. The Governor of the Bank of Ireland, in his opening remarks, stated that <em>\u201cThe Economy of Communion system arises from a spiritual culture which I consider to be most important. <strong>Economics is in need of a profound ethical dimension which the Economy of Communion can give to Ireland as well.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/10.0.0.128\/2010focolare\/layout\/foto2004\/20040317c.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"8\" \/>Ireland, historically a profoundly Catholic nation, <strong>is now seeking an answer to the wave of de-Christianization <\/strong>which is crossing the entire Western world. The Irish Bishops\u2019 Conference President, Bishop Seran Brady, invited Chiara Lubich to speak to a group of bishops on the topic of <strong>the Church as Communion and about her experience of evangelization.<\/strong> Also present in the meeting were the Apostolic Nunzio, Msgr. Lazzarotto; the Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Connell; and the Auxiliary Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin.<\/p>\n<p> <strong>The search for the light was the recurring motif that wove together the journey across Ireland\u2019s history, <\/strong>represented through artistic numbers during the Focolare family celebration in Dublin. Close to 1,000 people participated in the meeting with Chiara Lubich, including numerous representatives from Northern Ireland. The Focolare foundress encouraged everyone to bring everywhere the light of the Ideal of unity and the spirit of brotherhood rooted in the life of the Gospel put into practice. <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/10.0.0.128\/2010focolare\/layout\/foto2004\/20040317d.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"8\" \/>To mark the conclusion of Chiara Lubich\u2019s trip to Ireland, <strong>the little town of the Movement, \u201cMariapolis Lieta\u201d, was inaugurated <\/strong>as a \u201claboratory of unity.\u201d The commemoration of the deceased members of the Movement who were instrumental in the birth and development of the Ideal of unity in Ireland was a particularly moving moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trip to Ireland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}