{"id":291808,"date":"2010-06-03T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/families-of-hope\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T20:40:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T18:40:33","slug":"families-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/families-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Families of Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

290 leaders of the Family of Hope Association (\u2018Familia da Esperanca\u2019) visited the International Centre of the Focolare Movement <\/strong>on 28 May to celebrate and to thank Chiara for the approval that they had just received from the Pontifical Council for the Laity. The members of the Association \u2013 of Brazilian origin but now spread all over the world \u2013 are involved in many social areas, the main one being their work with young drug addicts. At the Centre they met with Eli Folonari, who was Chiara\u2019s personal secretary, and Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti, President and Co-President respectively of the Focolare Movement, for a moment of reflection and sharing on the theme of \u2018God who is Love\u2019.\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018What is it that links us together?\u2019 Maria Voce asked. \u2018The main link is the life of the Word, which is translated into concrete actions, <\/strong>day by day, and takes us along a path of sanctity, no matter where our starting point was, but is something to be lived in the present moment,\u2019 she went on to explain. Giancarlo Faletti continued: \u2018The Word of God is not like other words. Other words produce a plant that lives for a short while and then dies. Instead, the Word of God produces a big plant that lasts forever. I believe that you are witnesses to this vitality.\u2019<\/p>\n

The beginnings of the association go back to 1983<\/strong>, to a corner of a street in Guaratingueta, in the inland part of the State of San Paolo. Nelson Giovanelli got to know a group of young drug addicts in his neighbourhood in an attempt to live out the words of the Apostle Paul when he said: \u2018 I\u2019ve made myself weak with the weak \u2026\u2019 One of them called Eleuterio, was the first to become involved and to ask help in overcoming his drug dependency. Many others followed. Somebody who helped the work of Nelson Giovanelli right from the start was a German Franciscan friar called Frei Hans Stapel, who knew the spirituality of unity of Chiara Lubich and the spirituality of poverty of St Francis of Assisi.<\/p>\n

A community was born and grew with these young people based on an evangelical lifestyle<\/strong>. The association has spread throughout the world today. There are 68 Fazendas (40 in Brazil alone) working with around 3,000 young people. It is present in nine ther countries in the world: Germany, Russia, the Philippines, Mozambique, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Uruguay, Columbia and Argentina.<\/p>\n

\"\"The \u2018Fazendas da Esperanca\u2019 became better known after Pope Benedict XVI visited the community of Pedrinhas <\/strong>on the occasion of his apostolic visit to Brazil in 2007. The meeting of the Holy Father with the young people of the Fazenda was one of the most moving moments of that trip. The Pope launched a strong appeal against those that sow death through drugs: \u2018They will have to answer God for what they have done.\u2019 And to the young people who have returned to life because of the Fazenda da Esperanca he gave a mission for the future: \u2018You must be ambassadors of hope!\u2019<\/p>\n

The \u2018Family of Hope\u2019 \u2013 the official name of the Association of the faithful which has just\"\" been approved <\/strong>\u2013 is not a congregation or a secular institute, and cannot be defined as a spiritual movement like the Charismatics or the Focolare – it is a new community of lay people. It is something new in the Church. Speaking of this Maria Voce said: \u2018The Church doesn\u2019t approve a Rule as such. It approves a reality, a life that already exists. This recognition is a sign of joy. With this joy in our hearts \u2013 yours, ours and the whole Church \u2013 I think we can truly thank God.\u2019<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

290 leaders of the Association visit the Centre at Rocca di Papa to \u2018thank\u2019 Chiara Lubich for the recognition that had just been received from the Pontifical Council for the Laity<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291808","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=291808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}