{"id":292542,"date":"2011-06-04T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2011-06-04T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/nairobi-meeting-of-bishop-friends-of-the-focolare\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T20:43:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T18:43:08","slug":"nairobi-meeting-of-bishop-friends-of-the-focolare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/nairobi-meeting-of-bishop-friends-of-the-focolare\/","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi: Meeting of Bishop Friends of the Focolare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cAn opportunity to live brotherhood among us bishops, to deepen relationships of true friendship: this is the reason for the meeting\u201d.<\/em> This is how Archbishop Boniface Lele of Mobasa, Kenya <\/strong>introduced the meeting. Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, Archbishop Emeritus of Kampala, Uganda<\/strong>, echoed his words saying: \u201cTo rediscover our task at the service of society, let us try to understand together God\u2019s design on us. During these days we can feel how much He calls us precisely to unity, which is the charism of Chiara Lubich.\u201d The first thing the bishops did when they arrived at the Focolare little town “Piero”<\/a>, was to make the commitment to practise “the art of Christian loving” among themselves in order to have the presence of the Risen One in their midst. “It will be the Risen Jesus who will enlighten and who will give us the gifts of the Spirit,” said Cardinal Miloslav Vlk<\/strong>, convenor of the meeting. This same lifestyle is shared by more than 1000 bishops throughout the world, which is inspired by the \u201cspirituality of communion\u201d. Bishop Salutaris Libena, auxilliary bishop of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,<\/strong> immediately affirms: \u201cI\u2019ve come to learn to serve, to love concretely. This is a way of life which fills the heart, which gives supernatural joy.\u201d Bishop Salesius Mugambi, Bishop of Meru, Kenya<\/strong> remarks: \u201cIn a serene and joyful atmosphere, we reflected and delved more deeply into the spirituality of communion. We listened to updatings, shared joys and sorrows, but also enjoyed moments of relaxation.\u201d These sentiments were shared by Archbishop Damiao Franklin of Luanda, Angola: \u201cThese were days spent in sincerity toward God and toward our brothers.\u201d \"\"<\/a>There were several moments for the sharing of experiences, both personal and pastoral, with a look at some of the challenges that the African continent must face: conflicts and violence, poverty, corruption; all challenges in which the members of the Movement are immersed, and which they want to respond to by living the spirituality of communion, which leads them to be workers of peace and unity in the environments in which they live. \u00a0 <\/strong> South African Bishop Patrick Mvemve of Klerksdorp,<\/strong> shared about his first contact with the Focolare during the period of the apartheid, as a young priest: \u201cHaving met two priests who truly lived the Gospel with facts, without giving a lot of speeches, I became curious. And so one day they spoke to me of Jesus crucified and abandoned. In that moment I was \u201chealed\u201d of my prejudices and became an apostle of unity. Another topic that was discussed was \u201cthe educational emergency\u201d<\/em>. The experiences of forming priests in the \u201cspirituality of communion\u201d was recognized by the bishops as \u201cone of the valid contributions being made to the Church of today. At the conclusion of the meeting, the bishops wanted to formulate a \u201cpact\u201d of mutual love, declaring their desire to continue taking care of each other once they had returned to their diocese. \"\"Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Umtata, South Africa, summarizes the experience they had: \u201cI leave enthusiastic with a life programme. I pray the Holy Spirit will guide me to put it into practice in the daily reality of every day.\u201d Meetings for Bishop Friends of the Focolare take place in various geographic locations around the world, which are inspired by the \u201cspirituality of communion\u201d proposed by John Paul II and practiced by the Focolare Movement since its began. Following the gathering in Kenya, similar events will take place in Madagascar and in Cameroon, in the Philippines, the Middle East and Europe. <\/em> [nggallery id=49]<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty seven Catholic bishops gathered together on 23-27 May in the Focolare town in Kenya. They came from South Africa, Angola, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Kenya. Their desire \u2013 as expressed in the title for their gathering \u2013 was to \u201cRediscover the designs of God today\u201d.<\/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-292542","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\/292542","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=292542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}