{"id":292798,"date":"2011-10-11T08:35:22","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T06:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/focolare-regional-delegates-gather-in-rome\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T20:44:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T18:44:09","slug":"focolare-regional-delegates-gather-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/focolare-regional-delegates-gather-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Focolare Regional Delegates Gather in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46928 alignleft\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;border: 0pt none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/20111011-061.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"253\" height=\"178\" \/>As usual, the meeting began with three days of spiritual retreat, focused on the Word of God, one of the points of Chiara Lubich\u2019s spirituality which will characterize the life of the Movement\u2019s members during the coming year. They also reflected on the New Evangelization, in view of the 2012 Synod of Bishops which will be held between 7 and 28 October.  Topics were examined in the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation <em>Verbum Domini<\/em> of Benedict XVI and in the wake of the <a href=\"http:\/\/visnews-en.blogspot.com\/2011\/02\/lineamenta-for-2012-synod-on-new.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Lineamenta <\/em>for the 2012 Synod<\/strong><\/a>. Some meditations of Chiara Lubich were also presented, which retraced her discovery of the Word during the Second World War, the way in which it is lived by the Movement today, and its effects: changing mentalities; making the life shine; making people free; giving joy; bringing about vocations; creating community. All of this was accompanied by personal testimonies of living the Word in very diverse settings \u2013 at times adverse settings \u2013 and by moments of sharing among the participants in small group meetings which characterize the Focolare.  The work was presented by the president and co-president of the Movement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/news\/2011\/01\/20\/maria-voce\/\"><strong>Maria Voce<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/news\/2010\/02\/03\/biografia-di-giancarlo-faletti\/\"><strong>Giancarlo Faletti<\/strong><\/a>:<strong> <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Visits to<\/strong>:<strong> <\/strong>(Spain, the Holy Land, Canada, USA, Santo Domingo, Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and England), in which the beauty of each people was highlighted and each people\u2019s contribution to the project of a united world, together with the vast theme of inculturation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dialogue<\/strong>. There has been more development in this area. It has changed and extended to include non-Catholics, non-Christians, and non-religious persons, who yet belong to the \u201cfamily\u201d of the Focolare.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prospects and Priorities<\/strong>: The priority of priorities is the <strong>life<\/strong>, illuminated by the Word of God.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <strong> <\/strong>  <img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-46930\" style=\"margin-left: 10px;border: 0pt none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/20111011-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"273\" height=\"178\" \/><strong>New Evangelisation. <\/strong>Chiara Lubich had spoken on this to a group of Bishops, taking her cue from something Pope John Paul II said regarding the Movements as being particularly suited for bringing the New Evangelisation ahead. This evangelisation is called \u201cnew\u201d because of the new zeal, new method and new expressions it will involve. The first proclamation should be: God loves you. The New Evangelisation must create mature Christian communities. While taking embracing the entire Gospel, the word that must be underscored is: love. This means incarnating the new commandment of Jesus \u201cin an ever more radical and authentic way.\u201d  <strong>The world is present. <\/strong>Each geographical zone had an opportunity to share the situation in which Focolare members live in various regions of the world. Particular attention was given to the Middle East, through a sharing on the experience of dialogue of the <em>focolarini<\/em> of these lands, a dialogue which grew precisely out of the need to find together a way of facing the new challenges of that troubled land, in which dialogue between diverse cultures seems to be blocked by insurmountable barriers. Vincenzo Buonomo, professor of International Law, then offered an in-depth look at the Middle East situation and the development of the Arab world. <strong>Then there was the African continent.<\/strong> The <em>focolarini<\/em> who live there presented the religious and socio-cultural history of the continent, describing each stage of the spreading of the spirituality of unity in Sub-Saharan Africa.  <strong><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-46935\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;border: 0pt none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/genfest.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"342\" height=\"178\" \/>Young people and Adults<\/strong>. One of the characteristics of this meeting was the presence of the youth, who helped to enrich the programme at various moments: on the afternoon dedicated to the \u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Genfest<\/span><\/strong> (Budapest, 31 August &#8211; 2 September 2012); presenting a formation course based on <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> <strong>YouCat<\/strong>;<\/span> and with the presentation of a documentary entitled: <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u201cTogether We Can: In the Footsteps of Carlo and Alberto\u201d<\/span><\/em> based on the lives of two <strong>Gen<\/strong> for whom the process of beatification has already begun.  On Saturday, 8 October, the evening before the meeting\u2019s final conclusion, Maria Voce was linked up via internet with thousands of people around the world, for some concluding remarks, in which she also shared one of her dreams: <strong>\u201cIf each of us begins now to live the Word of God with the intensity with which the first <em>focolarine<\/em> lived it with Chiara, we will truly be able to think of many lights being kindled, and rays of light filling the streets of the world.\u201d<\/strong> And she added: \u201cHow can we not hope for everything and more? How can we doubt that these lights will not be bright enough to illuminate all the dark corners of this cellar that the world has become? I wish you a splendid and luminous year of light \u2013 yes \u2013 Chiara\u2019s spiritual last testament: \u201cLeave behind only the Gospel. . .\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The annual meeting of Focolare delegates from around the world took place at the international headquarters of the Movement in Rocca di Papa, Italy (19 September \u2013 9 October). They reflected on such topics as the Word of God, New Evangelization, the situation in the Middle East and in the Arab world, the African continent, inculturation, and the youth.<\/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-292798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292798","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=292798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}