{"id":326516,"date":"2014-06-27T03:00:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T01:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/focolare-on-the-path-of-social-christianity\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T14:57:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:57:29","slug":"focolare-on-the-path-of-social-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/focolare-on-the-path-of-social-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Focolare: on the path of social Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"201406Paris2\"At the conclusion of a year-long celebration of the 60th year<\/strong> of the Focolare Movement in France<\/a>, a symposium on the Movement\u2019s contribution in the Church and in society in France was held on June 4 last at the Catholic Institute of Paris. In front of quite a diverse audience, attempts were made to answer the questions: “Who are the Focolare?” and “What is their involvement in the world today?\u201d Whilst not ignoring some criticisms,<\/strong> such as lack of visibility, the speakers highlighted the positive contribution the Focolare Movement has made to French society. “There are not many movements that have arrived at their sixtieth anniversary in a ‘healthy’ state,” said Jean-Louis Schlegel,<\/strong> a sociologist of religion, in his talk.

\"Padre

Father Fran\u00e7ois-Marie L\u00e9thel<\/p><\/div> The symposium began with Father Fran\u00e7ois-Marie L\u00e9thel, <\/strong>a Carmelite and professor of theology at the Teresianum University (Rome) who explained the parallels between St. Teresa of Avila and her “interior castle” (prayer, the centre of the soul ) and Chiara Lubich<\/a>, with her “exterior castle” (love for our neighbour). He did not hesitate in designating the founder of the Focolare as “one of the greatest mystics of all time.” \"201406Paris1\"Laurent Villemin,<\/strong> a professor of theology at the Catholic Institute of Paris, highlighted Chiara\u2019s passion for dialogue among Christians: “which was very soon translated into practical ecumenism” and that “until the end of her life she did not give up the work for the visible unity the Church. ” Taking the concrete example<\/strong> of the dynamics of “Together for Europe<\/i>“<\/a>, G\u00e9rard Testard, a member of the International Committee, said that “The Focolare have a real influence and make a decisive contribution to the communion between movements.” \"201406Paris4\"Mons Teissier, Archbishop Emeritus of Algiers,<\/strong> recalled how in Algeria many Muslims, particularly young people, “found in the Focolare Movement a response to their inner search” whilst remaining “faithful to their identity as Muslims.” The President of the<\/strong> Social Weeks<\/i> of France<\/a>, J\u00e9r\u00f4me Vignon, underlined the “groundbreaking and fruitful character of the Economy of Communion<\/i>\u201d, defining the Focolare\u2019s contribution to evangelization as a \u201crevolutionary vision\u201d: not so much to “make our brothers Christian” as to “let them taste the joy of mutual love and concern for others.” All areas where the Focolare can enrich French social Christianity provided they do not “hide themselves”. “Do not be afraid – concluded Laurent Villemin – to pursue this quest for a true spirituality for real lay people.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A symposium in Paris on “The Focolare Movement\u2019s contribution in the Church and in society,” concluded the year of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the Focolare Movement in France.<\/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-326516","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\/326516","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=326516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}