![\"20140919-02\"](\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/20140919-02.jpg\")
<\/a>Heinrich Walter, President of Sch\u00f6nstatt with Jes\u00fas Moran.<\/p><\/div> Representative of other Christian movements, brothers and sisters of various religious faiths and agnostics<\/b>: some travelled far to participate in this afternoon\u2019s event, such as Emily Soloff<\/strong> from Chicago, a member of the American Jewish Committee (AJC)<\/a> who cancelled other appointments in order to attend, as she saw the importance of the event, and likewise, Fr.<\/b> Heinrich Walter<\/strong>, President of the\u00a0Sch\u00f6nstatt<\/a> Presidium. Also Jurif Pismak<\/strong> from Russia<\/a>, a friend who professes non-religious beliefs made it easily to the Congress Hall of Castel Gandolfo, where the Focolari Assembly is being held (1-28 September). This is a testimonial of a journey that traces way back to the past<\/b>, and <\/b>which <\/b>has come to uphold its belief that: \u201cIn a assembly like ours which looks to the future, firmly rooted to its source, such an event, such a memorable afternoon could not be missed. Together with all of you we are ever more true to our own calling,\u201d were the closing remarks of Jes\u00fas Moran<\/strong>, the newly elected Focolare Movement’s Co-President.<\/a> Maria Voce with Gerard Pross, leader of a network of over 100 evangelical movemements.<\/p><\/div> All present speak in the name of a vaster network of dialogue, <\/b>\u201cwhich we consider a true support for the construction of universal brotherhood,\u201d Maria Voce<\/a> affirmed. In the \u201cTogether for Europe\u201d<\/a> organisation, for example, there are more than 300 Christian movements, \u00a0bound to each other by a pact of unity which \u201cunites the spiritual and \u2018politics\u2019 and breaks down the barriers to work for peace,\u201d declared G\u00e9rard Testard,<\/strong> French, and past President of Fond\u00e1cio<\/a>. Also present were the founding members who had started this journey with Chiara Lubich <\/a>years ago: Thomas R\u00f6mer<\/strong> of the Ymca of Munich<\/a> and Gerhard Pross,<\/strong> head of a network of over 100 evangelical movements; Cesare Zucconi<\/strong> and Valeria Martano<\/strong> of the Comunity of Sant\u2019Egidio<\/a>, on their return from Antwerp where the 28th<\/sup> international meeting for peace in the spirit of Assisi was held, conveyed the greetings of Andrea Riccardi.<\/strong> Together they encouraged the Focolari to continue living in a more forceful manner, this ideal of brotherhood. From the Orient came the best wishes of the Buddhist monks of the Teravada tradition<\/b> of Thailand, and the Japanese members of the Risho-Kosei Kai<\/a>. Inter-religious delegation (Christina Lee, Mustafa Cenape, Shahrzad Houshmand, Adnane Mokrani, Hiromasa Tanaka, Katsuotishi Mizumo)<\/p><\/div> Together, as players of dialogue,<\/b> is the vision that emerged from the testimonials of the Muslim friends, Dr. Adnane Mokrani,<\/strong> and Professor<\/b> Shahrzad Houshmand<\/strong>,<\/strong> Iranian theologian, who shared her experience with Chiara Lubich: \u201cI learned from her the force of universal faith which touches the hearts of all believers, also those of Muslims.\u201d We are dealing with a \u201cnew evangelization which works not only for the formal conversion of hearts, but for the deep conversion of souls.\u201d \u00a0The theologian also launched an appeal to the Focolari Assembly which will be received by the Pope on 26 September: to convey to Pope Francis our support in the effort to stop the tragedies being perpetrated, for \u201cthe blood of Jesus is still being spilt today.\u201d Another distinctive stretch of the dialogue: life. <\/b>This was underlined by Emily Soloff,<\/strong> an American Jew. \u201cI see an assembly infused<\/i> with life. For me the dialogue with the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists in the Focolare has always been a dialogue of life,\u201d which begins with the experience of each one, mutual understanding taking precedence over the theological, doctrinal and philosophical aspects. \u201cI have always been struck\u201d \u2013 specified Lisa Palmieri Billig<\/strong>, also an American, and member of the Jewish Committee \u2013 \u201cby your idea of being the first to go towards the others to offer love. You give empathy, and a concrete remedy to the rampant hatred in today\u2019s society.\u201d \u201cChiara Lubich had understood, from the very start, that unity is built with the others and not against the others, and that she could not let aside the other half of the world which does not profess any religious faith,\u201d were the words of Luciana Scalacci, an agnostic, who declared that she was \u201clucky to have been invited to the Assembly.\u201d \u00a0In these weeks she took part in fact, in the various work sessions. She also encouraged all, in remembrance of Chiara, to always keep in mind the other cultures. In the afternoon of 18 September, the General Assembly of the Focolari Movement opened with an invitation to friends with whom the movement has for many years undertaken its journey towards brotherhood of the human family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"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":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326688","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\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>The various interventions<\/strong> were \u201cprecious pearls that enrich the heritage we have all received,\u201d affirmed Maria Voce<\/strong>. A heritage we have \u201cto safeguard together and multiply for the benefit of humanity,\u201d she stressed \u2013 just before the election of the new directors of the Focolari Movement <\/a>\u2013 since this is a journey we have to undertake together. And concluded with an image: \u201cChiara\u2019s embrace which reaches out to all, and leads all towards God, an embrace made visible today, due to the presence of all of you here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"