{"id":328138,"date":"2016-04-03T03:00:55","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T01:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/congo-the-family-and-peace\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:03:35","slug":"congo-the-family-and-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/congo-the-family-and-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo: the family and peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20160403-02\"<\/a>\u201cWhen the family suffers, society suffers,\u201d <\/strong>said one of the participants going straight to the heart of the main message of the event: \u201cThe Family And Peace. Tools For Peace In The Family: 5 Secrets.\u201d Similar events were held in 8 cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo, Brazaville, with a massive attendance on March 13th. The organisers report 1000 people in Kinshasa, 500 in Goma, 600 in Lubumbashi and 1,500 in Kikwit. <\/strong>There were another 110 in Bukuvu, 83 in Uvira not counting the Masses celebrated in other locations, inlcuding 14 in Congo Brazzaville. In Lolo 170 adults with 40 children \u201ccelebrated\u201d \u2013 because thoughought Congo as in other African countries it is the feast of \u201cMamma Chiara<\/a>,\u201d as she is affectionately known on that continent. \u00a0<\/strong> \"Accueil<\/a><\/strong>\u201cWith its spirituality of unity the Focolare Movement <\/a>hoped to create synergy by providing opportunities for sharing and exchange with structures of the local Church that serve the family,\u201d writes Martine from Kinshasa. \u201cFriends from the Church of Christ in Congo and from the Muslim community also participated. The event raised enthusiasm and joy, and we met several times to prepare it together: some sharing their testimonies, some singing and dancing \u2013 very group wished to contribute something to the day.\u201d The event was also covered in the media, <\/strong>on television and in the newspapers: L\u2019Observatuer, Le Phare, Le Potentiel, Le Congolais, to mention a few. In Kikwit the Muslim radio also covered the event! The \u201c5 Secrets\u201d are actually elements from the charism of unity applied to family life: <\/strong>the pact of mercy (forgiveness between family members); communion of the experiences of living the Word of God; communion of souls; and fraternal correction. Finally, conversations with people who can assist the family along its way if their are problems. \u201cThese secrets,\u201d they write, \u201cbarely revealed, are already helping several families to rediscover their peace and harmony.\u201d \"20160403-04jpg\"<\/a>During his thank you address, Abdourahamane Diallo from UNESCO <\/strong>in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stated: \u201cI would like to offer my congratulations to the organisers of this day in favour of peace in the family. We at UNESCO also think that we need to lift up the defense of peace through education, dialogue, tolerance and culture. I render homage to the family because that is where education begins. I thank you for this work you are doing.\u201d \u201cAt this meeting I discovered a reality of God <\/strong>to which we are called to live together, doing all we can so that it continues,\u201d declared Imam of Kikwit. \u201cWe all have one only God, the One who sent the Angel to Mary to announce the glad tidings.\u201d The person in charge of Comunit\u00e0 Vie Nouvelle: \u201cI\u2019m glad to have discovered the 5 secrets for building peace in the family. This evening I telephoned my son who is having family problems, to share all of this with him. I needed this theme!\u201d \u201cThis experience with the local Church,\u201d <\/strong>Martine concludes, \u201cand with our Protestant and Muslim friends with whom we continue to grow the relationship, has been a step forward towards Mamma Chiara\u2019s and our dream of unity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to the inititative taken by the Congolese bishops following the Synod on the Family, the Focolare Movement remembers Chiara Lubich on the 8th anniversary of her birthday in Heaven. In solidarity with the family.<\/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-328138","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\/328138","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=328138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}