{"id":341486,"date":"2012-10-31T09:11:10","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T08:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/greater-trust-in-the-work-of-god\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:07:54","slug":"greater-trust-in-the-work-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/greater-trust-in-the-work-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater trust in the work of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/20121031-03.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-73191\" style=\"margin-left: 10px;border: 0px none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/20121031-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"204\" \/><\/a>An experience of the Church as communion<\/strong> was what Maria Voce had at the Synod, \u2018both in what was said in the hall and when we talked together as members of the same family.\u2019 These were her words in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/area-press-focus\/files\/2012\/10\/Avvenire_20121030_A03_3.pdf\">interview to the Italian newspaper the Avvenire<\/a> at the end of three weeks of work. She added, \u2018I have really given thanks to God for belonging to a Church like this.\u2019 And she then went on to say, \u2018Together we realized that <strong>human shortcomings get in the way of the new evangelization<\/strong> and we became aware that we should be purified from sin so as to find again the radical nature of our witness to the Gospel. A lot was said about the credibility of our proclamation, given in the first place by lives consistent with what they proclaim on the part of those called to evangelize, beginning with those with pastoral responsibility. All the same, from the work of the last three weeks, it became clear that in various parts of the world, including Italy and Europe, the general atmosphere of our communities is not totally downbeat because of the certainty that <strong>the Church is upheld by God<\/strong> and that therefore also our errors can be overcome. At the end of the day, what comes out of the Synod is a Church that is more trusting of itself because it has more trust in the Lord.\u2019 This is <strong>a general impression<\/strong> that was reported in the <em>Avenire<\/em>, but <strong>various themes were touched upon in other interviews<\/strong> with the Focolare President. One was the role of women in the Synod and in the Church, mentioned with reference to its campaign for women\u2019s rights in the news programme <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/area-press-focus\/it\/news\/2012\/10\/28\/tg2-intervista-a-maria-voce-sulla-presenza-femminile-al-sinodo\/\">Tg2<\/a>: \u2018<strong>Can the Focolare Movement be an example of affirmative action in favour women in the Church?<\/strong>\u2019 was the question put to Maria Voce who did not feel comfortable with the term, but said, \u2018Ours is a presence in the Church where women have their role and having a woman as President is a sign of that.\u2019  <a title=\"Articolo Vatican Insider\" href=\"http:\/\/vaticaninsider.lastampa.it\/inchieste-ed-interviste\/dettaglio-articolo\/articolo\/islam-cristianesimo-christianism-cristianos-19062\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-73183\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;border: 1px solid black\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/20121031-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a> Another interview was with <a href=\"http:\/\/vaticaninsider.lastampa.it\/inchieste-ed-interviste\/dettaglio-articolo\/articolo\/islam-cristianesimo-christianism-cristianos-19062\/\">Vatican Insider<\/a> which asked about <strong>dialogue with Islam<\/strong>, after the Synod had seen a video that had raised a number of questions. In words picked up also by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/on-faith\/after-controversial-video-vatican-hosts-serious-discussion-on-islam\/2012\/10\/19\/d4a5dc62-1a2f-11e2-ad4a-e5a958b60a1e_story.html\">Washington Post<\/a>, she said, \u2018It was <strong>an occasion to put this theme [of dialogue with Islam] into focus<\/strong>, but it also served to show the aspect of Church as active in dialogue, a Church that goes out to meet the others, to other cultures around it \u2013 and thus to Islam as well, seeing it as made up of people who live cheek by jowl with Christians, who have the same problems and can seek to solve them together with Christians.\u2019 <strong>Maria Voce was asked whether many Christians look at Islam \u2018with fear and trembling\u2019<\/strong> and she said, \u2018God guides history and so we must not be made afraid by the shifts and changes that happen. Maybe Islam grows in part of the world, while in another Christianity grows. <strong>The important thing is that humanity grows in humanity<\/strong>, that is, that people grow in their relationship with God and in the capacity to relate to one another.\u2019 <strong>To the question whether Catholics can learn anything from Muslims,<\/strong> she replied, \u2018I lived for ten years in country with a Muslim majority, in Turkey. I learnt respect for religion, faithfulness in observing one\u2019s duty, the capacity to forgive during the period of Ramadan. Perhaps for us it only a word, but for them it is a sacred time in which to write off what may be owing, to renew family relationships. Above all I think it is possible to learn an attitude of faithfulness to God and to his commandments.\u2019  <div id=\"attachment_73174\" style=\"width: 313px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.romereports.com\/palio\/whats-the-role-of-the-focolare-movement-in-the-new-evangelization-english-8085.html#.UJD3KKAcQ2c\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73174\" class=\" wp-image-73174    \" style=\"margin-left: 10px;border: 1px solid black\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/20121031-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"303\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-73174\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Watch interview with the news agency &#8220;Rome Reports&#8221;<\/p><\/div>  <strong>With regard to what the laity and the Movements can bring to the new evangelization<\/strong>, questions were asked by<em> <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/area-press-focus\/it\/news\/2012\/10\/24\/intervista-a-maria-voce-la-sua-esperienza-al-sinodo\/\">Telepace<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.romereports.com\/palio\/whats-the-role-of-the-focolare-movement-in-the-new-evangelization-english-8085.html#.UJAPWWePWSp\">Rome Reports<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/it.radiovaticana.va\/articolo.asp?c=630670\">Radio Vatican<\/a>. On this she commented, \u2018It seems to me that there is a tremendous joy in recognizing ourselves as all \u201cbeing Church\u201d. Our pastors too increasingly realize it, but it seems to me that it is also important to respect what is specific to the charism each one brings, because charisms are gifts from God and they cannot be mixed together in a mishmash. At the same time it is necessary to know that each one of these gifts serves to build up the whole and so the specific gift brought by the Focolare Movement, or by the St Egidio Community, or by the charism of a bishop, must be integrated with all the other charisms in order to build up the Body of Christ which is the Church.\u2019  For other interviews (in Italian) with Maria Voce about the Synod go to  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/area-press-focus\/it\/news\/category\/segnalazioni\/\">https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/area-press-focus\/it\/news\/category\/segnalazioni\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the end of the Synod on the new evangelization, some \u2018fresh\u2019 impressions from Focolare President Maria Voce.<\/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-341486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341486","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=341486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}