{"id":342828,"date":"2014-02-27T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T03:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/venezuela-amidst-confrontation-and-reconciliation\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:11:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:11:55","slug":"venezuela-amidst-confrontation-and-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/venezuela-amidst-confrontation-and-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela. Amidst Confrontation and Reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis morning we prayed the Lord\u2019s Prayer for peace in <\/strong>Venezuela<\/a> and in the world\u201d <\/strong>writes kindergarten teacher, C. \u201cWhen we finished the prayer a child came up to me and said: \u201cTeacher, I was home with my Mum. She was in the garden banging the pan (the cacerolazo, <\/em>which is used as an instrument of protest). Then some people approached on large motorcycles. We ran because they were firing on us.\u201d My eyes filled with tears. This couldn\u2019t be the country where I was born and raised!\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Indeed, Venezuela has traditionally considered itself a land of brothers and sisters. <\/strong>Countless immigrants have found a home in this South American nation, creating a multi-ethnic society that is open, welcoming and fraternal. \u201cStill,\u201d C attempted to explain to her small students, \u201cour country is so beautiful. It\u2019s a gigantic home where everyone is our brother and sister.\u201d \u00a0 <\/strong>This is why the scene of violence that has taken place over the past years seems so unnatural. The distress of the people has increased together with the growing socio-economic deterioration of the country which, in recent months, has reached levels never\u00a0 before seen.<\/p>\n

From Caracas they write<\/strong>: \u201cOn February 12, 2014, National Day of Young People, peaceful demonstrations were held by students because of the serious social and economic problems: insecurity, lack of food and medicines, repression. Unfortunately, there was no willingness to listen and the situation degenerated into violence with several deaths and numerous wounded, because of the severe beatings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within such a context the local <\/strong>Focolare community<\/a> is aware that it has something to offer toward hope for peace. <\/strong>\u201cOur gaze returns to the ideal beginnings of the Movement<\/a>, to Chiara Lubich<\/a> and the first group people during the Second World War when everything crumbled and only God remained (. . .) <\/strong>The situation in which we find ourselves now must not hold us back from witnessing to our Gospel ideal. We still have hearts with which to love, forgive and begin again. With this certainty we celebrated the tenth anniversary of \u201cLa Asociaci\u00f3n La Perla<\/a>\u201d (The Pearl Association), an alternative education project that provides concrete ways of educating children according to a \u201cpedagogy of reciprocity\u201d. We wondered if it was appropriate to celebrate during such times, but the community unanimously agreed that we should. We held sporting and recreational events on the streets with families in an atmosphere of hope and joy. \u201cThis was like a ray of light amidst the storm,\u201d said one participant.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

N., who has been physically limited because of serious illness, <\/strong>recounts how he lives through the present situation: \u201cI pray for all the protestors, regardless of which trench they are in, especially for those who die. I said to Jesus: \u201cI have no physical strength, no weapons, but I pray and offer my life so that they can find you before they die.\u201d Two nights ago there was a large demonstration in front of my house, with cacerolas, <\/em>shouting and chants. They set fire in the street and smoke was filling our home. My sister took my small nephew \u2013 who is also ill \u2013 to my bedroom. I invented ways to make him smile, to relax him a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are delicate moments we are living<\/strong>. Pope Francis has invited all the faithful \u201cto pray and work for reconciliation and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The peaceful witness of the Focolare community, immersed in the difficult situation that is facing their country. It is always possible to begin again, to forgive and be forgiven.<\/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-342828","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\/342828","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=342828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}