{"id":342830,"date":"2014-02-28T04:08:28","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T03:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/switzerland-muslims-christians-and-families\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:11:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:11:56","slug":"switzerland-muslims-christians-and-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/switzerland-muslims-christians-and-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland: Muslims, Christians and Families"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oriental melodies<\/strong>, lines from the Koran and the Lord\u2019s Prayer being sung with a translation in Turkish. . . . <\/strong>Everything was in place for the meeting on February 9, 2014 at the Eckstein Centre in Baar, <\/strong>Switzerland<\/a>.<\/a> <\/strong>The atmosphere was warm and inviting. Ninety Muslims and Christians <\/strong>had accepted the Focolare\u2019s invitation to discuss family values <\/strong>as the basic cell of society.\"\"<\/p>\n

Although living in Switzerland much of the audience had roots elsewhere: <\/strong>Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Madagascar, Albania, Kosovo, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Turkey, Egypt, Senegal and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The reunion began <\/strong>with excerpts from a video conference with Chiara Lubich <\/strong><\/a>i<\/strong>n which she recounted the beginnings of the Focolare Movement during the Second World War; and the link between the words hearth<\/em> <\/em>or focolare <\/em>and family<\/em>. Through openness to different religions and cultures, this Focolare family <\/em>has created a place for unity and dialogue among people of different Christian confessions and the faithful of other religions.<\/p>\n

The testimonies<\/strong> \u2013 some quite painful \u2013demonstrated the difficulty of becoming integrated in a foreign country; like the young Algerian woman whose husband had abandoned her two years into their marriage; or the Swiss couple whose son was in the grip of drug addiction; or those young parents who lost their first child.<\/p>\n

Each story highlighted the strength that comes from faith in God and a supportive community.<\/p>\n

During the video of Chiara speaking at the International Congress on the Family in Lucerne, 1999, she stated that \u201cA family does not stop at the limits of kinship. A neighbour can also be a brother or sister.\u201d Then she added: \u201cAll that happens within the family can be lived as both expectation and grace from God: just as a building has need of the foundation in order to rise, a family is consolidated through trials, but also through joys. Indeed, it is a school of love that contains within it all the shades of love: from mutual forgiveness to the invitation to constantly begin again. In summary: the family is an ongoing source of positive stimulation and vitality for both individuals and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video link-up with a Muslim couple from the Focolare Movement in Algeria <\/a>made a powerful impression. <\/strong>It was introduced as a personal experience of forgiveness: \u201cIn the evening I wasn\u2019t agreeable to a decision my wife had made for the following day. But in the morning, the voice of God in my conscience: \u201cWhy are you angry with her? I\u2019m not angry with you, even though you haven\u2019t recited your prayers in a week.\u201d So, \u201cWhy are you angry? I\u2019m not outraged with you even though you haven\u2019t said your prayers in a week.\u201d And so, rather than having it out with my wife, I assisted her with her work.\u201d<\/p>\n

They went on to talk about the many other Muslim families who are committed in living the spirituality of unity.<\/a> <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

In his concluding remarks, Imam Mustapha Baztami from Teramo, Italy, <\/strong>said he was convinced \u201cthat Christians and Muslims can offer a huge service to the world if they try to live together for family values.\u201d<\/p>\n

A conclusione,<\/strong> una dei partecipanti cos\u00ec si \u00e8 espresso: \u00abSecondo la mia educazione, era chiaro che noi possedevamo la verit\u00e0 e gli altri erano in torto. Oggi, qui, ho imparato ad aprirmi; ho scoperto che muri e pregiudizi devono essere distrutti\u00bb.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interreligious dialogue at the Focolare\u2019s Eckstein Centre focuses on family values. A diverse multicultural group that gives witness to the richness of unity in diversity.<\/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-342830","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\/342830","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=342830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}