{"id":360713,"date":"2024-07-20T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/?p=360713"},"modified":"2024-07-20T05:01:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T03:01:39","slug":"montet-switzerland-the-focolare-citadel-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/montet-switzerland-the-focolare-citadel-closes\/","title":{"rendered":"Montet (Switzerland): The Focolare citadel closes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a sunny day in June 2024, more than 400 guests from all over the world came to Montet, Switzerland, to greet the multicolored and international Focolare community. The Movement’s formation center will indeed be closed and the community will focus its efforts on other formation centers. During the second half of the year 2024, most residents will leave the small town in French-speaking Switzerland to join other communities. <\/p>\n\n

The people in charge of the \u201cMariapolis Foco,\u201d as this citadel is called, Maria Regina Piazza and Markus N\u00e4f explained the path that led to this step: \u201cTo understand this decision, one has to look at the path that the Focolare Movement has made considering the decline in vocations to consecrated life and the challenges of today’s society around the world.\u201d<\/em> It is about \u201credistributing forces and reducing structures to promote proximity to people where it is most needed.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

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Markus N\u00e4f – Maria Regina Piazza<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Margaret Karram – Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n – Celine Ruffieux<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ion Sauca<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n
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Guests in attendance from the worlds of politics, society and churches emphasized how much the citadel has shaped and positively influenced the surrounding area: peace, a sense of community, a spirit of unity and fraternity were spread, and a testimony of mutual love was given. In total, nearly 3,800 people lived here over the course of 43 years, most of them teenagers and young adults. <\/p>\n\n

In a greeting statement, the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Rev. Prof. Dr. Jerry Pillay, expressed gratitude for the rich ecumenical experiences shared and lived together during the students’ annual visits to Geneva and emphasized that \u201cthe real legacy of the Montet Center is not its physical structure, but rather the fellowship, relationships, and Gospel values promoted.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

C\u00e9dric P\u00e9clard, longtime mayor of Les Montets, to whose municipality the village of Montet belongs, greatly regretted this closure. However, he was pleased that the \u201c Cube of Peace\u201d from the Focolare Center park was donated to the municipality. This interactive sculpture embodies and conveys values that are important to the Focolare Movement and in fact originated in the village: a group of focolarine had created it to work with children during their stay in Montet, then \u201cthe cube\u201d spread around the world. A large mobile model of it can be found today in a playground in the center of Les Montets. <\/p>\n\n

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Dr. Vasile-Octavian Mihoc<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n
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In her speech, Focolare President Margaret Karram, who was present together with Co-President Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n in Montet, did not hide how painful it was for the international community to close this center. \u201cWe feel very clearly that we must look to humanity that awaits the gift of peace, of unity, and that we must be able to grasp, even through circumstances, God’s desire for us and for our activities and structures.\u201d<\/em> The decision to close the Focolare Citadel in Montet was not taken lightly. \u201cIt is like witnessing the pruning of a tree that has borne so much good fruit for many years,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we know that nothing happens by chance, but Divine Providence is always behind everything.\u201d<\/em> And she encouraged everyone – guests and residents – to take the experience gained in Montet to the world: \u201cMany of you will be destined for other cities, other countries, other communities or you will return to your own country and you will take wherever you go the valuable experience that you have had here, and that therefore, will not only continue but will bring you an even greater dimension of love that will amaze you because it will be new.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

The future involves the sale of the 5-hectare estate. A committee headed by Hugo Fasel, former director of Caritas Switzerland, will oversee the sale and ensure that the future use of the property is in line with the values of the Focolare Movement. <\/p>\n\n

Andrea Fleming<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Font: Fokolar-Bewegung <\/em>
https:\/\/fokolar-bewegung.de\/nachrichten\/fokolar-zentrum-der-franzoesischen-schweiz-schliesst<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Center in the French-speaking part of Switzerland in which nearly 3800 have lived during its 43 years of existence. Also present at the closing event in June were Margaret Karram and Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n, President and Co-President of the Movement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":360655,"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":[2830],"tags":[2850,3386,3349,3196],"class_list":["post-360713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-focolari-nel-mondo-2","tag-cittadelle-2","tag-montet-en","tag-notifiche-en","tag-ppg-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360713","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=360713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}