{"id":366544,"date":"2024-11-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/?p=366544"},"modified":"2024-11-21T13:03:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T12:03:47","slug":"called-to-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/called-to-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Called to Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\u201cTo give a soul to Europe\u201d is the aim of Together for Europe<\/em><\/a>, a Christian network made up of over 300 Movements, Organizations and Communities from Western and Eastern Europe. It shines out as a sign of hope, especially in times of conflict and crisis. <\/p>\n\n

On 31st October, Together for Europe<\/a><\/em> (TfE) celebrated its 25th anniversary. This date also marked the historic 1999 Catholic-Lutheran Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification<\/strong> in Augsburg, Germany, which healed a division of over 500 years between the two churches. In the years that followed, dialogue between them, based on mutual forgiveness, deepened, culminating in the historic Pact of Reciprocal Love<\/strong> in December 2001 at the Lutheran Church in Munich, attended by over 600 people. <\/p>\n\n

The early promoters of TfE include Chiara Lubich<\/strong>, founder of the Focolare Movement<\/strong>, Andrea Riccardi,<\/strong> founder of the Community of Sant\u2019Egidio <\/strong>and other founders of Italian Catholic and German Evangelical-Lutheran Movements and Communities, united by a commitment to journey together.<\/p>\n\n

This year, from 31st October- 2nd November<\/strong>, more than 200 TfE representatives gathered in Graz-Seckau for the annual event, entitled \u201cCalled to Hope.\u201d Participants represented 52 Movements, Communities and Organisations from 19 European countries and included Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed and Free Church Christians, along with spiritual leaders, laypeople, civil authorities and political figures. <\/p>\n\n

Among them were Bishop Wilhelm Krautwaschl of the host diocese, Bishop J\u00f3zsef P\u00e1l of the Diocese of Timi\u0219oara (Romania), Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n, Co-President of the Focolare Movement, Reinhardt Schink of the Evangelical Alliance in Germany, Markus Marosch of the Round Table (Austria), M\u00e1rk Aur\u00e9l Erszegi from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former Prime Ministers Alojz Peterle of Slovenia and Eduard Heger of Slovakia. A delegation from the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, including Secretary-General Maximos Charakopoulos (Greece) and Advisor Kostantinos Mygdalis, also participated. <\/p>\n\n

In his opening speech, Gerhard Pross<\/strong> (Esslingen YMCA), moderator of TfE and a witness of its beginnings, highlighted the many moments of grace experienced over the past 25 years. Bishop Christian Krause, who in 1999<\/strong> was President of the Lutheran World Federation and co-signed the Joint Declaration, sent a message emphasizing the significance of this shared journey. <\/p>\n\n

One participant shared, \u201cGiven the current situation in Europe, I arrived here discouraged and depressed. But these days have filled me with courage and hope.\u201d A Ukrainian lady echoed this sentiment: \u201cTo be ambassadors of reconciliation, that is what I take away from this gathering. I live in a country at war, where reconciliation is not yet up for discussion. But I feel we can be ambassadors, because ambassadors are by definition diplomats who offer and prepare rather than imposing. This is the mission I feel called to bring where I live. I will try to do so, striving to be, as Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n said, \u2018an artisan of a new culture.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In his address, Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n emphasized, \u201cChange does not happen overnight. What we need are artisans and farmers of a new culture who work, sow and hope with patience. The \u2018togetherness\u2019 we speak of is not a simple union. Unlike union, unity regards participants as individuals. Its goal is community\u2026 Unity transforms those involved, because it reaches their essence without undermining their individuality. Unity is more than shared commitment; it is being united as one in commitment. While diversity in union can lead to conflict, in unity it becomes a source of richness. Ultimately, unity transcends participants and is received as a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

During the gathering, participants solemnly renewed the Pact of Reciprocal Love<\/strong>, the foundation of their shared commitment, praying in four languages: \u201cJesus, we want to love one another as You have loved us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The event concluded with the idea of hosting a major event in 2027 to send a powerful message of unity and hope to Europe.<\/p>\n\n

As a participant from the Netherlands reflected: \u201cI am sure that work, life, love and suffering will bring good to Europe. It is very important to be ambassadors of reconciliation\u2026 Artisans are essential, to plant seeds of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Lorenzo Russo<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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The annual gathering of the \u201cFriends of Together for Europe\u201d was held in Graz-Seckau, Austria, It brought together 200 participants who represented 52 Movements, Communities and Organizations from 19 European countries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":366665,"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":[2826,3195],"tags":[3349,3196],"class_list":["post-366544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultura-2","category-ecumenism","tag-notifiche-en","tag-ppg-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366544","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}