This is the second edition of the Loppiano Family Experience, the summer programme organised by the Loreto School, which took place in Loppiano over the last three weeks, starting on 5 July. Fifteen families took part, together with the organising team, for a total of about 60 people from Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain, Jordan, the United States, Poland, Colombia, the Philippines and Italy. During this period, about twenty collaborators took turns helping with the programme for adults and children. Translations were provided in six languages, including for children and teenagers. There was also a full and intense programme of formation, with a nice combination of lectures with experts, workshops, games, moments of sharing and testimonies. The experience was aimed particularly at leaders, or potential leaders, of the New Families Movement (MFN), the branch of the Focolare Movement made up of families who seek to live the spirituality of unity and to radiate the values that promote universal brotherhood in the world of the family.

«This year, we have to say that there was great involvement from the families participating in the Loppiano Family Experience. They were proactive in carrying out the programme for the days together with the team of organising families, with proposals and moments of sharing that enriched the relationships and knowledge among everyone,» explains Maria Salerno of MFN.
The themes and topics covered included spirituality of unity in the family, social and pastoral commitment, and what have been defined as the ‘hot topics’ of the contemporary family: the wonder of life, bioethics, physical-emotional-sexual development and the education of pre-teens and teenagers, communication within couples and its typical phases of crisis, the mass media, etc.
The children and young people followed a programme parallel to that of their parents but adapted to their age and needs. There were also opportunities to visit and discover the citadel, such as the beautiful trip to the Tracolle lake and the Cooperative, talking about ecology and family. Or the meeting with Gen Verde, Gen Rosso and the sculptor Hung.

The programme also included participation in the Angelus at Castelgandolfo on Sunday 20 July and the celebration of the Jubilee with the passage through the Holy Door at St Peter’s. At the end of the Angelus, Pope Leo XIV surprised everyone by greeting all the participants in the Loppiano School, saying: ‘I pray that this experience of spirituality and fraternity will make you firm in your faith and joyful in your spiritual accompaniment of other families.’

‘Overall, we feel that it was a special edition, which began with the shocking news of the unexpected passing of our Paolo Rovea, who had worked so hard with his wife Barbara to organise the Loppiano Family Experience. It was a very difficult blow, but we always felt that he was with us, and it seems to us that the seed he planted is bearing much fruit.’

(Thans a lot to Tamara Pastorelli to publish this article from this Site: Loppiano News Letter)