After the World Youth Day, the International Meeting of Bishops Friends of the Focolare Movement was held in Braga, northern Portugal. There were 3 cardinals and 84 bishops, representing 42 countries, who gathered to reflect on the theme “The mysticism of encounter. Contemplation and mission in a changing age”.

Bishop of Limerick,  Brendan Leahy explained, “these meetings started way back, Bishops have been involved since the very beginning of the movement. From the 1970s onwards one of the bishops Klaus Hemerle, felt very strongly that he would like to be able to help bring this spirituality to other bishops. So Chiara Lubich and he came up with the idea to have this kind of meeting. The aim is for Bishop who are Friends of the Movement to go into depth in the spirituality of unity, to help us in in our pastoral life, in our reaching out to other people, in the dialogues with other churches and with other religions”.

Bishop Leahy said that the themes this year included, “synodality because it’s the big theme of the church at the moment. We’re looking at the whole area of unity today after the World Youth meeting, how can we better be with young people in building a world that’s more at peace a more united world? And then more specifically, some topics like women in the church, the place of charisms in the church? The role of lay people, perhaps married people we don’t always think enough about the mission that a married couple can have the life of the Church”.

Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, and Jesús Morán, Co-President, attended the whole meeting and gave several contributions. In her talk, Margaret invited everyone to “Start from unity in order to ‘be’ and to ‘speak’ today“. She said that Unity is the life of God and we who want to imitate that life are invited to live it and we have a duty to proclaim it courageously.

Jesús Morán shared his reflection on the  WYD, where he was struck by the young people who carry the cross of the Church and of the world with Christ and, in the current hustle and bustle, are still able to courageously kneel in adoration of the Eucharistic mystery.