You are in: Home > Press

70th anniversary of the Focolare Movement

December 7, 2013

Commitment and responsibility towards the many challenges of today’s world

“After 70 years we can start again. This does not mean that we look at the past with remorse, but that we go back to the origins in order to give again new splendour and concreteness to the ideal of universal unity that Chiara has left us as a precious inheritance”. This is what Maria Voce, first president of the Focolare after the foundress Chiara Lubich, said, expressing the sentiment of two million adherents of the Movement.

Listening to the humanity of today and meeting those who are poor materially and spiritually is a process that had  marked the same origins of the charism of the Focolare Movement.

On the 7th December 1943, Chiara Lubich was alone in saying her “yes” to God in Trent which was destroyed by the war. It was the beginning of a story and of a passion: that of unity and universal brotherhood. Now thre are many on the same path, not only catholics but members of other churches, other religions and those with non-religious beliefs.

 

Press Release

Updated on December 15, 2013

SIF – Focolare Information Service

“Welcoming the other” to build peace

November 20-22, 2013

The 9th World Assembly of Religions for Peace (RfP) takes place from 20 – 22 November in Vienna, Austria.

Maria Voce, the president of the Focolare Movement will be participating in this Assembly together with 600 religious leaders from various parts of the world and representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations, charitable foundations and other sectors of civil society.

As from this year,Maria Voce is Co-President of the World Council of RfP together with 49 other representatives of different religions and cultures, among them Rev. Nichiko Niwano (Buddhist, President of Rissho Kosei-kai,Japan),Chief Rabbi David Rosen, (Jewish, President of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations), Mme. Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow (Muslim, President of Muslim Women of Guinea), Dr. Agnes R. Abuom, (Anglican, Executive Committee, World Council of Churches, Kenya).

The IX Assembly of RfP is proposing tolerance and “welcoming the other” to counter rising hostility against the “other”, thus promoting human dignity, shared well-being and citizenship. The motto for this event is ‘Welcoming the other’. (See IX World Assembly RfP Theme Paper) .

Maria Voce will give her intervention during the afternoon plenary session of November 20. She will speak about “Welcoming the other – a multireligious vision of peace”.  (See IX World Assembly RfP Programme)

Maria Voce’s intervention 

Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare Movement, always supported the work of RfP.  During her speech at the VII World Assembly of RfP held in Amman on November 29, 1999 she said:

“[W]e are convinced that, in spite of everything, peace is possible, and that it is the only feasible path for a future worthy of the highest human values. We are here because we are deeply convinced that working for peace corresponds to our innermost vocation, to the most profound aspirations of the human heart, and, in a word, to our being women and men of religion.”

Updated on November 20, 2013

LH

SIF – Focolare Information Service

Women and the Church – an interview with Maria Voce

November 8, 2013

The President of the Focolare Movement augurs more decisive roles for women within the Catholic Church.

In an extensive interview by the Italian magazine Citta` Nuova, Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement addresses the issue of women in the Church in an original and daring manner.

“Feminine emancipation that  would take the place of men? This would be disastrous for women.” Women priests? “This would still mean a role of service”. At least one female cardinal would be an unequivocal sign: “ I do not believe in this, I do not think it is essential”. And what about high positions given to women? “They do not entice me at all”. Faced with these facts, Maria Voce augurs a more decisive presence of women who will be able to put foward specific proposals in this regard.

 

The prospect of the consistory of February 24 has already begun to arouse great expectations. Accustomed to Pope Francis’ substantial novelty in many fields, newspapers – from the English Sunday Times to the Spanish El Pais, and the U.S Washington Post – splash out female names and comments in support of an epochal turning point.

 

The President of the Focolare Movement expresses a very different position. Cardinalship would be an hononary title, nothing more, while Maria Voce sees the need of “participation in consultation, thinking or decision-making bodies”. And she arrives to envisage “not an F8 but any 8, where men and women are represented, each one with his or her own characteristics, because it is precisely that peculiarity that the Church needs”. In reality “it is necessary that the entire ecclesial body is prepared to accept the authority of female persons even there where the most important Church decisions are taken”.

 

“First and foremost the woman must be recognized as a woman, not as a priest or as a bishop, because this is not what interests us.” While noting a serious prejudice against female persons, Maria Voce says: “Women are rarely considered for their contribution towards thinking”. And she draws the conclusion that the characteristics and style of Pope Francis are the result of “profound and authentic contacts with women” and hopes that “he would rely on these contacts, today, to bring out the best of the woman in the Church”.

 

 

Read the full interview

Updated on November 13, 2013

BF – UF

SIF – Focolare Information Service

Page 22 of 46« First...10...2021222324...3040...Last »