May 23, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
In 1956, invited by his parliamentary colleague, Igino Giordani, Tommaso Sorgi participated in the first Mariapolis held in Fiera di Primiero (Trent, Italy). He was married to Assunta, whom he tenderly loved and who bore him 4 children, but there in the Dolomites, he had gone alone only to please his friend. In fact, he thought that the event would not be so overwhelming. Instead, it was a bolt of lightning. “The encounter with the charism of unity – he recounted– renewed Christianity in me, the interior life and perhaps also the physical one, the sense of existence. Before, I saw my neighbour as a collective name, a group without bearing a single countenance, and was thus nobody. Now my neighbour is a brother or sister who exists or who passes me by.” And while Tommaso was still in the mountains, he made this resolution: “Jesus, I want to be yours, the way You want me to be, dispose of me as you wish.” Born in the province of Teramo on 12 October 1921 from a family of artisans, he graduated with top grades. He became an esteemed professor of sociology in the University of his city, a town councilor (1946-1964), a provincial councillor (1960-1964), and president of the United Institutes and Hospitals (1953-1972). His intelligence and spirit of service with which he played his public role, earned him the trust and votes of the people. In his political life – he was in Parliament from 1953 to 1972 – he stood out for his sensitivity for the weaker classes, stressed in putting in practice what he had learned in the Mariapolis. He wrote: “I am experimenting that we can “live Mary” also in the rowdy world of politics.” 
In 1985 with Assunta who also became a married focolarina, he moved to the Center of the Movement to create the “Igino Giordani Centre,” a task which gave him the chance to deepen and bring to light the multifaceted spiritual and human features of his friend and his life model, now a servant of God. Drawing inspiration from the Word Chiara Lubich had given him as a spiritual motto: “Stand up and walk” (John 5.8), he dedicated himself to the development of the New Humanity Movement, with many initiatives among which was the “Triple Pact” – moral, programmatic, participative – elaborated to favour the interaction between the elected and the voters, and the Appeal for the Unity of Peoples, presented to the UN in 1987. There is a long list of his books and essays that range from sociology to the history of Christianity, and from political theory to the figure and thought of Igino Giordani. Leafing through the stages of his long life (96 years), what stands out is the constant striving towards holiness, fully lived in unity with Assunta – who went ahead to the Other Life in 2014 – and the final, vigilant waiting for “the total encounter” with God who called him to Himself last 24 April. At the funeral, among the many testimonials, his daughter, Gabriella spoke significant words on behalf of her siblings: “We thank you for the love you gave us, the efforts offered to civil society with competence, honesty and passion, your commitment to the service of the Church and humanity in the Work of Mary in a vision of the united world and for having transmitted to us a great ideal and for your coherence in a life that pushed you to recuse the privileges of the mandates and prefer giving than having. Thanks for the many gifts we received, of which we were not always aware, but which today acquire new value and depth for us, our children and grandchildren.” The Focolare Movement worldwide joins the family in raising thanks to God for the example of the figure of this great man, brilliant politician, simple focolarino donated to God, in the certainty that he has been welcomed into the immensity of His love.
May 22, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
On May 16th, the 18th edition of the Noite Musical ecumenica was held at the Focolare’s Mariapolis Centre in San Leopoldo, Brazil on the occasion of the Week of Prayer for the Unity of Christians. Marina Silva, who is in charge of the Mariapolis centre, explained: “The evening of music was just one of many moments of communion among choirs from different Christian churches within the framework of the ecumenical dialogue that we work on every day.” The event gathered 400 people in a joyful and fraternal atmosphere. They came from the 7th Day Adventist churches, the Evanglical Lutheran Church, the Catholic Church, Baptist Church, JUAD, Missionaries of the Risen Christ and the Emmanuel Community of Praise and Adoration. The Integracion Choral also participated with its senior citizen singers. The theme was The hand of God unites us and liberates us” (Ex 15:1-21). Over the years, the Ecumenical Evening of Music has brought toghether 5 thousand people.
May 22, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Photo: Federico Patti
Photo: Federico Patti
May 20, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
It began as a dream, just as every other Focolare town had. In 1950, Switzerland, after contemplating from a mountain above the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, Chiara Lubich had the idea that one day the spirituality of unity would produce something similar: “A small town with all the elements of a modern city: houses, churches, schools, shops, businesses and other services. A community of people from diverse backgrounds joined by Jesus’s new commandment: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’” Her dream came true, first in Loppiano, Italy, then in another 24 small towns. Mariapolis Lia is one of them in the middle of the Argentine Pampas. Carlos Becaria, who is co-responsible for the town, was a member of the first group of pioneers: “There wasn’t anything yet. But there was a prophetic inspiration. Vittorio Sabbione, one of the first focolarinos, said to us: “You’re here because you chose God. Discomforts won’t be lacking, so you’ll have to keep Jesus on the Cross in mind. I’m not offering you anything ready-made: you have to build it all for yourselves. We stayed because we believed in that dream.” 
Mariapolis Lia is named after Lia Brunet (December 25, 1917 – February 5, 2005), one of the first companions of Chiara Lubich, invited by her to become a pioneer and take the charism of unity to the Latin American continent. A woman of Trent, like the foundress of the Focolare, she was labelled a revolutionary because of the radical way they lived the Gospel on a continent marked by so many social problems. Obviously, she never imagined as she gave a strong push to the Mariapolis in Argentina, that one day it would bear her name. “Lia”, just like Loppiano in Italy, which was recently visited by Pope Francis, strives to be a tangible sign of a dream that is coming true: a more fraternal world renewed by the Gospel. Currently 220 people live in Mariapolis Lia, but it welcomes hundreds of visitors throughout the year, mostly young people for long or short stays. Nearby stands Solidaridad Business Park, inspired by the Focolare’s Economy of Communion Project. 
More than 250 people took part in the celebrations at the end of April, which will continue during the 50th anniversary year of the Mariapolis’s founding. They will be attended by Church leaders, representatives from the Movement, Christian Churches, Jewish faithful and people with no religious affiliation. “We got there at night,” recalls Marta Yofre, one of the first young women to arrive on at the threshold of the Mariapolis. I was feeling a sense of powerlessness, but also one certainty: Our Lady would be the one to build it.” Nieves Tapia, founder of the Latin American Centre for Learning and Solidarity Service, attended the training school for young people in the 1980s: “Here I learned to love the other country as my own and to enlarge my heart to all of Latin America.” “Without realizing it, I was given the gift to experience as something normal, what was actually totally revolutionary: love for neighbour.” For Arturo Claria, a psychologist, UNESCO Master in Culture of Peace, what he experienced in the Mariapolis twenty years ago “is a mark that I will never be able to erase, a living demonstration that love transcends life.” The Bishop of Mercedes-Lujan, Augustin Radrizzani: “It’s moving to realize what significance it has had for our country and for the world. It unites universal peace and brotherly love, illumined by the grace of this ideal.” Eduardo Leibobich from the Hebrew Organization for Inter-Confessional Dialogue, recalled the numerous “Peace Days that were held by the Mariapolis. Methodist pastor Fernando Suarez from the Ecumenical Movement of the Human Rights of People With Different Convictions: “I extend an invitation to join forces. It’s too beautiful the ideal of a free and equal human race, made brother and sister by respect and by mutual love.” Gustavo Clariá
May 18, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
“Recently, just before the Holy Father visited Loppiano, I was in close contact with five Buddhist monks from Thailand,” says Luigi Butori. Originally from central Italy, Butori has lived in southeast Asia for close to 30 years. “I speak their language, and for the occasion I was their interpreter. It’s been an intense, profound, and demanding experience. “When they visited the Focolare Movement’s international center for religious near Rome, they were struck by way two religious brothers, who are no longer so young themselves, served them concretely and did everything they could for them. That’s when the monks began to perceive a light, a harmony, or as one of them put it: a unique ‘voice’ within and around them.” “The monks’ stay continued with a visit to the capital, accompanied by a guide who is a focolarina. The monk’s saw that her eyes ‘had that same smile as the brothers we met earlier.’ Then they spent a day in the city of Lucca, with the Focolare community there – close to 80 people ages 2 to 94. ‘You could see the same light in their faces,’ they said. “The monks briefly stopped for a few hours in Pisa, where the Leaning Tower is, and there was someone from the local community there. They had the same smile. “At this point one of the youngest monks exclaimed, ‘This child of Chiara Lubich has the same type of smile that we found in Rome, Castelli and Lucca – how is that possible?’
Buddhist monk Phramaha Thongrattana Thavorn (Luce Ardente) greeting the pope – Foto © R. Orefice – CSC Audiovisivi
May 16, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Focolare president, Maria Voce, concluded the event dedicated to the culture of unity and brotherhood, with a meeting of the family dedicated to the Focolare in the capital of Sicily, by offering a challenge: “That Palermo may become the capital of the culture of Resurrection, capital in the sense of “il capo”, (head city) from which the culture of Resurrection flows into the whole world.” Twenty years ago Chiara Lubich had received honorary citizenship in the Sicilian capital. Sincne then, the community has continued to follow this journey of striving to incarnate the words she spoke on that occasion: “Let us promise that Palermo will be forever in our hearts, until, through the audacity and courage of its citizens, it will become a model for many other cities within and beyond Italy, a true city on the hill.” The event, which was part of the Palermo, Capital of Culture 2018, promoted by the Municipality, embraced several fields: Law and Order, ecumenical dialogue, music and show with Gen Verde, workshops, flashmobs and roundtables promoted by the young people. More than 120 people took part in the Relationships and Law Meeting at the Regional Pariliament Building on May 11th. The gathering included presenations by several leaders from the world of Law and Justice, lawyers, students and scholars. Maria Voce concluded the discussions saying that the field Law and Justice is in extreme need of “poeple whose hearts are open to the grand ideal of the unity of the human family, and that for this reason put their whole self into working concretely for the healing of relationships, without fear or comprimise.” In the afternoon more than 300 young people held a programme on titled Digital Identity, promoted by IUS, and We are the choices we make” presented by Jesus Moran, co-president of the Focolare, and Mayor Leoluca Orlando. The young people presented testimonies of the choices that sometimes place them in crisis: whether to stay in Sicily or put their lives on the line and move to other cities or countries. Jesus Moran encouraged them to find the way to give of themselves. The choice falls back on “where can I give myself more and where can I develop my talents. […] Of I leave, I can’t just go to escape. If I stay, I can’t just stay our of fear.”Mayor Orlando stressed how difficult it can be to change a city that comes from years of submission to mafia rules and behaviors, and redeem oneself through a change of culture. In the morning of May 13th, there was a family moment at the celebration of the Mass, followed by a meeting for families in the historic neighbourhood of Albergheria/Ballaro with an artistic event for children. In the afternoon 500 representatives from more than 20 Christian Churches took part in Together in Charity, from Dialogue to Collaboration, at the Golden Theatre. The regional archbishop, Corrado Lorefice, Maria Voce and the director of the Director of the Regional Office for Ecumenism, Erina Ferlito made presentations. The testimonies described the journey begun by several cities of Sicily: from assisting prison inmates, to caring for the poor, the homeless and immigrants. Then there was the “On the Other Side” concert with Gen Verde and more than 800 people. In the preceding days there were exhibits by young people, workshops run by the band and a flashmob on one of the main thoroughfares of the city. This was also an overwhelming experience that excited by the youth and adults with the message of brotherhood that the international band brings around the world.
In 1985 with Assunta who also became a married focolarina, he moved to the Center of the Movement to create the “Igino Giordani Centre,” a task which gave him the chance to deepen and bring to light the multifaceted spiritual and human features of his friend and his life model, now a servant of God. Drawing inspiration from the Word Chiara Lubich had given him as a spiritual motto: “Stand up and walk” (John 5.8), he dedicated himself to the development of the New Humanity Movement, with many initiatives among which was the “Triple Pact” – moral, programmatic, participative – elaborated to favour the interaction between the elected and the voters, and the Appeal for the Unity of Peoples, presented to the UN in 1987. There is a long list of his books and essays that range from sociology to the history of Christianity, and from political theory to the figure and thought of Igino Giordani. 
