Oct 9, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Last September, Mayur and his friends visited the slums in Bhandup and a school in Kanjur (Mumbai). They met with around 110 children. With his group, the Mayur’s Dance Academy, Mayur organised dance workshops for children at a town school in the Bhandup school district. At the conclusion, there was the long awaited distribution of nutritious food like milk, fruit, etc. to the joy of all! Despite the strong rains over the last months, we, Young Ones for Unity of Andheri (Mumbai), went door to door to ask for old newspapers to sell as paper to over 50 families in our neighbourhood. We also handed out letters addressing all the residents of the neighbourhood, with the same request. Many gave us their newspapers willingly, others who did not have any wanted to give something just the same, like cereals, and notebooks for school, and lastly, others gave us money to buy school material. Some parents and friends joined us, supporting the initiative also in the more concrete aspects. And so 383 kilos of paper were collected! The man who bought them gave us a good price, and moreover, also gave us some cash “since it was for a good cause,” he said. With the sum collected, we bought a lot of cereals which we donated to the Ursuline nuns who take care of children affected by AIDS and their families. Though it was tiring, the happiness for having done something concrete was greater. Our efforts, though modest, were a small step ahead in contributing to the “Zero Hunger Project.” launched by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – http://www.fao.org/home/en/) and to which we, the Young Ones for Unity all over the world, are committed to. We’re so happy that all went well – concluded Anu and Alvin, the Young Ones for Unity of Andheri – but now we want to continue and do something more to build a better world, eliminating hunger, starting from our own neighbourhood.“
Watch video of Mayur Jayram Mandavkar https://vimeo.com/275110601
Oct 8, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
“We strongly feel the urgency of evangelization, and we realize that music can have a great impact in this regard,” says singer and songwriter, Nancy Uelmen from the Gen Verde International Performing Arts Group. She was one of the participants at the convention from the Focolare Movement. The convention lasted three days and was promoted by the Pontifical Council of Culture under the guidance of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. The convention was named “Church and Composers: Word and Sounds.” Besides the speakers, there were also 110 representatives from different Bishops Conferences and academic institutions from many countries, including several composers. The reflection began with “Music and Word”, which focused on memory, intelligibility and meaning. Then came “Music and Gospel”, which allowed for a presentation of several personal and communitarian experiences of life and the impact of different musical and compositional styles. Finally, “Music and Instruments” was more technical and focused on diverse sounds that culminate in the human voice. “We also discussed the great need of evangelizing with music, beyond the context of liturgy,” Uelmen recalls. “It’s the time for courageous expressiveness,” commented Msgr Marco Frisina, composer and director of the Diocesan Choir of Rome, Italy.
Photo credit: Pontifical Council for Culture
Photo credit: Pontifical Council for Culture
Oct 7, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Oct 4, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
“There were more than 1,000 participants, a quarter of which belonged to the age bracket of the youth, adolescents and children; three central themes on employment, education, and participation, starting from the heritage of the 1968 youth movement; almost 50 workshops for adults and children; and around 10 speakers.” Aurora Nicosia, New City Director expressed her great satisfaction at the conclusion of the event. The title of this year’s LoppianoLab held in the International town of Loppiano recalled the anniversary of the youth protests: “From the dream to commitment, education, participation, and work fifty years after 1968.” Each of the three themes – education, participation, and employment were central to the plenary session which was followed by a series of workshops open to the contribution of everyone. The morning of Saturday, 29 September was dedicated to the theme of employment, and focused on “Why work will never end.” A dialogue was set up and participated in by Carlo Petrini, founder and soul of Slow food, Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, economist, and Fr. Antonio Loffredo of the Social Cooperative La Paranza, and was moderated by Atty. Flavia Cerino. The round table involved Mario Capanna, politician and essayist, Brunetto Salvarani, theologian, and Rosy Bind, former Congresswoman. It focused on the heritage handed down by the 1968 movement, was emceed by Marco Luppi (Historian, Sophia Univ. Inst.) and Federico Rovea (doctoral candidate in the Science of Education, Padua Univ.), and centred on the title: From the dream to commitment: beyond the revolution and the 1968 protest. 
Instead, on the morning of Sunday, 30 September, the theme of education was taken up, highlighting “From the dream to commitment: let’s talk about education 4.0 Between memories and the future… a matter of sense.” The discussion was moderated by Paolo Di Paolo, writer, and involved Eraldo Affinati, teacher and writer, Emma Ciccarelli, vice president of the Family Associations Forum, and Michele De Beni, educationalist and Professor of the Sophia University. Among the themes taken up were the situation which the schooling world is undergoing today, and more extensively, the world of education. “The importance of LoppianoLab was that it re-emphasised some priorities: work, the need to participate in the many shared settings across society and politics, the central role of education …” commented Marco Luppi, Professor of History of Contemporary Politics at the Sophia University Institute. “Passing from the dream to commitment, I would like to start with ‘emphasis’ on a collective job awaiting all of us, believers and non-believers as highlighted in all the workshops, towards the construction of the common good, in not only a possible dialogue, but also an urgent one.” As in the last years, the laboratory formula characterising the event, set a dialogue among the citizens, entrepreneurs, communication operators, students and teachers, politicians, members of associations, youths, and intellectuals of all the Italian regions and beyond. “To conclude,” Aurora Nicosia underlined, “we can say that the title of this edition, “From the dream to commitment,” did not remain a slogan, but became something vital, a push not to give up our “dreams,” as Pope Francis often stresses, but to give concreteness to these dreams, with an individual and collective commitment.” Tamara Pastorelli
Photos on Flickr 
Oct 3, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Carolina Carbonell was one of the organisers of the Economy of Communion Congress in Rosario, a populated city in the province of Santa Fe, 300 km from Buenos Aires. She defined the event as “a marathon,” maybe because it all started with a race against time. “It was February 2018. A few months earlier, we had received the proposal to organise the Congress in our city. It was very hot. Walking along the sidewalks of the city, I came across an old university friend, today the director of a series of hotels. I immediately stopped him and told him of our dream: so we found the place for the Congress. On 6 September, 70 people, “not only a few, considering that those were the days in which the faculty was the object of a student protest,’ attended the opening event, with a conference entitled, ’What’s the Economy of Communion?’” 
On the second day, the “marathon” continued. “The entire team” – recounted Carolina – “woke up early to meet over 300 students of the fourth and fifth year of 12 schools in Rosario, who gathered at the ‘Colegio Natividad del Señor’ to participate in a workshop. The kids put all their creativity to ‘create’ businesses and ‘make decisions’ over various situations regarding competition, crises, distribution of profits and selection of the personnel. The most important part, however, was that they subjected the EoC entrepreneurs present to a test, and who responded with their own life experiences. In the afternoon we went to the After Unplugged ‘Empresas de un solo tiempo’ session in La Maquinita Rosario. It was a co-working setting where Gonzalo Perrín, Leandro Simeoni and Lucas Longhi narrated about their own experiences as entrepreneurs for a common project. On Saturday, we welcomed the 120 participants from 30 cities of 8 provinces and 4 different countries. It was a big group, highly assorted by age and profession. The innovative presentation, tracing the present to the origins of the EoC, was followed by testimonials of the employees of some companies that were a part of the project. There were different experiences, from a family business that produces sustainable benches to a contact center with 1,200 employees, ’Nomines,’ an inclusive company which hires only disabled people.” After lunch, an original game, musical chairs, was proposed but in a different and even more enjoyable version: instead of eliminating those who did not find a seat, the chairs were eliminated. “It required cunningness and balance to sit on top of the others without getting hurt. The most difficult moment was when only one chair remained, and all had to sit without letting anyone fall. This same intelligence is also needed by all those who work for the elimination of poverty.” With great depth we then presented some of the saddest realities of current society, to recall the reasons for which the EoC was created. “Lastly,” Carolina concluded, “when you think that the goal is not too far away since we are always dealing with a marathon, and that nothing else could happen at that point, the unforeseeable occurred. On Sunday, some 8-year-old children recounted their experiences: a small business to earn money to share with kids of other nations at war, or the visit to a home for the aged where they learned to appreciate them. Last was the interview of Martina, 9 years old: The questions, but above all the answers show the prophesy underlying the EoC: those who have lived the culture of giving since their childhood are those who will one day be able to change the economy.” Source: dev.focolare.org/conosur
Oct 1, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
“Years ago, the doctor-patient relationship used to be called ‘a silent story.’ It was held that a good patient would follow a doctor’s orders without objection, without asking questions,” said Flavia Caretta, geriatric doctor at the A. Gemelli clinic in Rome and spokesperson for Health Dialogue Culture. She was also one of the organizers of its most recent conference at Caruaru, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, titled “Interdisciplinary dialogue in building holistic health” (23–25 August). Health Dialogue Culture connects medical professionals who, taking inspiration from Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity, started a series of reflections and knowledge sharing about curing the sick and considering them holistically. Close to 400 professionals attended the conference from every part of Brazil. “Patient dissatisfaction because of poor communication,” observes Caretta, “results higher than almost any other dissatisfaction about technical competence. Technological culture has caused those in the know to specialize, yet this often fractures the patient’s identity and the interpersonal relationships between those getting cured and those doing the curing. The risk is losing, or never even obtaining, the ability to see the infirm in their entirety… “Each call for a cure brings with it a need for relationship. To ignore this aspect means to reduce medicine to simply applying techniques or offering a service, when above all it is a meeting with a person. 
“The quality of the clinical conversation should not only depend on the application of scientific knowledge or the ‘ability’ of someone to communicate, but also their ability to enter in to what the patient is going through. The process of assisting them cannot just be considered a protocol to break down into procedures, because it implies a human dimension that is unpredictable and cannot be standardized, all mutually at play within the relationship. “No healing gesture has its complete effect without entering into relationship with the other … Among the new trends in medicine, in addition to communication and personalized cures, there is a new emphasis on lifestyle, to the role that community and society play in health, especially its spiritual side. “I would like to offer some processes that have been trialed and shared by many professionals in different fields, different places in the world and cultures. They instill their lives, as well as their professions, with the values found in the Focolare spirituality… “These strategies have been proven to be effective in relating with patients. For example listening, which requires setting aside worries, judgements, hurried diagnoses, in order to make space for what the patient wants to communicate with words, expressions, and silence. “Silence, too, is communication, and is sometimes more eloquent than anything to be understood in a conversation. There is also the commitment to succeed in identifying with the present moment, free from the hurry and conditions that could cloud the choices to make.” The consistency between spiritual values and applying them in a profession, highlighted Caretta, “does not only concern our rapport with patients. It is more essential than ever to act together with other disciplines. Especially in the last few years, scientific journals aimed at improving health services and the quality of care emphasize a care team, teamwork, and a multidisciplinary approach… “I remember something Vaclav Havel, poet and the first president of the Czech Republic, said: ‘Hope is not believing that things will change. Hope is believing that you can make a difference.” Reciprocity can transform every part of the health world, whether a health professional or patient, and every part of the academic world, whether student or scholar, to be agents of change.” For contacts, news and research, see healthdialogueculture.org.
