Juruti, in the State of Parà, is reached after seven hours by motorboat, the fastest means of transport, from Santarém. Its inhabitants say proudly that this area is the heart of the lower Brazilian Amazon, where the only connecting “road” is the Amazon River, the “river-sea”, as the local people call it. It is the first river in the world in terms of volume of water and the second by length. It marks time, social life, trade and the relationships between the approximately 23 million inhabitants of this vast region, where 55.9% of the Brazil’s indigenous population lives. It is one of the most precious ecosystems on the planet and yet political and economic interests are the cause of conflicts and violence that continue to multiply daily. Here the disruptive beauty of nature is directly proportional to the problems of quality of life and survival.
Care, the key word for the Amazon
Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán, President and Co-President of the Focolare, Bernadette Ngabo and Ángel Bartol of the Movement’s International Centre and Marvia Vieira and Aurélio Martins de Oliveira Júnior, national co-directors of the Movement came to meet and spend a few days with the Focolare communities of the region. They were welcomed by Msgr. Bernardo Bahlmann O.F.M., Bishop of Óbidos. He said, “Observing and listening is the first thing we can learn in the Amazon”.
He spoke of the differentiated culture of this land, where indigenous characteristics coexist with aspects of the Western world. Social coexistence presents many challenges: poverty, lack of respect for human rights, exploitation of women and destruction of the forest heritage. He said, “All this is a question of rethinking what it means to take care of the riches of this land, of its original traditions, of creation, of the uniqueness of each person, to find, together, a new path towards a more integrated culture”.
Santarém, where the Church is secular
Msgr. Ireneu Roman, Bishop of the Archdiocese of Santarém continued the commentary, saying that this would be, “An impossible task without the involvement of the laity. They are the true strength of the Amazon Church”. There are about a thousand catechists in its parish communities. They support Christian formation, the liturgy of the Word and social projects. Msgr. Roman asked the Focolare community in the Amazon to bring its specific contribution: “unity in ecclesial structures and in society, because what this land needs most is to relearn communion”.
The presence of the Focolare and the Amazon Project
The first men’s’ community of the Focolare arrived in Óbidos in 2020 at the request of Msgr. Bahlmann and six months ago a women’s’ one opened in Juruti. Today in the Amazon there are seven focolarini, including a doctor, two priests, a psychologist and an economist.
Marvia Vieira and Aurélio Martins de Oliveira Júnior explained, “We are in the Amazon to support the great missionary work that the Church carries out with indigenous peoples. In 2003, one of the guidelines of the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference was to increase the presence of the Church in the Amazon region, because the vastness of the territory and the lack of priests made it difficult to provide adequate spiritual and human assistance.”
Thus, 20 years ago, the “Amazon Project” was born where members of the Focolare Movement from all over Brazil went for a period to places chosen in agreement with the Dioceses, to carry out evangelization actions, training courses for families, young people, adolescents and children, medical and psychological visits, dental care and more.
Edson Gallego, a focolarino priest of Óbidos and the parish priest told us, “Perhaps we will not be able to solve the many problems of these people but we can be close to them, share joys and sorrows. This is what we have been trying to do since we arrived, in communion with the different ecclesial realities of the city.”
The women focolarine explained that it is not always easy to change one’s mental categories: “We often delude ourselves to give answers, but it is we who come out enriched by every encounter, by the strong presence of God that emerges everywhere: in nature, but above all in people”.
Building up people and society
In Juruti the focolarine collaborate with the agencies of the Church that work for development. The “Bom Pastor” “casulo” is one of the 24 kindergartens in the city, which follows a specific pedagogical line that educates children to be aware of their own culture and traditions, to have a sense of community and to be aware of themselves and of others. This is an important choice for an integral and person centred education. The “9 de Abril na Providência de Deus” Hospital is managed by the “São Francisco de Assis na Provincia de Deus” Fraternity. It serves the population of the city (approximately 51,000 inhabitants), nearby towns and river communities, focussing on those who cannot afford to pay for care. The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on the other hand, animate the “Mother Clelia” Coexistence Centre where they welcome a hundred young people annually, creating alternatives for professional training and contributing to personal development, in particular of young people at risk.
The Focolare community has also been working in synergy with parishes and ecclesial organizations for years. When Margaret Karram met it and other communities from around, she thanked the people for their generosity, evangelical concreteness and welcome: “You have reinforced in all of us the sense of being one world family and even if we live far apart, we are united by the same gift and mission: to bring fraternity where we live and throughout the world”.
Promoting human dignity
A one hour boat trip from Óbidos, through a network of canals that wind through the Amazon forest brings you to the Quilombo Pauxi Mocambo, an indigenous community of a thousand Afro-descendants. It is linked to Edson’s parish. He tries to go at least once a month to celebrate Mass and, together with the focolarini, share, listen and play with the children. The community is made up of about a thousand people who, although immersed in a paradisiacal nature, live in particularly disadvantaged conditions. Isolation, struggle for survival, violence, lack of equal rights, access to education and basic medical care, are the daily challenges these river communities face. Here too, for two years, the diocese of Óbidos has been running a project entitled, “Força para as mulheres e crianças da Amazônia”. It is aimed at women and children and promotes an integral formation of the person in the spiritual, health, educational, psychological, and economic sustenance fields. A young mother proudly recounted her progress in the home economics course: “I learned a lot and discovered that I have skills and ideas”.
Certainly it is a drop in the great sea of the needs of these peoples. Jesús Morán said, “It is true that alone, we will never solve the many social problems. Our mission, also here in the Amazon, is to change hearts and bring unity in the Church and in society. What we do makes sense if people focus their lives on the good. And that’s the real change.”
Listening to the focolarini in the Amazon highlights the fact that welcoming, sharing and learning is the “evangelical dynamic” that emerges, where each and every one feels personally called by God to be his instrument to “listen to the cry of the Amazon” (47-52), as Pope Francis wrote in his extraordinary post-synodal exhortation Querida Amazonia and to contribute to the growth of a “culture of encounter towards a ‘multifaceted harmony’” (61).
Effective today, November 20, 2023, the new Guidelines for Training in the Protection of Minors and Persons in Vulnerable Situations developed by the Focolare Movement are available. Margarita Gómez and Étienne Kenfack, Counselors of the Movement’s International Center on the aspect of Physical Life and Nature, offer us some clarifications. Illustrating the characteristics necessary to make a concrete commitment to the protection of the life and dignity of every person: this is what distinguishes the new Guidelines for Training in the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons (SCVA) in the Focolare Movement, released today, November 20, 2023, International Children’s and Adolescents’ Day. A work that has seen the direct collaboration of 40 specialists and people involved in this field from all continents and that aims exclusively to provide the necessary elements so that in every country where the Focolare Movement operates, an adequate training strategy can be developed that is oriented towards prevention and eradicating any kind of abuse, both within the Movement and in the environments where its members are found (work, neighborhood, school). As early as 2013, the Movement had been engaged in training for the protection of minors, with widespread work in all the countries where it operates and a six-hour course that contained the basic principles. This training effort as of December 2022 had reached 17,000 people, and although the training was open to all, it was mainly carried out by people who had responsibility or direct contact in activities with minors. Following the report on the serious cases of sexual abuse recorded in France, published one year after the GCPS consulting survey, a strong need arose to offer targeted training to all members of the Focolare Movement of every age, vocation, nation, role. For this reason, the Guidelines are a universal tool, leaving ample room for appropriate inculturation and specific implementation in the particular context of origin. “The training is aimed at everyone, and by ‘everyone’ we mean not only the members of the Movement but also the people who work in our facilities-said Étienne Kenfack. The Guidelines, on the other hand, are aimed at the Movement leaders in the different geographical areas and their teams who will be responsible for implementing them.” The Guidelines will come into effect on January 1, 2024, for a period of 20 months ad experimentum. A period of comparison in order to gather all the changes and transformations that will be needed for the future. “The document – continues Margarita Gómez – rests on a key resource for us, and that is communion: therefore, we will work in a network, there will be an international commission and local teams that will carry out the project; there will be moments of exchange, with online links to help us resolve doubts, to share good practices. It is no coincidence that we have decided to title our training program ‘All responsible for all.’ I hope that these Guidelines will find great acceptance in our communities and that in a few months we may have given a significant boost to training in this area.”
Maria Grazia Berretta
Watch the video (activate English subtitles) https://youtu.be/OsZW-DC_E7U
After the disastrous attack on Israel, the horrifying violence that was unleashed, the wave of fear that rocked the two peoples, the anguish for the hostages and the apprehension for the fate of the people of Gaza, we want to send you news from the Focolare communities in the Holy Land and news of a worldwide call to prayer and fasting for peace on 17th October“We have left our homes and all the Christians are taking refuge in the churches” This short message is the latest news we received this morning from some members of the Focolare community in Gaza. According to Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family Catholic parish in Gaza, there are 1017 Christians still living in the strip and among them are several adherents of the Focolare Movement, with whom even sporadic communication is increasingly difficult. And in spite of this, a message, from one of them has been circulating over the past few days, thanking everyone for their closeness and prayers for the small community in Gaza. “You have given me the strength not to give in to evil,” he writes, “not to doubt God’s mercy and to believe that good exists. In the midst of every darkness there is a hidden light. If we are unable to pray, you pray; we offer and our work together is complete. We want the world to know that we want peace, that violence only begets violence and that our trust in God is great. But should God call us to Himself, be assured that from Heaven we will continue to pray with you and to implore Him more strongly to have compassion on His people and on you. Peace, security, unity and universal fraternity, this is what we want and this is the will of God and it’s ours too”.Margaret Karram gave us news about fraternity in the midst of hatred Saying this takes courage today when horror and violence fill the entire media coverage, but this is not the only news. There are also stories that make less noise, but which cannot be silenced, such as the worldwide network of prayer that is underway everywhere on earth, regardless of religious belief or affiliation, together with actions and words of fraternity. Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement shared this at the daily briefing in the Vatican Press Office, at the ongoing Synod of the Catholic Church, in which she is participating as a special guest. She told us, ‘Jewish friends I know in Israel have called me, a Palestinian Arab, saying that they are worried about the people living in Gaza. For me, this is something very beautiful. Everyone knows the negative stories between these two peoples, but so many people, so many organisations are working to build bridges but this doesn’t make the news. They only talk about hatred, division, terrorism. We are left with images of these two peoples that do not correspond to reality. We must not forget that even today so many people are working to build bridges. It is a seed being sown, even in this difficult time’.From our Jewish friends: creating a community of prayer To confirm this, a Jewish friend wrote to us from the Tel Aviv district: “If you are in contact with the friends of the Focolare in Gaza, assure them of my love and my closeness. I hope they are all safe. These days I am at home with my family, the schools are closed and we are staying close to the shelters. The chats are filled with a constant stream of appeals and offers of help for the families who have fled, for the soldiers and their families. There are also requests for help with funerals, to honour the dead as they should be honoured. It seems that all the young men have been called up to fight and we are worried for our friends and relatives. We fear what lies ahead. I try to keep my children from being afraid, but our terror is insignificant compared to what has happened to our brothers and sisters in the South. I am thinking of my Arab friends in Israel who are running to the shelters like us. I try to pray at the same hour as my Muslim friend, so that we can be a community of prayer even though so many things divide us. Your closeness and your prayers mean so much to us, more than what I can express. What can we do? At a press conference, Margaret Karram confided to us the pain and anguish she feels for her people on both sides: ‘I asked myself what am I doing here? Should I not be doing something else right now to promote peace? But then I said to myself: here too I can join Pope Francis’ invitation and pray with everyone. With these brothers and sisters from all over the world, we can ask God for the gift of peace. I believe in the power of prayer’. Margaret went on to speak about the action ‘NO MORE WAR!!! BUILD PEACE!” that the children and young people of the Focolare Movement launched together with the association “Living Peace”. They are summoning their peers to pray for peace at 12 noon, every day and in every time zone. They are also proposing to fill the day with actions that build peace in the hearts of each person and wherever they are. They are inviting them to send messages of support to children and young people in the Holy Land and are encouraging them to ask the leaders of their countries to do all they can to achieve peace. The Focolare Movement is also joining the appeal of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, for a day of fasting and prayer for peace on 17th October: ” We could organize moments of prayer with Eucharistic adoration and the rosary to the Blessed Virgin. Probably in many parts of our dioceses, circumstances will not allow for large gatherings. However In parishes, in religious communities, in families, it will be possible to organise simple moments of prayer together”.
The contributions, collected through the NGOs Azione per un Mondo Unito (AMU) and Azione per Famiglie Nuove (AFN), will be used to provide the people of Ukraine with basic necessities, in collaboration with local Churches.
The Emergency Coordination Team of the Focolare Movement has launched a special fundraising campaign to support the people of Ukraine through the NGOs Azione per un Mondo Unito (AMU) and Azione per Famiglie Nuove (AFN).
“Kiev” by the painter Michel Pochet
Any donations received will be managed jointly by AMU and AFN to provide essential aid to the Ukrainian people for food, medical care, housing, heating and shelter in various Ukrainian cities, in collaboration with local Churches. Donations can be made online via the following sites: AMU: www.amu-it.eu/dona-online-3/ AFN: www.afnonlus.org/dona/ or by bank transfer to the following accounts:
Action for a United World ONLUS (AMU) IBAN: IT 58 S 05018 03200 000011204344 at Banca Popolare Etica Codice SWIFT/BIC: ETICIT22XXX
Action for New Families ONLUS (AFN) IBAN: IT 92 J 05018 03200 000016978561 at Banca Popolare Etica Codice SWIFT/BIC: ETICIT22XXX
Reason for donation: Ukraine Emergency
Tax benefits are available on such donations in various EU countries and other countries around the world, according to different local regulations. Italian taxpayers should be able to obtain income tax deductions and allowances, in accordance with the relevant regulations of each NGO.
Innovation is on the horizon for dev.focolare.org users. The Focolare website will soon appear in a restyled format and with additional navigational features. This is a project which the International Centre of the Focolare Movement in Rocca di Papa (Rome) has been developing over the last two years. The project aims at integrating the communication networks, carried out up till now by four separate publishing sectors (Website, Information Service, Mariapolis Newsletter, and Collegamento CH Worldwide Linkup), thus creating a unified “Communications Office”. Already operating since last February, this Office gathers news about the life of the Movement worldwide and transmits them through various media. Among its main objectives is to promote activities of the Focolare Movement, to communicate its life to a broader audience, and to contribute to a greater sharing of news among the various Focolare communities worldwide. The development of new communication technologies and trends called for the restyling of the website which includes a new graphic layout, significantly more minimalist in structure, and an upgraded navigational logic. The use of new applications will also allow for greater integration with the social media, and will enable users to access content in different and personalized modes. The new structure will, in fact, be mobile-friendly and as such will take into account the use of smartphones and other mobile technology in our daily life. It will focus on content that is brief and varied, available in different formats (text messages, infographics, video clips, etc). The contents of the current site, however, will not be lost. The static content will be published as an e-Book and in the future the news articles will be accessible through searchable archives. Also envisaged is a space, entitled “Mariapolis”, dedicated to news regarding many aspects of the life of the Focolare Movement. It bears the same name given to the traditional summer gatherings of the Focolare held around the world. The current print edition of the journal “Mariapolis” will be discontinued after December 2018. The digital version aims to be a virtual “community” open to anyone who wants to visit. A system of notifications will allow the users to choose when, which themes and channels, and the preferred device (PC, tablet or smartphone) they would like to receive the information on. Every two months, a “Mariapolis” newsletter in pdf format will deliver a summary of the main highlights. Happy surfing! Joachim Schwind
