Sep 6, 2012 | Non categorizzato
In recent years, Hurgarda, on the Red Sea, and Luxor in the vicinity of Alessandria have been welcoming the Mariapolis of the Focolare Movement. These places are rich in natural and artistic beauty, symbols of the deeply religious, open, hospitable, and joyful Egyptian population who are also endowed with a basic human equilibrium which has resulted from their large capacity for suffering and bearing with adversity. They showed this to the world during the events of December 2011.
This history of the spirituality of unity in Egypt reaches back to the end of the 1950’s when Marco Tecilla disembarked in Alessandria for a meeting with one of the first Franciscans who came to know the Movement, Fr Nazareno Beghetto. At the end of 1960 some focolarini from Algeria spent just a few days in Egypt, but in 1975, Aletta Salizzoni went to stay in the land of the Pharoahs along with the Matta family from Lebanon. They had been invited by the Good Shepherd Sisters who, having attended the Mariapolis in that country had begun the first focolare community there.
In the late 1970’s Word of Life groups were spreading. It was through the life in these groups that a group of Gen were born who attended an international convention in Rome, Italy. When they returned home they asked that a focolare be opened there. Their dream came true on 26 January 1981. Aletta arrived in Cairo together with two other focolarine and they found a house in Shoubra. On 13 October 1983 a men’s focolare was also opened.
In 1982 Fr Morcos Hakim was elected bishop of Sohag (Upper Egypt). This led to a blossoming community of youths and adults in the city and in the surrounding villages: simple poeple, some anable to read or write, who welcomed and lived the Word of Life with commitment. Meanwhile the focolarini and focolarine were taking more trips to other areas of the country. Mariapolises were held both in Cairo and in Sohag. A group of students began to spread the ideal of unity in Assiut as well and, noticing this blossoming of life, Bishop Morcos asked that a focolare be opened in the South as well. In 1995 three focolarine, among them the first Egyptian focolarina, moved to Sohag. From there they took many regular trips, spreading the spirituality of the Movement in Minia, Luxor and Assuan. In the 1980’s a community was begun in Alessandria around Sr. Cecilia, a Salesian. This community continued to flourish even after the death of this religious sister, the members continuing to gather around the Word and sharing how they were trying to live it in their daily lives.
But in the meantime many other elements of the Focolare were beginning to appear – many priests and seminarians embraced the spirituality of unity – Focolare families began to have an impact in their local areas that was much appreciated. A group for couples was formed around an Italian and Lebanese husband and wife that later led to the creation of a formation centre for engaged and young married couples. This centre offered courses in marriage life, motherhood, fatherhood, and welcoming the gift of new life. With the encouragement of the Conference of Bishops and of Patriarch Stephanos II, this centre was relocated within the walls of the Patriarchate.
The Focolare in Egypt today has a clearly ecumencial character: a community composed of members of the Catholic Church, several Eastern Rite Churches and the Coptic Orthodox Church. Many rediscover the beauty of their own Churches and become involved in making them more beautiful according to the design of God for them. This ecumenism demonstrates that the diaologue of life permits prejudices that have sometimes existed for centuries, to be overcome..
New relationships have developed not only among Christians (10% of the population), but also with Muslims, and this encourages and spreads hope and certainty that a united world is possible beyond our differences.
By Roberto Catalano
Aug 28, 2012 | Non categorizzato
My first contact with Fr. Andrea Balbo and another Franciscan friar from the Friars Minor, was on the steps of St. John Lateran’s Archbasilica in Rome, Italy (1953). It was a encounter,including an invitation to the Focolare Movement‘s summer gathering in the Dolomite Mountains. I don’t recall how long he was able to stay up in the mountains, but he returned to Rome with many of us on the same train. Chiara Lubich was sitting with him in his train compartment and she gave him the name Father “Novo” (New).
Then I remember, in 1954, his words were rather crucial for Chiara at Fr. Pasquale Foresi’s ordination, when Chiara was undergoing both spiritual and physical trials.
Later on the superiors of his Order sent him to the Holy Land and it was precisely through the love of Fr. Novo that Chiara went there in 1956. We were a small travelling party: Bishop Pavel Hnilica (Fr Maria), Fr Angelo Bghetto (Nazareno), Fr Pasquale Foresi, Guido Mirti (Cengia), Aletta and I. In those days, the Holy Land was largely in Palestinian territory. With great competence, Fr. Novo toured around the sites associated with the life of Jesus: Jerusalem, Bethany, Bethlehem, Emmaus, Jericho, the Dead Sea…
A week later as we were leaving for Beirut, seeing tears in his eyes, Chiara turned to me and asked: “Would you like to stay a while longer?” And so I stayed behind in the Holy Land for another few months, sharing the Ideal with the Franciscan Fathers and people they knew.
During those years in which the Movement was under investigation by the Church, Bishop Gawlina, Fr Maria, Fr Nazereno and Fr Novo began the Mystici Corporis League to be an umbrella under which the Movement was able to carry out its activities.
There were a few hard years especially for our priests and consecrated men religious. I recall how after the Second Vatican Council, Fr. Novo worked as an archivist with Cardinal Konig for thirteen years at the Secretariat for the non-believers, which had just been erected by Paul VI (and is now called the Pontifical Council for Culture).
In 1962 there was a first approval by the Holy See. But only after a private conversation between Chiara and Paul VI and later John Paul II was the Work of Mary able to express her true physiognomy. In 1990 Chiara declared that the Work of Mary was accomplished and that “Mary” contains all the vocations.
It is a charism of unity which is all Gospel, one which even people who follow different charisms, both ancient and new, are also able to share. The Work of Mary is to be “alter Maria” (other Mary) who brings Jesus to light and, in Him, all His features that the saints have highlighted through the centuries. It brings out the diverse beauty of the Church which is the Body of Christ.
Over time the other branches of the Movement were born: the men and women focolarini, the men and women volunteers, the priests and religious – each of them attached to the Work of Mary in their own way, but all of them carriers of the same charism of unity.
In 1980 Fr Novo was given permission by his superiors to dedicate himself to the consecrated religious members of the Movement. Then he was able to be much more involved in the practical developments: starting a school of formation in the charism of unity for men religious at the permanent Mariapolis of Loppiano; promoting summer gatherings; and creating local secretariats in zones that had consecrated men religious who belonged to the Movement in different parts of the world.
He was a great friend of Fr Silvano Cola who was responsible for the diocesan priests of the Focolare Movement.
When the Abba School started with Bishop Klaus Hemmerle, Chiara invited the religious to be part of it, bringing with them the richness of their own charisms. They included Fr Jesus Castellano OCD, Fr Fabio Ciardi OMI and, first among all, Fr Novo OFM.
Fr Novo remained at the Focolare’s Centre for Consecrated Religious Men, faithful to the ideal of unity, for as long as his health lasted. He had a personal relationship with Chiara also as her confessor. In the difficult moments and in the long trials, he was there for her with exceptional availability. It was he who administered the Sacrament of the Sick to Chiara at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Now we imagine him in Heaven being embraced not only by the Trinity, but also by Mary, since he helped to build her Work. Now he is with Chiara, Foco, Fr Maria, Fr Nazareno, Fr Massimei, Fr Svastano, Fr Cik and Fr Leonardi who were all members of the first centre for consecrated men religious. Then there were so many focolarini and focolarine who benefited from his counsel, and so many others.
Let us t thank Fr Novo for his faithfulness to the Work of Mary. Just recently he wanted to return to the Centre of the Movement and now he’s buried here in Rocca di Papa, in the common tomb of many first focolarini and focolarine. And on this common tomb are engraved the words: “We have believed in Love”.
In recent years, Hurgarda, on the Red Sea, and Luxor in the vicinity of Alessandria have been welcoming the Mariapolis of the Focolare Movement. These places are rich in natural and artistic beauty, symbols of the deeply religious, open, hospitable, and joyful Egyptian population who are also endowed with a basic human equilibrium which has resulted from their large capacity for suffering and bearing with adversity. They showed this to the world during the events of December 2011.
In 1982 Fr Morcos Hakim was elected bishop of Sohag (Upper Egypt). This led to a blossoming community of youths and adults in the city and in the surrounding villages: simple poeple, some anable to read or write, who welcomed and lived the Word of Life with commitment. Meanwhile the focolarini and focolarine were taking more trips to other areas of the country. Mariapolises were held both in Cairo and in Sohag. A group of students began to spread the ideal of unity in Assiut as well and, noticing this blossoming of life, Bishop Morcos asked that a focolare be opened in the South as well. In 1995 three focolarine, among them the first Egyptian focolarina, moved to Sohag. From there they took many regular trips, spreading the spirituality of the Movement in Minia, Luxor and Assuan. In the 1980’s a community was begun in Alessandria around Sr. Cecilia, a Salesian. This community continued to flourish even after the death of this religious sister, the members continuing to gather around the Word and sharing how they were trying to live it in their daily lives.