The Path to Dialogue
In this second part of our report on Maria Voce’s trip to America, we go to Chicago, where two important events took place.
April 10-2011 – KAM Synagogue, Chicago. The Kehilath Anshe Maarav (KAM) synagogue of Chicago, built in 1847, was the ideal place for the gathering of 200 friends of the Focolare belonging to different religions. Located in Hyde Park on 50th Avenue, it was the first synagogue ever built in the Midwest. Its very architecture seems inspired by a desire for dialogue. Lutherans, Armenians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians were present at the meeting.
About 30 people present took turns on the stage to recount moments of spiritual communion they had experienced in the course of the past thirty years when living the spirit of brotherhood proposed and exemplified by Chiara Lubich when she met representatives of various faiths throughout the world. Those meetings were seeds of prophecy that, one by one, came to fruition. The participants recalled with emotion the meeting between Chiara Lubich and Imam W. D. Mohammed in the Malcolm Shabazz mosque in Harlem in 1997, and later in Washington D.C. in 2000. The two leaders had then made a pact of mutual love between their respective organizations which endures to this day.
The representative of the Buddhist movement Rissho Kosei Kai remembered instead the meeting between Chiara and founder Nikkyo Niwano. Emily Soloff, associate director for Interreligious Relations of the American Jewish Committee, one of those who emceed the event, affirmed that moments of dialogue with members of the Focolare reminded her of the Jewish Sabbath, because of their solemnity and sense of family. Sister Laila Mohammed, daughter of the late Imam W. D. Mohammed, echoed those feelings. She said that the meeting between Christians and Muslims she attended in Rome had great spiritual depth and brought to her the same spiritual fruits of a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Prof. Donald Mitchell, Imam Mikal Saahir and Imam Kareem Irfan recounted an experience of dialogue between academics and religious leaders they had made during a joint trip to Asia. In the Philippines and Thailand, in particular, the spirit of universal brotherhood felt by everyone offered hope that dialogue can bring a solution to the conflicts with Muslim minorities afflicting the South of both countries.
Young people who work in collaborative social projects to help people in need also shared their experiences.
At the end, Maria Voce, president of the Focolare, and co-president Giancarlo Faletti greeted those present and answered questions presented by a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew. The answers underlined that the dialogue conducted by the Focolare has its origin in Chiara Lubich’s dream to contribute to the unification of the human family, and is thus not only the responsibility of a part of the Focolare movement but also of everyone – young people and adults, the elderly and children. Giancarlo Faletti emphasized that, while the day had been a trip down memory lane that allowed everyone to remember the milestones of their common history, it was important not to dwell on them in nostalgia, but rather to strengthen the mutual love among all.
At the end Maria Voce said: “Often religions have been like spheres that brushed against one another. Then people came along who pierced these spheres so that the wealth of each could be shared by the others. This was the prophetic role of Chiara Lubich, Nikkyo Niwano, Dadaji of the Swadhyaya movement, Imam W. D. Mohammed, and others. Thanks to them we were able to discover riches we weren’t aware of. Fear has gone. Now we must continue on this path.” The audience responded to this invitation with a standing ovation. Some said: “We bring back to our communities the wealth we have discovered. Together we will help humanity.”
April 11 - 2011 – De Paul University, Chicago. “I will show you the way of wisdom” is De Paul University’s motto and it shows up here and there on its campus. The university was founded at the end of the 19th century by the Congregation of the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul, with the goal of providing proper education for the children of Catholic immigrants in Chicago. Today it has 25,000 students and it has been ranked among the “top tier” universities in the United States.
The motto, taken from the Book of Proverbs, acquired a special meaning during World Catholicism Week organized by the university, the first day of which was dedicated to the theme “Catholic spirituality: a global communion”. Various personalities spoke during the week.
On that first day, April 11, a number of roundtable discussions took place, some of then simultaneously. Several scholars from the Focolare Movement were called upon to present various aspects of the communal dimension of the spirituality of Chiara Lubich. Dr. Judith Povilus presented the interdisciplinary, multi-ethnic and intercultural experience of Sophia University in Loppiano. Dr. Donald Mitchell discussed the connection between environmentalism and interreligious dialogue; and Dr. Paul O’Hara discussed the Marian dimension of the Church.
Maria Voce also gave a talk entitled “Spirituality and Trinitarian Theology in the Life and Thought of Chiara Lubich”. In a room packed with academic personalities and representatives of the Catholic world, the Focolare’s president underlined four aspects of the spirituality of communion: God-love, love for our neighbor, mutual love, and Jesus Forsaken as keys to the achievement of unity. She dwelled in particular on the mystery of Jesus Forsaken viewed as a secret way to heal all wounds caused by division and fragmentation.
Maria Voce drew on Chiara Lubich’s experience of light in the summer of 1949 and her intuitions about the spirituality of communion as mirror of the life of the Trinity as a reference for some passages of Chiara’s she shared with the audience. At the end, she underlined the deep agreement between the spirituality of communion and the ideas expressed in John Paul II’s apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, and presented the challenge of Sophia University, which aims at “providing foundations and perspectives of global learning, of a culture that springs from the charism of unity and that is the fruit of communitarian spirituality lived deeply as a mirror of the life of the Trinity.”
Clare Zanzucchi
New City Magazine - September 2011
Source: newcityph.com