[From The Church Next Door: Local Christians Face America’s New Religious Diversity, draft manuscript by Dr. Paul D. Numrich. Please do not quote or cite without author’s permission.]
Chapter 8: Unity in Spirituality: The Focolare Movement
[two figures approx. here: photos
of Chiara Lubich’s
The
Focolare Movement began with a remarkable woman, Chiara Lubich, in 1943. In the midst of the despair of World War II
As the Focolare
Web site proclaims, “A
new current of spirituality based on the Gospel sprang forth—the spirituality of unity—giving rise to
a movement of spiritual and social renewal which is markedly communitarian in
nature.” This philosophy is
expressed most notably in the communal living arrangements for the movement’s
core members, including several Focolare “mini-cities” around the world, each
called a Permanent Mariapolis (after Mary, Mother of Unity), such as in
Loppiano, Italy (the first, established in 1964), Sao Paolo, Brazil, and
Mariapolis Luminosa in Hyde Park, New York.
Smaller Focolare communal groups also exist, like the Focolare community
in
Excerpt from “Letter of the Holy Father [Pope
John Paul II] to Chiara Lubich, Foundress and President of the Focolare
Movement,” on the occasion of her 80th birthday, January 2000:
In the footsteps of Jesus crucified and abandoned, you began the Focolare Movement to help the men and women of our time experience God’s tenderness and fidelity, by living the grace of fraternal communion among them, in order to be joyful and credible heralds of the Gospel.
As I entrust you and all the good you have done in these long years to the protection of Mary, Mother of Unity, I invoke upon you the power and light of the Holy Spirit so that you will continue to be a courageous witness of faith and charity not only among the members of the Focolare Movement, but also among those you meet on your path.
[www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20000122_chiara-lubich_en.html]
The
Focolare Movement’s interfaith activities originated in London in 1977, when
Chiara Lubich received the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in
Religion. As she reports the story, she
felt a special presence of God among the audience that included representatives
of several world religions. She knew
then that the Focolare must begin what she calls “dialogues of love” with
spiritually minded members of other faiths.
In 1979, Ms. Lubich met with Nikkyo Niwano, founder of the Japanese
Buddhist lay movement called Rissho Kosei-kai and a leader in the World
Conference of Religions for Peace, a major global interfaith organization. This led to a close working relationship with
both groups on peace and humanitarian issues.
Over the years, the Focolare have entered into dialogue with Buddhists,
Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Shintoists, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians, counting more than
30,000 members of non-Christian religions as collaborators with their
movement. The Focolare have participated
in several major interfaith gatherings, including the Interreligious Assembly
at the
The touchstone biblical imperative for the Focolare’s interfaith activities is the Golden Rule, which they find in virtually all religions: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. They use the “technique” of making themselves “one with the others.” As their Web site explains, “it is a practice which demands the complete emptying of oneself in order to become one with the others, ‘placing oneself in the other’s shoes’, penetrating the very meaning it has for the other to be Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, etc.” This does not entail compromising Christian beliefs, but rather being open to “an encounter of the soul, of people who have made a choice of God, who want to share this life of union with God,” says Marco DeSalvo, co-director of the Chicago Focolare community. “We don’t have any other goal or program to convert or proselytize,” he explained to us. “Our goal is to live for God, to be Christians. Because they [dialogue partners from other religions] are open, very wonderful, spiritual people, they are sensitive to the divine.”
Paola Santostefano, the other co-director of the Chicago Focolare community, continued: “If you love everyone, to love always, to see Jesus in everybody, to love your enemy—then the love becomes mutual, then this is the basis to reach out to people. . . . For us it is encountering Jesus in every person.” This is the “art of loving,” in Paola’s words. “We love everybody who comes our way.”
The American Society of Muslims, mentioned at the outset of this chapter, came the Focolare’s way in the mid-1990s. By then, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed had moved the ASM out of the quasi-Islamic identity of the original Nation of Islam founded by his father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and into mainstream Sunni Islam. Imam Mohammed changed the name of the group—the old Nation of Islam name and identity continue under Minister Louis Farrakhan (see Chapter 9)—and even changed the spelling of his own last name to mark this significant transition. Known for his personal piety, Imam Mohammed stressed the spiritual aspects of Islam in the new direction of the group.
Excerpt from Chiara
Lubich’s speech at Malcolm Shabazz Mosque,
From our very first contacts with Muslims, we have been deeply struck by the affinity that exists between our two religions that trace their roots back to Abraham: belief in one God who is compassionate and merciful, total dedication to God’s will, and a high esteem for Jesus and for Mary his Mother.
But what immediately made us feel especially close to our Muslim brothers and sisters was the fact that we share with you a profound faith in the love of God. . . .
[
The
Focolare and the American Society of Muslims have gathered together in many
venues across the United States and abroad.
The ASM’s periodical, Muslim Journal, regularly covers these
events. For instance, Muslim Journal
ran several articles leading up to the November 2000 Faith Communities Together
conference in Washington, DC, including an interview of Imam Mohammed conducted
by Chicago Focolare co-director, Paola Santostefano. In its
The two groups have also shared some memorable experiences in Rome. In 2003, the relationship between the Focolare and the ASM was featured at a conference entitled “Call to a New Vision of Others and of Ourselves through Interreligious Dialogue: Focus on Islam,” sponsored by SEDOS, a consortium of Catholic missionary societies. Presenters Jo-Ellen Karstens of the Focolare and Imam David Shaheed of the ASM described the locally based program called Encounters in the Spirit of Universal Brotherhood, which grew out of the Washington, DC, conference, wherein mixed groups of Focolare and ASM members meet for dialogue every three to four months in cities across the US. According to reports, the Rome conference attendees were astounded that Catholics and Muslims could be so amiable with each other. During a private audience with Pope John Paul II during this conference, the Holy Father told the presenters, “I wish you every success.”
Says an ASM member about one of the continuing gatherings of the two groups, held every two to three years in Rome, it was “an experience only God could have directed.” “It was like a Hajj [the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca]. But it was better yet, because we were in the company of our newly found sisters and brothers of the Focolare.”
To get a firsthand feeling for the Focolare way, as well as the relationship between the movement and the American Society of Muslims, we attended part of the five-day Mariapolis 2003 conference held in Valparaiso, Indiana, not far from Chicago. Such gatherings offer temporary immersion into the communitarian spirituality of a Permanent Mariapolis. The theme for Mariapolis 2003 was “Unity in Diversity: All One Family.” Facing the opening day crowd of 300 people, the MC declared the goal of the conference: “Towards a harmonious living in the human family.” “This is an experiment of going out to people who are different, in love,” he continued. “We build this city with those who are different, but in unity. This is an experience of being one world.”
The first panel of the conference included several veteran Mariapolis participants who shared their testimonies about how the Focolare Movement has blessed their lives. One married couple, both of whom had been raised in Focolare families, recounted their first test together of putting faith in God when the husband was offered an opportunity to relocate his job. Through the experience, they learned to focus on living in the present moment. The wife gained peace of mind from an email from the Focolare Movement emphasizing the importance of believing in God’s love. One day their young son surprised them by saying, “I need to go to Mariapolis. I need to learn how to love better.”
Linda, an African-American Muslim woman from Detroit, spoke about the first time a Focolare group visited her mosque. She immediately felt their love and was impressed at how they had placed God first in their lives. Her five-year-old grandson called the Focolare “the nicest people in the whole world.” “You have all of my love and unity,” Linda told the conference audience. “I thank God for having the foresight to bring us together as an example to the whole world.”
A panel entitled “Our Experience of Universal Brotherhood with the American Society of Muslims” included presenters from both the Focolare Movement and the ASM who shared their mutual perspectives and experiences. Following are a few vignettes from the presentations.
In 1999, the first annual “Friends of Clara Mohammed School Award” was presented to Chiara Lubich by the Clara Mohammed School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Named after the wife of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the mother of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, Clara Mohammed Schools are the parochial education arm of the American Society of Muslims. The award seemed especially appropriate to the ASM since Chiara is the Italian equivalent of the English Clara. One imam and his wife have even named their daughter Chiara in honor of the Focolare Movement’s founder.
An imam in Kansas City reserves a room in his home for visiting Focolare members. One Focolare panelist recounted his recent visit:
I was there just in April, and I have to say that I was so edified. . . . They have seven children in the house. They all clear out one room for me to stay in, so I am part of the family. It is beautiful, the atmosphere of prayer in that home, because when it is time to pray, the dining room is cleared aside so that it can be a prayer room, the little girls put on their veils, they say their prayers. The most beautiful thing is that before dawn you hear the prayer call, and you hear the little feet going down the stairs because even the four-year-old—she doesn’t want to miss out on anything—goes down to pray before dawn every morning. And Sunday morning, I was there and I came down the stairs, it goes right into the living room, and there were the three teenagers sitting there studying the Qur’an, and this was at 6 o’clock in the morning on a Sunday morning. Their mother said, “I am so sorry that they disturbed you.” And I said, “No, no don’t worry.” She said, “They do that every Sunday. They spend an hour praying and studying the Qur’an.” So, it made me think, I will have to improve my prayer life. This family is imbued with prayer. There is so much that we have learned from one another and shared with one another.
Imam David Shaheed spoke of his experiences in Rome. He was the ASM co-presenter at the 2003 SEDOS conference of Catholic missionary societies, and he also attended the 1999 Interreligious Assembly at the Vatican. He keeps a photograph from Rome in his chambers as an Indiana state judge. “There is not a day that I go into my office that I don’t think of all of you and Chiara,” he told the Mariapolis audience. In an interview for Living City magazine, Imam Shaheed elaborated on how his Rome experiences changed his perspective as a judge: “Now, in the court room where I work, each person that comes in front of me is no longer a number. He or she is a person . . . and if I can show to each one that same love that I have received, then there is hope that their lives can change, too.”
An imam from Chicago expressed his gratitude for the relationship between the American Society of Muslims and the Focolare Movement: “This has been a powerful union and it has been a wonderful model for the world. . . . The world is looking for models, and to show that so many things can be bridged, so many things can be overcome, so many things can be put aside, is an example for the world. And we thank God for this.” Like the Indiana judge, this imam has also benefited from his interaction with the Focolare in his vocation as an emergency room physician. He has a new awareness that “it is not just a physician-patient relationship, it is a physician-God-patient relationship, that God is highlighted in that relationship. . . . To love moment by moment, and to make God the first one in your life, is what we do as Muslims. To be the first to make a move, and to respond first with your heart and not just with your mind, and to go out of your way. . . . So this relationship has rekindled that in my heart. And on a very personal level, I feel that it made me a better doctor, that now it is no longer a job, it is indeed a service again, it is a service, and it is a worshipful service.”
Mariapolis 2003 featured a daily Catholic Mass just before lunch. A Focolare acquaintance explained to our researcher that the communion was closed to non-Catholics. “It is suffering that the table still cannot be shared,” she apologized. Paola Santostefano and Marco DeSalvo, the co-directors of the Chicago Focolare community, placed this issue in context in the following written statement to us:
At the Mariapolis a special room is prepared for the Muslims so that they can perform their daily prayer in an environment suited to the requirements of their religion. Some Focolare members join them, but in accordance with the directives from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, they stand respectfully in the back of the room as the Muslims recite their prayer. In the same way the daily Catholic Eucharist is open to everyone, although communion is offered only to those who are in union with the Catholic Church. This distinction between the various religious traditions is greatly appreciated by all those who participate, since it allows each believer to worship according to their own belief, and gives witness to the unity in diversity among us.
Although the word “dialogue” is often used in describing the relationship between the Focolare Movement and non-Christian religions, those most intimately involved find that word inadequate. “The relationship with the Focolare cannot be called a ‘dialogue’,” explains an ASM imam from Milwaukee. “It’s much deeper than that, much more profound. We really love one another. We are a family.”
Interfaith dialogue often stems from the desire to address theological differences. “We don’t start from the theological differences between the world religions,” says Marco DeSalvo of the Chicago Focolare community, who prefers the phrase “dialogue of life.” “You are writing about diversity,” Paola Santostefano of Chicago kidded us, “but we don’t focus on diversity. . . . The emphasis for us is—every person we meet is one to be loved. We don’t look at the diversity.”
That is what Chiara Lubich means by a “dialogue of love.”
The Focolare Movement’s international Web site is www.focolare.org. The Web site for the movement’s periodical, Living City: The Magazine for a United World, is www.livingcitymagazine.com. The Chicago Focolare community can be reached at P.O. Box 53426, Chicago, Illinois 60653.
The Vatican’s Web site is www.vatican.va. Information about the Focolare Movement from the Vatican’s perspective can be retrieved by using the search function. The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is the Vatican office charged with “the promotion of interreligious dialogue in accordance with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council” (www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/index.htm). The comparable office at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (www.usccb.org/seia/index.htm).
The American Society of Muslims has undergone several name changes since Imam Warith Deen Mohammed’s leadership began in 1975. Its Web site is www.masjidmuhammad.org. The Web site for ASM’s periodical, Muslim Journal, is www.muslimjournal.com.
The World Conference of Religions for Peace is a major global interfaith organization (www.wcrp.org). Chiara Lubich is an Honorary President of WCRP, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed sits on its International Governing Board.
For Discussion