An Intrisically Social Spirituality

Throughout the fifty years of its existence, many have recognised the social implications of the collective spirituality which characterises the Focolare. In this interview, Mariele and Pino Quartana of the New Humanity Movement within the Focolare tell us about some of the key developments in this area.

Mariele and Pino Quartana

Being One. The Focolare Movement has a recognised spirituality. What social dimension does it have?

Mariele: The social dimension can best be seen from concrete facts. Already at the very beginning of the Movement, when God was etching out this charism in the person of Chiara Lubich during the Second World War, she herself went around the city of Trent in order to bring comfort and help to many who were poor at that time. She did this together with those girls who formed the first circle of companions around her. A feature of this early period was that they were organised in that they carried notebooks with them and would jot down people's needs and addresses. And then they would go and look for work, or a house or provide adequate medical help.

It was not a matter of almsgiving, or sporadic economic help. They were full of zeal and wanted to communicate their light-filled discovery of the Gospel as something to be lived radically and so they also had a goal, namely, to resolve Trent's social problems. One of the most significant discoveries for them at that time was the Magna Charta of Christian social teaching as proclaimed by Mary. The words of the Magnificat seemed full of revolutionary power: "He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly. He fills the starving with good things and sends the rich away empty" (Lk 1:52-53). And this in a peaceful way, without violence.

Being One: What place do the poor have in the Movement?

Pino: In order to answer that, I think I'll refer to something Chiara Lubich said once and which has become a programme of action for the whole Movement: "Just as we see the poor around Jesus as soon as he was born; just as care for the poor was one of the principal concerns of the early Christian community, and just as very often the saints started their ascent to God by going out to the poor, so too we find the poor in the first heartbeats of our Movement's life. Wherever the Movement has spread in the world, wherever there is need as in the Cameroon, Brazil or in Asia or whenever the Gen, in other such contexts, have to relive the experience of the first generation of the Movement, the poor have always been with us. Who could ever forget that we belong to the Church of the poor, and that the Movement must therefore be a Movement of the poor. All the more so since this is nothing other than Christianity. At the end of life the final exam will be on this theme".

Being One: As well as poverty, there are other areas which are difficult to to handle

Pino: That is true. You can see why God wanted to give this charism to humanity at this time. It can respond to the great wounds of our world today. Read, for instance, Chiara's message to the Meeting on the theme Towards a New Humanity, in Rome 1983. There she listed some of the terrible ills of humanity (arms, wars, terrorism, drugs, the crisis in family values, divisions, discrimination against women etc.), and pointed out how the main points of the spirituality of unity, if they are lived, can offer radical solutions.

Being One. Perhaps we are beginning to understand as never before today that personal help or social assistance, although necessary, is not enough. There has to be a global structural approach to these phenomena.

Mariele: Since the very beginning of the Movement, we have always understood that charity must be applied to all the concrete aspects of life. So it was inevitable that the question of social structures came up. It became clear to us that "giving food to the hungry" and "drink to those who are thirsty" as well as "clothing the naked", would today have to be understood in the broader sense of animating industry, commerce, and agriculture with a Christian spirit. "Caring for the sick and consoling the afflicted" today takes the form of "Christianising" medicine and the various forms of social assistance. "Welcoming pilgrims" (and today's pilgrims include turists, immigrants, refugees, nomads...) is equivalent to animating with a Christian spirit those involved in areas of "welcoming" others, including therefore, the building trade, tourism, and transport. "Teaching the ignorant" is insufficient if charity is not introduced into the schools and science. "Admonishing sinners" implies living the Christian life in the administration of justice and in the courts.

Being One: The social commitment which flows from the spirituality of the Movement has given rise to the New Humanity branch which has its own specific tasks. How was it born and how is it organised?

Pino: The beginnings of the Movement for a New Humanity go back to the birth within the Focolare Movement of the so-called "volunteers". That was back in 1956. The tragic events of the Hungarian revolution brough death and desperation to very many people. It was a time of a great search and struggle for freedom. People were forced into exile, far from their relations and their own roots. Chiara Lubich was inspired by something the Pope said at that time: "God!... Let this ineffable name, the source of every right, justice and freedom, ring out in parliaments, in the public squares, in offices" and saw a new specifically lay vocation being etched out in the Movement — the Volunteers. "Volunteers because love is free" — she explained —, "capable of building a new society, which surpasses in beauty and concreteness every other society, but which bears witness to one name: God".

Mariele: To understand the New Humanity Movement itself, however, you have to go back further to 1948 when Chiara Lubich met Igino Giordani. As well as being a famous writer and very well educated man, Giordani was a member of the Italian parliament. All of this took on a symbolic importance. In the history of the Movement he represents openness to the whole of humanity, the incarnation of the ideal of unity which animates the Movement in the social sphere. In 1960 an international centre called St. Catherine's was born in order to gather together in a fruitful dialogue various people who were involved in politics. Subsequently, this centred expanded into other bureaux with a view to informing with Christian values all the various "worlds" of which society is made up.

Being One: Why the term "world"?

Mariele: Because this term is a good one to cover an entity made up of the most varied social realities and categories of people who are involved together in a particular environment of society. Take the "world" of medicine, for example. Here you'll find nurses, the sick, doctors, administrative staff, ecologists, people involved in sport, all converging in common initiatives in favour of "public health". Similarly, the "world" of education and schools. Here teachers, students, parents, principals, youth leaders, educationalists work together in their search for an educational policy which is distilled from life, and which favours the growth and maturation both of individuals and of the entire society.

In each of these "worlds" there are what we call "environmental cells" and these are very important for the day to day commitment. These cells are made up of two, three or four people who are working in the same place together, whether it be a school, a hospital, an office, a factory, or a parliament. Strengthened by Christ's promise:"Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them", they want to merit His presence through their continuous mutual charity. They are convinced that this presence of Christ can suggest directions for them to follow, steps to be taken, and involve others in activities. Various groups are involved in different social initiatives and volunteer works also outside the work-place. What is important for us, above all, is to work as a body.

Eight big "worlds" have been identified, each of which comprises numerous fields of action. The "worlds" are: economy and work; the world of relationships between groups and cultures; the area of social ethics, law and justice; the world of health; the arena of social harmony and art; the world of schools and education; the world of social communication; the world of politics and public administration.

Being One: How have things gone to date?

Pino: Every year since 1968 there has been at least one international meeting held in Rome at the centre of the Movement in order to examine various social realities. All the social phenomena which have surfaced on the world stage have been read through the optic of unity. Sharing experiences and reflecting together, people have felt strengthened and encouraged. The first major ideas have emerged more clearly and these ideas in turn have spread and been incarnated in various cultural settings around the world. All of this has given rise to new and more mature life. Even though after these big meetings people return to their various nations and confront the problems which come their way in the most varied socio-economic and political situations, they try to keep in contact.

The presence of the New Humanity Movement has become more concrete also on an institutional level. In 1987 — together with the young people's movement, Youth for a United Word — it received recognition by the UN as a non governmental organisation and is part of the ECOSOC (The Social and Economic Council) of the United Nations. Since then, the representatives of New Humanity in New York, Geneva and Vienna have striven to get their main message through.

Being One: What are the major structures of the New Humanity Movement?

In the 1970s a central secretariat was formed. This immediately expanded into fifty local secretariats in all the five continents. Now there are 68 secretariats which facilitate a circulation of news and co-ordinate various initiatives. Alongside the central secretariat another type of structure has emerged, one which is more attentive to the "external" life of New Humanity: the bureaux. There is one for each of New Humanity's "worlds". The first to be established in June 1984 was that for the world of economy and work. The occasion of its establishment was the international congress entitlted: Work and the economy today within the Christian vision. All the others followed on from this one. These bureaux have also been gradually established on a local level, either according to groups of nations in the same area or according to nations in themselves or regions.

Being One: You have also set up various activities on an international dimension.

Pino: Yes. For example, at another international meeting in 1988 — A culture of peace for the unity of peoples — groups of adults, young people and teenagers from the whole world showed how, wherever there are people educated in a culture of unity, it is always possible to have a pacific and fruitful co-existence. At the conclusion of this an "appeal for the unity of peoples" was launched. Throughout the following year, the document was presented to small delegations and bodies at both a national and international level. It was circulated widely. At that point it was natural to start up other activities at a world level.

The "operation Lebanon" was among the first such. Those of our companions who live there presented the very serious problems of their land: the Lebanese people, whose main characteristic had been the pacific co-existence of different ethnic and religious groups, was threatened in its own identity and survival. A new appeal was composed which was to push for peace in Lebanon. Once more, small groups of people from New Humanity and Youth for a United World presented this document in their respective nations to the embassies of those countries most closely involved in the problem. Many heads of state (among them the president of the United States, the Spanish Royal Couple, and the king of Jordan), foreign affairs ministers (among them, the ministers of Israel and Canada) and various ambassadors responded with words of agreement, solidarity and encouragement.

Later on, other actions were started up in favour of other situations and problems, for instance, for the people of Romania, for those of Panama, and for the crisis in the Sahal area. Direct actions in the areas themselves, sometimes involving the transfer of whole families, made these initiatives more effective. In 1991, after the fall of the wall of Berlin and the fall of the communist regime in East Europe, an action was set up for those countries, especially for the former Yugoslavia and Russia. The money gathered, the numerous trucks of provisions and all the other gestures of solidarity, as well as the moral and spiritual support, ended up, as always, a marvellous occasion for an encounter between different realities and cultures. Deep relationships were established.

Being One: What plans do you have at the moment?

Mariele: At present the New Humanity Movement is seriously committed — both at grass roots level as well as at the level of experts — to the most recent projects which have emerged, namely, those born in 1991 and 1992, during Chiara Lubich's visits to Brasil and Africa. The first of these projects is called "Economy of Communion". For the past few years we have been studying and working on how to put it into action throughout the world.

The second is called "inculturation". It involves many things. At this stage in every country there is at least a group of women, men, and young people who have a definite aim: to dig deep into their own history and discover its true identity — you might say its collective personality — with all its best gifts in order to bring this as a gift and contribution to the the life of our one human family spread across the world. Already some "schools" have been opened in order to prepare people for this in a serious manner.

Being One: What perspectives have you for the immediate future? We know that Chiara Lubich proposed a real social programme with her message on the family as a "model" of society. What has this meant for your activity and reflection?

Pino: Chiara's message at the Familyfest is an important challenge for us in the Northern Hemisphere because she had the courage to re-propose today the Christian model of the family in the midst of the present confusion of values. She sees the family as being established anew on a love which is renewed by drawing consciously upon its trinitarian source. In this way she reproposes the link which exists between people, family and society. This link had been broken by both the Marxist culture, on the one hand, and the liberal-radical culture on the other. In our opinion, there has to be this fundamental link in order for human society to be reconstituted in a more "human" manner. The place where human beings learn to live with others, to open themselves to others, to be creative and to build up society is the family. It is in the family that people learn to walk, to talk and to move; it is in the family that the lymph of love is absorbed and circulates.

If this cell is destroyed, then society is diminished. If this cell is helped to achieve its full realisation, then society can be permeated with these values. To adhere to Chiara's message means for us to find the link between living one's family life and constructing the social fabric of reality. It is significant that a particular commitment undertaken by the New Humanity Movement is to transmit these values to various social fields in order to contribute to making this attractive utopia, namely, of making humanity a family, not a dream but a goal to be reached.

Being One: A huge challenge for Christians today is how to manage to stay coherent in one's religious convictions and incarnate them in one's actions. In your experience, what relationship is there between God and social commitment?

Pino: Everything depends on the attitude with which you act. We have learned and we try always to root our love of the neighbour in love of God, to see them completely interrelated. This is fundamental. In our era we have seen an unprecedented experiment: the attempt to construct a new society without God. This experiment involved hundreds of millions of people. We saw the fall of the majority of these regimes, but, on the other hand, we have also seen how a world which speaks of God is structured. While affirming religious freedom which the Churches are allowed for religious ceremonies, this society does not base its laws, its economy, its politics on God.

So what does New Humanity want? It wants to contribute to bringing God back into society. To weave social relationships anew and to transform society by re-structuring it on God. But which God? The God who shows himself in the evangelical relationship of reciprocal love. This love is not a preached one, nor some mystical one, but is born from the contemplation of Christ in our midst and from being rooted in Jesus Chrsit crucified and forsaken. This is the measure which prevents love becoming a dream. In conclusion, New Humanity wants to be Jesus who is manifesting his presence among people and gradually generating a humanity and a new society. That starts with us, with each one of us.