by Beatriz Lauenroth | May 4, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The Steering Committee of Together for Europe (TfE) met in Munich
The Munich YMCA hosted the annual gathering of the TfE Steering Committee which was attended by 20 members and several invited guests, from 27 to 29 April 2022.
The participants experienced a wave of fresh air that was brought about by the young adults belonging to the European Network of Communities (ENC), the YMCA, the Focolare and the Schönstatt Movements: they wanted to reflect with the first generation of the network upon the future of ‘Together’. The guests carried out their task with delicacy and respect. Mária Špesová (ENC) from Slovakia said: “In TfE I see something sacred that grew in these 20 plus years. I feel invited to enter this rich experience on my tiptoes”. Also, Georges El Hage (Syndesmos): “Here I feel free to express my thoughts and people listen attentively. We are welcomed with great trust”.
Program
The program of these days included numerous spiritual inputs, prayers and a lively exchange of ideas. The recurrent topic was the war in Ukraine. During the first evening, several persons from Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Italy, Poland and Slovenia were linked via zoom to share their experiences of practical help. An Italian participant affirmed: “We are seeing the birth of a new Europe based on solidarity”. And Zsuzsanna Klemencz (Sant’Egidio/Hungary) stated: “We ought to disarm ourselves and let others disarm us. How? By putting aside our arrogance and our hatred”. According to this Hungarian, this is what true disarmament means; this will give rise to a “peaceful people”, disarmed to win the war. Franꞔois Deloors (Sant’Egidio/Belgium) added: “This is the attitude that we strive to constantly put in practice between us, and thus, as TfE, we can offer it to Europe and the entire world”.
Porto 2022 and Timisoara 2023
“Here I feel at home” was the comment offered by Clotilde Pestana of the Schönstatt Movement. She travelled to Munich with another member of the National Committee of Portugal to help out in the preparation for the “Meeting of the Friends” scheduled for November 2022 in Porto. “Portugal has a lot to offer to Europe: openness, hospitality and a rich culture”. These are but a few of the reasons to hold the 2022 ‘Meeting of the Friends” in the Country on the far western side of Europe.
In 2023, the ‘Meeting of the Friends’ will be held in Romania, in Timisoara. Ilona Toth of the Steering Committee updated us regarding the many conversations and meetings she had in Romania. The encounter with the Orthodox world and the multicultural reality of Eastern Europe, among others, require a detailed and in-depth preparation.
Witnesses for humanity
During the meeting it became ever more clear that TfE, faced with the great sufferings in Europe and in the world, is called to support the “incomplete” and to go down the rifts of humanity, which are injustice, hatred and war.
Thomas Römer (YMCA Munich) underlined: “Indeed, most probably we are living through a change of epoch, an epochal upheaval, so to speak. Let’s not allow evil to win, but let’s defeat it with good”.
As Römer noted, death and resurrection are entwined in the history of humanity. He was introducing the participants to the renewal of the Pact of Mutual Love, based on Jn 13, 34. With fraternal encounters with the Risen Lord in the midst, TfE continually witnesses hope for humanity.
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Diego Goller / Group photo: Thomas Barthel, YMCA Munich
by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | Apr 4, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The character of the Church 3.0
“The character of the Church 3.0, and thus even the character of our 200-strong meeting, has completely changed once Ukraine was attacked. All nice thoughts were swept away; at Baar we became aware that this is not a time for nice and important words. Rather, it is a time in which the people of God, and therefore even the Church, ought to gather in prayer. Reunited once again. Existentially reunited. And the prayers need to go beyond all boundaries.
Some days ago, during the prayer session that involved more than a thousand persons, we promised to “keep on praying”. And this is what we are doing: last week Austria continued to pray, and now it is us in Switzerland that came together to pray. Whenever Communities and Movements come together, there is a lot of power…
Undauntedly, all political meetings are important and necessary. However, as our Ukrainian brothers and sisters recently prayed, also beseeching the transformation of hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, go hand in hand. It moves side by side and it helps.
A praying and communitarian Church
We became aware that the Church 3.0 is a Church that prays. It is a communitarian Church because it prays of behalf of others, and its vitality comes from the charisms and not from numbers and structure. It is a wounded Church, and for this reason she relies upon God’s compassion – and not only for herself.
Therefore we prayed, and we experienced something of the new form of the Church. There was a feeling of a new beginning. We were conscious that in our prayer, words and actions, we were journeying with and Ukrainian brothers and sisters. In our prayers we included our confusion, fear and lack of words. Something will grow out of the ashes.
Right now, let there be peace: just peace and the possibility to protect persons. It’s quite sad to see persons being used as power pawns. And it is even sadder when their life is taken away for this reason. We hope that the power that we felt here during our meeting may bring about peace and life in the world”.
Being Christian in a post-Church-society, sr Nicole Grochowina, 12 March 2022
Source: miteinander-wie-sonst.ch
Photo: Fokolar-Bewegung Schweiz; Dialoghotel Eckstein
by P. Hans-Martin Samietz | Feb 25, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The coming together of groups and charisms stimulates a new form of Church
Something great, beautiful, undiscovered lies in every charismatic break-up. The initiative group of German-speaking Schoenstatters of Together for Europe became aware of this during the weekend of February 19-20, 2022, in Augsburg and Munich. They dared to knock on doors and entered into encounters with generations and charisms.
On Friday afternoon we met in the Prayer-House in Augsburg. The prayer room on the second floor is flooded with light and bright, centered towards a small wooden cross hanging from the ceiling in front of a white background. In the front, the band with well-chosen voices is singing antiphons of the first two verses of Psalm 50 and their alternate singing moves into a deepening conversation about these Bible verses – enlightening and leading to inner worship.
On Saturday afternoon we were at the Schoenstatt Centre in Munich. 4 young adults from YMCA Munich and the Focolare Movement came along with experienced people from the same movements, who discovered their life’s theme in Together for Europe.
Our goals: We pay attention to the intuition of the young adults present / We meet different generations and charisms / We share faithful interpretations of our encounter. Our finding: Together for Europe is a promise that allows us to discover a new design of Church. Each of these movements is a light inflamed by the Holy Spirit. If they step up to each other, an undiscovered land becomes visible, a Church that builds itself from churches, step by step, encounter by encounter.
On Sunday, in the rooms and during the church service of the Christian church “Vineyard Munich”, we witnessed people telling their stories of how God is acting concretely in their lives. How beautiful to know that every Sunday Christians are getting in contact with the God of life.
The pact of mutual love can be concretized in reaching out to groups and charisms that are strange to us, who are searching for God in their lives. The pact can be of central help in jointly grasping a new form of Church.
P. Hans-Martin Samietz
Photo: Gebetshaus.org / schoenstatt-muenchen.de
by Beatriz Lauenroth | Feb 24, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
Great preoccupations for peace: Europe prays and keeps on hoping
Many initiatives of prayer imploring peace are multiplying all over the Continent, starting from the Countries that are directly involved.
Our network Together for Europe, too, has rallied in this sense and has adhered to this great current of prayer for peace.
We would like to point out this initiative: an evening during which we can meet, understand better and pray. We will be linked to some Ukrainian brothers and sisters, to listen to them and pray together for peace (in German and English)
Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 7 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. (CET) via Zoom
(One needs to register at this address: mfe2021@web.de)
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Ilona Toth
by Beatriz Lauenroth | Sep 20, 2021 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The European Conference on the future of the Continent
How can one bring together 446 million persons for an exchange of ideas? The European Commission and the European Parliament have launched a digital platform to allow communication between those living in Europe. The aim of the Conference is to formulate by 2022 new responses for the future of Europe and to trace the next steps toward European integration.
This Conference is a sign of the times. The future of Europe does not depend solely on politicians; indeed, more than ever before, it depends upon the responsibility of each person.
The dialogue between European citizens started on 19 April 2021 on the online platform futureu.europa.eu. All inputs are being collected, evaluated and published in 24 official languages. This applies also for discussions regarding reform proposals.
The topics are divided into 10 categories:
- Climate change and the environment
- Health
- A stronger economy, social justice and employment
- The EU in the world
- Values and rights, rule of law, security
- Digital transformation
- European democracy
- Migration
- Education, culture, youth and sport
- Other ideas
The Conference will go on till Spring of 2022, when a commission will synthesize the final results in a report and examines how they can be put into practice in a concrete manner.
Together for Europe invites you to participate in the Conference either as a private person, or as a group in a city or as a national Committee. In this way we can put forward ideas, desires and concrete proposals for the future of Europe based on the experience of Together, which is rich in Christian values.
For further information: futureu.europa.eu
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Pixabay.com
by Ada Guazzo | Sep 16, 2021 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, Italy, News
This is what the students of a Roman college had to say regarding the future of the Continent: active citizenship in Europe starts with education!
That’s quite true, and easily shown through facts! “Your elders shall have dreams, and your young people shall have visions” (Joel 3,1). When teachers offer stimuli, present ideals and reveal prospectives, young people are able to respond with enthusiasm, perspicacity and creativity. This is the case of the students of the Augusto College in Rome and their teacher Maria Paola Aloi (who supports Together for Europe).
While involved in a project regarding active citizenship in the European Union, they have identified and carefully analyzed several hot issues with the aim of putting forward solutions. Listening to a piece of classical music, the young people saw in it the metaphor of harmony in diversity in a European context, which is a shared symphony. Through a play about a girl on a boat moving toward the unknown, they censured the on-going terrible tragedies on our seas.
While delving into the myth of Europe, they recognized the roots of a culture that, in its DNA, has hospitality and the welcoming of those travelling or migrating. Using an imaginary videogame entitled ‘The Game’, they facilitated a reflection about the migrants moving along the Baltic Route. They have shown great clearness of mind when they wrote a fictitious letter to David M. Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament, in which they outlined a strategic plan regarding the ‘humanitarian corridor’ based on: Prevention, Rescue, and Welcome.
These initiatives were among those held in other colleges on May 10 to celebrate the Feast of Europe. Then they were shared on June 3 during a meeting on the platform Meet; taking part were members of the Italian network of Together for Europe (8 Italian cities; 6 Movements that adhere to Together for Europe). Irene Loffredo (Focolare), a young woman from Pozzuoli (Naples), spoke on behalf of a group that provides voluntary service at a local prison. The group is made up of members of diverse Movements and Churches. Their endeavour brought about enhanced humanization and changes. Aldo Bernabei (Followers of St Catherine) expounded the plans of the EU regarding the Erasmus project and the European Corps of Solidarity: the latter will see about 270,000 young people involved in activities of solidarity in the next few years.
We now hope to be able to propose this initiative to schools in other cities; we intend to contact teachers and to propose twinning of classes. Moreover, we will offer the help of those involved in this experience.
The European Offices in Milan and Rome were informed about this initiative. They jointly expressed their congratulations for the great commitment and care shown in the various projects that were carried out.
Dolores Librale and Ada Maria Guazzo
Photo: Pixabay
