Athanasia Safitri
Focolare, an international organisation that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood, participated in the 12th International Graduate Students and Scholars’ Conference in Indonesia earlier this month. The theme of the conference was “Ethics and Accountability in Politics, Sciences, and Professions” and was held at Universitas Gadjah Mada on 7-8 November 2023. Focolare presented how its members live spirituality and reach for the goal of unity as a contribution of religion to common space in society. Sri Safitri Oktaviyanti of Focolare Indonesia, Crescencia Gabijan of Focolare Philippines, and Lawrence Chong of Focolare Singapore highlighted the experiences of the communities from the mentioned countries from their perspective in society.
Before the talks, there was a short video about the history and the beginning of the Focolare movement. The video explained how the community members strive to find what unites humanity. Chiara Lubich, the founder, along with her first companions tried to reach the realisation of the last prayer by Jesus (taken from John 17:21) that all may be one. From this starting point, they held meetings and built relationships with people of different religious backgrounds, and later in all aspects of economy, politics, art, health, and communication. Members in Asia began to put into practice this way of living when Focolare’s spirituality was introduced to the Philippines and to other Asian countries more than 60 years ago.
The art of loving, dialogue, and communion
There are three points that motivate members to go ahead living the spirituality in their own environment by practicing the art of loving, building dialogue, and doing communion. Oktaviyanti began the first talk on the art of loving which is depicted in the life experiences of the Focolare community and their surroundings in Indonesia. The four ways in the art of loving encourage people inspired by spirituality to direct their concrete action and care for the goodness of others, by being the first to love others, loving everyone, making oneself one with the other, and seeing the goodness in other people. This way of living has become a new culture which goes beyond divisions and generates various projects for the benefit of humanity, activities for children and young people, and interreligious dialogue. The programs take place in Aceh, Medan, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Atambua, involving people outside the movement as well.
The second element which is dialogue was discussed through a detailed description by Gabijan who shared about the activities conducted by Focolare members in the Philippines. She underlined the need to bridge the gap between development priorities and humanitarian concerns, as well as to recognize the reality of religious participation. Therefore, an integrative framework on how secular and religious actors work hand in hand to provide holistic care, support, and rehabilitation, is needed. In response to such need, Gabijan explained that Focolare offers reciprocity, which is its specific ethos, as a multireligious approach to the integration process. She covered the experiences of training centres in Makati and Cebu, Focolare social centres in Tagaytay, Cebu, Davao, and La Union, community projects and hospital volunteer foundation in Manila. She also mentioned the collaboration with Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand to raise dialogue and create reciprocity.
Chong concluded the Focolare panel with a recorded video about a Singaporean company, Consulus, in its application of the Economy of Communion (EoC) in all aspects of its business and impact since 2004. EoC was inspired by the spirituality of Focolare, where it strives to minimise the economic disparity where Consulus itself has been operating in 23 countries. At a time of great economic shifts which increases the gap between rich and poor, practical approaches are essential to establish an economy of communion for all people. Chong presented the importance of a renewal of the company premise and goals, capability and capacity, supply chain, co-innovation, economy-at-large, participation and co-governance, also in building strong local communities.
Spirituality for a shared humanity
The presentation was followed by a brief question and answer session where a participant inquired whether Focolare spirituality can still be relevant in addressing the current issues such as LGBT and recent teachings of the Catholic Church. Another concern was also raised as to wehther the findings of the observation on Focolare experiences may be useful to other scholars. The three concepts might be relatively new when they are combined even though many religious and nonreligious groups have put into practice the art of loving through acts of caring, dialogue through building interreligious relationships and exchange, and communion through the sharing and culture of giving. Focolare in Asia still has many opportunities to cultivate the implementation of these elements to expect the harvest of the spirituality of unity in the future, let alone to the establishment of a shared humanity.
The experiences in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore display how Focolare spirituality deals with various life aspects in regard to the achievement of its goal of unity. The concrete relations of the community members activate the humanity projects responding to the needs of the people through the concrete practice in the art of loving, inspired by the Gospel, and with dialogue and communion. More exposure of the spirituality both to intrareligious and inter-religious groups, academics and scholars, and many forum group discussions can better shape the contribution of Focolare as a spiritual movement to the community. Concrete life sharing from the members is also pivotal to invite more participants in building unity in the common spaces of society.