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Feb.- Mar. 2020 – The “Chiara Lubich City World” exhibition has been inaugurated in the Holy City, the first of the exhibitions outside Italy to be opened. It includes a section dedicated to Chiara Lubich’s visit to the Holy Land in 1956.

“I didn’t think Jerusalem and its Holy Sites would affect my soul like that (…) every stone said a word, much more than a word, so that, in the end, my soul was all bathed and entirely filled with the presence of Jesus” .

Chiara Lubich’s diary expressed her profound experience during the only journey she made to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, in 1956. Several black and white photographs and a video journal recall that journey, but the greatest testimony is the active presence of the community of the Focolare Movement in this city, which on February 29th, 2020, inaugurated the “Chiara Lubich City World” exhibition housed in the Curia of the Custody of the Holy Land. The exhibition is open until March 14th, 2020.

The exhibition reproduces the one currently open to the public at The Tunnels Gallery at Piedicastello in Trent (Italy), curated by the Chiara Lubich Centre in collaboration with the Trentino Historical Museum Foundation.

It is the first of the international sections of the Chiara Lubich City World exhibition, which will also be held in Mexico City, Sydney, Mumbai, San Paolo, Algiers and Nairobi in the year dedicated to the centenary of Chiara Lubich’s birth. Jerusalem’s primacy is symbolic as the city-cradle of the three great monotheistic religions, and home to many peoples. The community of the Focolare Movement has been here since 1977 with the mandate to contribute to the fulfilment of the unity for which, in this very land, Jesus prayed to the Father.

The Jerusalem exhibition reflects the original while being someone reduced and adapted. It conveys significant moments in the life of the founder of the Focolare Movement, her thought and work, through documents, handwritten texts and photographic material. But this edition has its own specific characteristics, available only to those who visit it here: a section dedicated to the relationship between the founder of the Focolare Movement and Jerusalem, as Claudio Maina, jointly responsible for the Focolare Movement in the Holy Land, explained. “We wanted to bring this exhibition to Jerusalem to make Chiara’s life, spirituality and work better known, but also to bear witness to her relationship with this city. Actually, Chiara only came to Jerusalem once, just for a few days. But from that visit a story began that continues today. Indeed, here in the Holy Land, there are people who have welcomed Chiara’s spirituality and are living it”.

Part of the exhibition is dedicated to Chiara’s great dream for this city so deeply marked by divisions and historical wounds: to create a centre of spirituality, study, dialogue and formation to unity. “It’s a dream, an intuition that gradually took shape – said Terese Soudah – in the project for the International Centre for Unity and Peace, a project that we have been working on for years and that, despite many difficulties, is progressing and we hope to be able to conclude soon”.

Dignitaries attending the inauguration included the Nuncio and Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the representative of the Latin Patriarchate, Father Stéphane Milovitch, director of the Cultural Heritage Office of the Custody of the Holy Land, as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslim friends, who make up the Focolare family in the Holy Land.

Due to the Coronavirus emergency, the Italian delegation was unable to attend, but sent video contributions. In this way, the President of the Autonomous Province of Trent, Maurizio Fugatti, wished every success to the exhibition; to bring to the world the message that Chiara Lubich gave to the Trentino Region and to Italy. The Custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Patton, expressed his hope that, through this exhibition, Chiara’s spirituality would remind this troubled land of the value of unity, the fruit of Jesus’ prayer, which is still so relevant today.

In a video-message, Anna Maria Rossi and Giuliano Ruzzier, curators of the exhibition in Trent, along with Maurizio Gentilini, presented the exhibition itinerary: “We created a project that isn’t limited to the city of Trent, but, as happened in Chiara’s life, can reach the ends of the earth, encompassing all five continents”.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Nuncio, Archbishop Girelli, recalled the extreme relevance of Chiara’s message: “Here in Jerusalem, we could invert the words of the exhibition’s title and call it: “Chiara Lubich World City”, because this exhibition has come from the world to the city par excellence, the Holy City, the city of unity, of fraternity, of dialogue among religions and among peoples”.

By Stefania Tanesini
^{Original post published in www.focolare.org}

Feb. 2019 – Hearing from those who live there gives hope for the most contested city on earth; a different vision from the one in the news.

Feb. 2019 – Anna Maria, Jessica and Talat: testimony to friendship among people from the three monotheistic religions. When the walls of distrust and prejudice fall down, you experience that it’s possible to look to the future with courage and hope.

Feb. 2019 – Peace can be built in a thousand different ways. Sometimes you also need places in which to meet – a place for dialogue, spirituality, study and formation. The Focolare’s project for Jerusalem.

Nov. 2013 – The 32nd Ecumenical Conference of Bishops and Friends of the Focolare movement took place in recent days in Jerusalem. It was entitled “The reciprocity of love among the disciples of Christ.” It was started by Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement, and with John Paul II’s support, the conference brings together bishops from all parts of the world and the church, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic bishops gathered for four days of meetings for the sake of communion and sharing. In a land where one can feel the very difficulty of coexistence of many different faiths and denominations, the Ecumenical Conference was an opportunity to experience a communion which, if not yet theological and doctrinal, is a communion of the heart.

H.E. ROBIN SMITH – Anglican Bishops of St. Albans

“Every year, we bishops from all over the world and of all confessions meet in order to experience Christ’s unity together. Respecting all of our differences, traditions and doctrines, we very deeply believe that we are able to live together because Jesus is in our midst.

We are to be witnesses to the fact that unity is possible. Even with all our differences, it is possible to respect and even love our brothers or sisters who are different than us. Because is Jesus in them as much as he is in us.”

The meeting with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III was significant. He welcomed the representatives of the various churches in an atmosphere of brotherhood and friendship. Despite the dramatic nature of the division that separates the Orthodox Church from the various Christian denominations, the meeting at the Patriarchate was a sign of hope for the journey toward unity.

One desire—unity—manifested by the pact of mutual love that the bishops made in the shadow of the “Little Staircase”, the place that according to the Tradition is where Jesus prayed they would all be one…

CALUDIO MAINA – Focolare Movement in the Holy Land

“The staircase is the remains of an ancient Roman staircase that connects the Upper Room to the Kidron Valley. There is a tradition that says this is the place Jesus’ prayer for unity took place. According to this tradition, after the Last Supper, Jesus, on his way to the Garden of Olives would have prayed for unity here. It is a tradition that the Focolare movement particularly likes because our own spirit is founded on unity.”

H.E. Mons. ARMANDO BORTOLASO – Apostolic Vicar Emeritus of Aleppo

“We meet and together we make this covenant of unity, with which we promise to love one another as Jesus loved us, ready to give our lives for each other, in the diversity of faiths.

We want to go deeper and live in mutual love between bishops, exchanging experiences in a spirit of brotherhood, convinced that if we love one another we can achieve an ecumenism of the heart.’

A dense and rich program of meetings, including numerous visits to the holy places in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, such as the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Holy Sepulcher and the Last Supper, the place that perhaps more than any other highlights the difference and union that have characterized the reflections of the Ecumenical Conference.

H.E. Mons. PIERRE MOUALLEM – Archbishop Emeritus of the Greek Melkite Church of Galilee

“Charity is the best way. God is love, and in that love, we can find our way toward unity.”

H.Em. Card. MILOSLAV VLK – Archbishop Emeritus of Prague

“The way to achieve unity is to live the Gospel and to give common witness of the different churches, of the Gospel, of God’s Word. Unity is achieved by living out the God’s Word. It does not depend on our own strength but on the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.”

H.E. Mons. ARMANDO BORTOLASO – Apostolic Vicar Emeritus of Aleppo

“The Holy Spirit needs bishops from the various churches who get along and who love each other … then the Holy Spirit will do the rest! But if there is not this meeting, this knowledge, this fraternal atmosphere, in which they are ready to give their lives for one another, the Holy Spirit can do nothing.”

_{Original post published in cmc-terrasanta.org}