The young people of the Focolare Movement, in conjunction with the Genfest in Brazil, also organised 44 local editions of the Genfest in various countries around the world. Here are some pictures of the events in the various countries and some short testimonies from Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, Slovakia and Korea.
Genfest 2024, an international event promoted by the young people of the Focolare Movement, took place in Brazil in July and was attended by over 4,000 young people from all over the world. This event was divided into three phases.
In the first, the young people volunteered in some social projects in various countries of Latin America.
In the second phase the young people gathered together in the big arena of Aparecida to experience two days of celebration and sharing testimonies of life.
In phase three they then divided into small communities according to their professional experience to put into practice the ideal of unity and fraternity of Chiara Lubich.
Video in Italian. Activate subtitles for other languages
The whole Genfest experience – from ‘Phase 1’ to ‘Phase 3’ – is a tangible witness that you young people believe in, and indeed you are already working, to build a united world.
These were days of extraordinary graces for all of us; we put ”care” into practice in various ways:
– in Phase 1, through service to the poor, the marginalised, those who suffer most, and we have done this by living reciprocity, the typical way of living communion of the charism of the Focolare Movement;
– in Phase 2, in sharing life, experiences and cultural riches;
– and then, in Phase 3, we have experienced the extraordinary generativity of communities, which are also an intergenerational space for formation and projects.
Someone told me about the creativity that each community has developed and the interesting workshops in which you have participated (which you just told me about).
“From Genfest I take my community home with me,” one of you said, “it is something practical that continues. A chance to live the Genfest experience on a daily basis’.
You felt that you were protagonists in the construction of these communities, and you want to continue to “generate” ideas and projects. It has given me joy to know that some of you have said that you have rediscovered the meaning of your profession, and that you now want to live it in the name of a united world.
We have walked together during these days, with a style that Pope Francis would call ‘synodal’ and not only among you, young people, but with adults; with people from other movements and communities; with people from different Churches and Religions and people who do not identify with a religious belief. This network greatly enriched the Genfest!
The presence of some bishops who experienced Genfest together with us was also very beautiful.
Now Genfest does not end! But it continues in the United World Communities where we will remain connected both globally and locally
I am sure that when you arrive in your countries and cities, you will understand where you would like to get involved, according to your interests and your studies or your professions: in economics, intercultural dialogue, peace, health, in politics etc.
In these days you have had the experience of living these “communities” in “unity”; a reality that will continue. This will be your training ground in which you will learn and you will train to live fraternity.
When I was your age, I was very struck by an invitation Chiara Lubich made to everyone:
“If we are one, many will be one and the world will one day be able to see unity. And so? Establish cells of unity everywhere” (1) – perhaps Chiara, if she were alive today, would call these cells of unity, “United world communities” – she invited us to concentrate all our efforts in this.
That is why now, I would like to ask you something important: please, please do not miss this unique opportunity, it’s a unique opportunity that we have lived here. God has knocked on the door of the heart of each one of us, and is now calling you all to be protagonists and bearers of unity in the various spheres in which you are engaged.
Yesterday as I was leaving, someone stopped me, one of you who was here in the hall, and said I have to tell you something, please can I tell you something important. She said it was the first time she had participated in a Genfest and she didn’t know the Focolare Movement, and she said: “I want to tell you, you should do much more because this movement isn’t well known, you should do more but not as you have been doing up to now, you need to do more because this Movement, this idea of fraternity, needs to be known by many more young people.” So I asked her if she could help us and she wants to commit herself. But now I hope that all of us are committing ourselves to doing this.
Of course, as you heard before, it will not all be easy and we cannot deceive ourselves that difficulties will not come… but in this Genfest you yourselves have announced: ‘a God who is different, abandoned on the cross, you have said abandoned on the cross, all divine and all human, asking questions without answers’ and for this, a God who is close to all of us. It will be by embracing every suffering, our own or that of others, that we will find the strength to continue on this path.
So let us go forward together with a new hope, convinced more than ever that a path has now been mapped out.
And, something beautiful that the Chinese writer, Yutang Lin, says: “Hope is like a road through a field; there has never been a road, but when many people walk there, the road comes into existence”.
I think that in this Genfest, this road has begun to exist, So, let’s walk, and this road will be there in front of us.
So I greet everyone, have a wonderful time to those of you who will be attending the post-Genfest and safe travels to those returning home!
Ciao to everyone.
Margaret Karram
(1) Chiara Lubich, Conversazioni in collegamento telefonico, Città Nuova, 2019, p. 64.
The third phase of Genfest 2024, held in Aparecida, Brazil, included workshops organized by so-called United World Communities – meeting places where young people can share their talents and passions. These communities offer the opportunity to discover talented people, concrete forms of commitment and initiate actions and projects aimed at building a more united world, which seek to respond to the local and global challenges of today’s world; to activate processes of personal and collective change; and to grow fraternity and reciprocity in all dimensions of human life. An important feature of these communitites is that they are the fruits of work between people of different generations.
Continuing the experiences of the previous phases of Genfest, in this third phase the youth were able to participate in workshops in different areas, whose methodology was based on fraternity and dialogue, as a proof for projects and actions that can now be developed in the “glocal” sphere (local projects with a global perspective). Activities were held in the areas of economics and work, cross-culture and dialogue, spirituality and human rights, health and ecology, art and social engagement, education and research, communication and media, and active citizenship and politics. The teams responsible for running the workshops were composed of young people and professionals who worked intensively for months to organize these activities.
From now on, Communities will have a working method that consists of three steps: Learning, Acting, and Sharing. The first (to Learn) is an in-depth exploration and analysis of the most current themes and issues in each community, with the goal of identifying problems and presenting solutions. The next phase (Take Action) is the implementation of actions with primarily local impact, but with a global perspective. Finally, in the third phase (Sharing), it is proposed that the community promote spaces for ongoing exchange and dialogue between initiatives, with the aim of strengthening the global collaboration network. An application-the United World Communities WebApp, -has been created as a tool for sharing ideas, experiences and news, as well as promoting collaborative projects.
“God has visited everyone’s heart.”
Al termine della terza fase del Genfest, le Communities hanno presentato in modo creativo le loro impressioni e alcuni dei risultati delle attività svolte nei giorni precedenti. Da questo lavoro è nato il documento “The United World Community: One Family, One Common Home”, che sarà il contributo dei partecipanti del Genfest 2024 al “Summit of the Future” delle Nazioni Unite del prossimo settembre. Secondo i giovani che hanno presentato il testo, esso non è un documento conclusivo, ma vuole essere un “programma di vita e di lavoro” per le varie United World Communities, oltre che una testimonianza da presentare al “Summit of the Future”.
“With our communities we don’t want to make demands, formulate slogans or complain about political leaders,” the young people said. “Instead, we seek to name our common dreams, dreams of a united world. Personal and communal dreams, which will guide us in our activities in the coming years.” They concluded, “We hope that by living them, ‘together’ and step by step, they will become signs of hope for others.”
Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, also spoke at the conclusion of Genfest 2024. Jesús Morán said that although the experience of care has been the most lived experience in human history, it is not the one that has been reflected on the most.
This has begun to change, as was demonstrated at the Genfest, in which care emerged as a response to the need for human dignity. In this sense, he concluded, it is important that young people remain connected to this global network of generative communities.
Margaret Karram, for her part, said she has seen throughout the Genfest experience that young people have given tangible witness to their faith and are already in action to build a united world. Regarding Phase 3 in particular, she emphasized the richness of this experience because of its creativity, intergenerational and intercultural imprint, and the fact that, through the communities, there is a concrete possibility of living the same Genfest experience in one’s daily life. She concluded by calling on the young people to be the protagonists of these communities, the foundation of which is unity. “Please do not miss this unique opportunity that we are experiencing here: God has visited the heart of each of us and is now calling everyone to be protagonists and bearers of unity in the various areas in which they are involved”.
Luís Henrique Marques
WATCH VIDEO – Activating English subtitles
Beginning on July 19, 2024, the second phase of Genfest 2024, the event and the youth of the Focolare Movement, concluded its program on July 21, 2024 with the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Aparecida, in Aparecida (São Paulo), Brazil. The central event of Genfest, which for the first time had its international version on the Latin American continent, brought together about 4,000 participants from more than 50 countries and, from the beginning, was marked by contagious joy. In addition, thousands of people around the world followed part of the program via streaming.
With the theme “Together to Care,” the young people gathered at the “Father Vítor Coelho de Almeida Event Center” promoted an intense program that combined celebration, art, creativity and testimony, an expression of the conviction that building universal fraternity requires concrete initiatives to take care of life on the planet, especially in terms of caring for people in different conditions of vulnerability and nature, as Pope Francis insistently requested.
Opening Ceremony
At the inauguration, the young people were welcomed by the Archbishop of Aparecida, Msgr. Orlando Brandes; the apostolic nuncio to Brazil, Msgr. Giambattista Diquattro; the rector of the Aparecida Shrine, Father Eduardo Catalfo; and the president of the Focolare Movement, Margaret Karram, among the dignitaries present. Bishop Orlando Brandes read a message sent by Cardinal Piero Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, on behalf of Pope Francis. “We know how to react with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that is not limited to words,” was the message read. In her words of greeting to the youth, Margaret Karram emphasized that “together, our dreams will come true.” Afterwards, the youth were treated to a “Latin American party” with artistic performances typical of different countries. It was an explosion of joy that involved everyone.
Day 2
A time to find directions, or more precisely, paths, for a united world. This is how the second day of the second phase of Genfest 2024 began. On the one hand, young people from around the world told how they tried to build fraternal relationships in their environments. This was the case, for example, of Adelina, from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, who had to deal with the tragedy caused by the rains that hit her city in May 2024, and Joseph, from Sierra Leone, who was separated from his family as a child and recruited by militiamen fighting the African country’s government troops with acts of violence. Artistic moments drew attention to some major issues in the world today, such as ecology and citizenship, while so-called spark changers, specialists in different areas, offered the audience some brief reflections that could bring about change in the world.
Saturday’s program also included a “preview” of Genfest Phase 3: workshops were held on different themes, always with a view to “caring” for life in its different expressions. Finally, a journey around the world with stories of personal resilience or social action, but all that had fraternity as their motivation to “embrace humanity and initiate change.” The second day’s program was concluded on the Genfest stage which saw a number of young people from Turkey, Australia, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Italy and Colombia telling how they have faced or helped others cope with grief when it seems to take away the meaning of life. The presentations, however, were not limited to personal stories. A wide variety of social initiatives were also presented on stage, such as Rimarishun, a cross-cultural project in Ecuador. Also presenting from Brazil were the Amazon Project, Quilombo Rio dos Macacos di Salvador (Afro-descendant communities) and La Casa do Menor, whose choreography received a standing ovation.
Closing Ceremony
The program for the final day of the second phase of Genfest 2024 began by looking to the past to think about the future. Some of the projects launched at the last Genfest in 2018 were recalled and have already begun to bear fruit, even in the real sense, as in the case of planting trees in areas prone to degradation. Following the example of what was done in the last Genfest in Manila, Philippines, some projects were presented to be continued after these days.
The first project will start with the third phase of Genfest. These are the “United World Communities,” which will bring together young people-including those who could not attend the event in Aparecida-in groups by areas of knowledge, from economics to work, from politics to citizenship. Young people interested in the various areas will be able to sign up for these communities based on their “passion,” as the organizers put it.
An important tool for implementing these communities is the United World Project. Launched in 2012 at Genfest in Budapest, Hungary, it is in fact a program to spread fraternity on a large scale and bring together actions in this direction, making it possible to share experiences with many young people around the world.
Another action born of this Genfest, which was more immediate, is the launch of a questionnaire to collect proposals from young people for the “ Pact for the Future,” a manifesto that will be presented at the Summit of the Future, an international summit to be organized by the UN in September 2024.
Building international communities requires dialogue. Much of the session was devoted to this theme. Rabbi Silvina Chemen and a young Muslim leader, Israa Safieddine, shared how they try to build dialogue.
Fourteen young Latin Americans from six Christian churches presented Ikuméni, a workshop of ecumenical and interreligious best practices. These are all initiatives whose ultimate goal is peacebuilding, the theme to which the entire last part of the program was devoted.
Carlos Palma from Uruguay presented the Living Peace project. A video of Chiara Lubich reminded how peace can be built today: by living mutual love.
The young Genfest participants with flags from all countries finally paraded, calling for peace in every nation. At the end, Focolare Movement President Margaret Karram called on everyone to be peacemakers, breaking down barriers that divide people and taking the initiative to forgive: “Let this Genfest be a time to say yes to peace,” she concluded.
Luís Henrique Marques e Airam Lima Jr.
Foto: © Imprensa Genfest 2004 – CSC Audiovisivi
