Launches "Africa 2000" Development Project
ROME, AUGUST 18 (ZENIT.org).- Rome's Flaminio Stadium was overflowing yesterday for GENFEST, organized by Youths for a United World of the Focolare Movement.
Chiara Lubich, founder of the Movement, attended the meeting, during which a message was read from Francesco Rutelli, mayor of Rome, who described the youths presently in Rome as "a river of love." "Perhaps you came to Rome to learn something, but we are the ones who have much to learn," he said.
The 25,000 participants were challenged by a Cameroon professor of African Culture, Martin Kafu, who said: "We often ask ourselves if one day we will be able to share our values along with other peoples of the earth." Thus, Professor Kafu expressed the suffering found behind the poverty and wars that lacerate that forgotten continent. He found the answer to his question in the model of development of his people, the Bangwa, who have overcome the risk of extinction with the help of the Focolares, and have reached a level of development that was unimaginable some years ago.
The multicultural public in the Flaminio Stadium heard about the "Africa 2000" project, which will apply the Bangwa's experience to other countries. The twinning with African countries was promoted, in order to know and appreciate cultural differences, as was the collection of funds for concrete projects, among which the reduction of the foreign debt was mentioned.
Another gripping moment of GENFEST was the music, choreography, and testimonies that placed the language of love and art against that of violence and war. Jean Bosco, from the Congo, recounted how over these war years he and his friends have become "human shields": "We stood in front of people they wanted to beat to death. We succeeded in saving many lives."
Nor were testimonies of sanctity lacking, such as that of Chiara Luce, an Italian who died at 18 from a tumor. When her pain increased at the end of her life, she refused to have morphine. "It takes away my lucidity, and only awake can I offer the pain to Jesus," she said. She prepared her funeral down to the last detail, which she regarded as her wedding feast. On the night of October 6, 1990, with little energy left, she said to her mother: "Mama, feel happy, because I am."
In her message, Chiara Lubich left youth with an appreciation of the radical dimension of love. "Let us love, dear youths, let us continue loving and the whole world will change. Let us love and collaborate in the building of love, which our planet hopes for, despite the tensions and thanks to current openings. Jesus wants the world to be invaded by love. 'I have come to bring fire on earth. Would that it was already kindled,' he said. Then, the idea of a united world, more united, for which many youths struggle today, who are also here, will cease being a utopia and become in time a great and consoling reality. The future time is in your hands: with God in the heart everything is possible, and God surely wants it. We will be, you will be, up to it!"
Zenit - The World Seen From Rome