President of the International Focolare Movement speaks in Belfast Cathedral
Dr Maria Voce, President of the International Focolare Movement, spoke in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, at a Service of Prayerful Reflection on Thursday 14 June 2012.
Dr Voce, from Coscenza, Italy, is in Ireland to speak at the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.
Through a translator, Dr Voce spoke on the subject, ‘Building Communion through a Culture of Trust’. Drawing on examples from across the world including Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, she said that, ‘Living the art of loving, especially love for each other, and recognizing and loving Jesus Forsaken in every suspicion, judgment, and difficulty that we find in our relationships, we can become men and women who know how to be trusting and so create communion.’
The Dean of Belfast, the Very Revd John Mann, said Dr Voce’s visit to St Anne’s was, ‘a wonderful chance for many people to hear a prophetic voice addressing the subject of what we understand by Communion’. He went on to say, ‘This in itself is indicative of not only The Focolare’s insistence on the core Christian desire for unity, but that that is found in its joy as much as its pain in the discovery that trust, risk in the offer of love, and abandonment into the hands of others on the pattern of our Lord is the way to progress through the self–imposed barriers that only too often surround us.’
About
The Focolare Movement was founded in Italy during the Second World War and is now present in 198 countries throughout the world. It has given rise to many social projects and relationships between people of different ethnic background, religion and conviction. Dr Voce has been the Movement’s President since 2008. She has made dialogue and building relationships of trust a key priority of her Presidency.
