It was then the height of the cold war. From Russia, the Marxist Ideology was spreading throughout the world, moving towards Eastern Europe, to Latin America, and Asia. The legendary figure of Che Guevarra from Latin America was waging his revolution against the United States, while the Communists were taking over Eastern Europe. China, under Mao, and North Korea had embraced the communist doctrine.
Southeast Asia was not spared, for like dominoes, several countries were falling under the Communist onslaught, take Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. As a reaction to the communist threat, others embraced military rule, e.g., Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, Thailand and Burma. The Vietnam War was at its height, as peace-lovers were protesting US involvement in this war.
Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for the civil rights of Afro-Americans and Mandela struggling against apartheid in South Africa. Young people were actively protesting against oppressive structures. The Beatles symbolized the youthfulness of that era. There were many scientific advances in this period with Stephen Hawkins’s quest for the theory of everything, man’s mission to the moon and outer space, the internet breakthrough and the phenomenon of mass transport. The Gender Ideology was also on the rise.
It was against this background that the first Focolarinos came to the Philippines. Theirs was a quiet arrival at the Manila airport without any fanfare for Giovanna Vernuccio, Guido Mirti and some other focolarini. Giovanna recalls: “Due to a misunderstanding, nobody was on hand to welcome us at the airport. In that difficult situation, a gentleman whom we had met during the flight, with great kindness came forward to offer us a ride to our destination (Pius XII Center) in his car. That was our first impact with the Orient.”
What happened was that their contact person, Fr. Taschner, an SVD priest, who had already been preparing himself to fetch them, had been waiting for a telegram which did not reach him in time. Of course, we were back in the 60’s and there were no mobile phones, emails, Facebook, nor selfie pics and instagrams to announce our arrival or airport departures through social media.
The Pioneers
Cengia narrates: “Several years earlier, an SVD missionary priest, Fr. Taschner, had met the Focolare while in Europe. When he came to the Philippines he began to promote devotion to the Divine Word. And what better way to do this than to organize meetings around the Word of Life. To his pleasant surprise, he found the Filipino people quite receptive to the challenge of living the Gospel authentically as the Movement proposed. In a short span of time he was already printing thousands of copies of the “Word of Life” Gospel commentary with live experiences from many people. The Archbishop of Manila, the late Rufino Cardinal Santos, having witnessed the first concrete fruits of our spirituality in his diocese, desired to further its diffusion. His invitation and blessing were decisive factors in the opening of the Focolare centers here in the Philippines.”
The Focolarini immediately started to visit all the groups in contact with the spirituality through Fr. Taschner.
Landing in Manila on Tuesday, by the following Saturday, or four days later, they had already met three groups of people. Some of them eventually became the very first Focolare members in the Philippines. Fr. Taschner accompanied them wherever there was a meeting, at least for the first few months.
Cengia reveals what sustained them during those times: “Before the big challenging task awaiting us, we felt our limitations deeply. Yet the determination to do solely the will of God, above all by loving Jesus in all things which reminded us of his abandonment, was very strong. This love sustained our unity with Chiara, with the whole Movement and among ourselves. With strong faith in the Divine Providence, we tried to bear witness to our Ideal whenever the opportunity came up: in schools and parishes, in the homes of the rich and the barrios of the poor.”
Giovanna had a beautiful impression about the Filipino people: “There was such purity and simplicity in the people we met that one could not help but feel it immediately. Consumerism, for instance was unheard of then. I could see this in their capacity to bear suffering and tolerate difficulties. They exercised much prudence before acting and speaking, and in the art of waiting for the right moment. Sometimes I caught myself saying “how did this grace to be among the first to come here with this ideal fall upon me?”
The Splendor of Unity Shines
The Movement spread almost immediately and like a gentle breeze and in tiny ripples, it crossed over to Japan, Korea, Hongkong, and Taiwan, and to Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, India and even to Australia and Oceania. Dialogues opened up with Buddhists, Hindus and Moslems, as well as with people of other faiths and convictions in these past 50 years.
The Mariapolis Peace in Tagaytay with its School of Dialogue with Oriental Religions was then established in 1982, and today it offers various courses of formation in inter-religious dialogue. The Priests School for Asia in Mariapolis Peace,Tagaytay was also built in 1983 to contribute to the on-going formation of diocesan priests and seminarians in Asia in the light of the Spirituality of Unity, and hundreds of Asian priests and seminarians from all over Asia have already benefited from this program.
The Focolare’s Social Centers and development projects later spread all throughout the Philippine archipelago and in many countries of Asia. Several members of the Movement have spearheaded initiatives to introduce the Ideal of Unity in the fields of arts, politics, journalism, and economy, in education, engineering and architecture, as well as in other sciences. Chiara Lubich was able to make several trips to Asia, and in 1997 she received various honorary doctorates from several major universities like the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila (Sacred Theology), Fujen Catholic University in Taiwan (Sacred Theology), and St. John’s University in Thailand (Social Communications).
The influence of the Movement is immeasurable just as Giovanna once admitted: “We know more or less the number of persons actively involved in the Movement. However, many times we discover that there are many others, whom we know nothing about, who live the spirituality of Unity in daily life, especially the monthly Word of Life – in the simplicity of their homes and at their ordinary jobs. So its influence goes beyond the circle of friends we know about.” The spirituality of unity has indeed changed the lives of millions of people.
We can repeat in our own way what John the Evangelist wrote: “If they were all (all the facts) written down one by one, I suppose that the whole world could not contain all the books (about Jesus) that would have to be written.” However, let me add that it’s better that we start writing these books so as to fill the world with witnesses to that prayer of Jesus “So That All May be One” (JN 17:21) and thus contribute to make this unity shine even more as humanity is athirst for unity, and it longs to live in love and peace–as one family.
