“It is with great emotion that I find myself here, I feel as if I am enveloped by the spirit of our two founders, who strongly desired a fraternal bond between our two organizations.”

With these words, Maria Voce began her talk in Tokyo before the Buddhist members of Rissho Kosei-kai, who represented various communities of Tokyo and the surrounding area. Almost thirty years after the prophetic experience of Chiara Lubich, the current leader of the Focolare, who was invited by the President Niciko Niwano to appear before a large representation of the members of the Japanese Buddhist movement, Maria Voce confirmed with her presence and with her words the continuity of this with the experience of dialogue initiated by the two movements at the end of the 1970s.

Maria Voce retraced these years of profound friendship and reciprocal discoveries that lead members of the two movements to recognize one another, in all parts of the world, true brothers and sisters. Quoting Chiara Lubich, she affirmed, “We are of different religions, different nationalities, different cultures, yet there are common ties. They are not the effect of an effort or of a human project, but are the supernatural work of God, for a purpose that God conceived, and that to us is not completely known.” We assisted, in these decades, in the revealing of this plan, and the meeting today has signified the desire and the decision to continue in order to contribute to the realization of universal fraternity.

Maria Voce, emphasized it with strength and clarity, again and again, in the course of her talk. “In the taking up of the legacy of Chiara, I myself also felt profoundly this desire and commitment,” fully shared also by the president, Niciko Niwano, who, on the first anniversary of Chiara’s death, wrote, “I believe that, if the spirituality of love and of unity of Chiara, and that of the compassion and of the one vehicle of Nikkyo Niwano, are linked, it is really to give life to a power able to face the world. I want, therefore, that the bonds created between the Movement of the Focolare and the Rissho Kosei-kai be reinforced and be able to guide us together on the path of truth. I solemnly commit myself to all of you.”

“I fully share these words,” Maria Voce echoed. “The salvation of the world of tomorrow depends on people who bring to it a flow of love, not limited but universal. It is a walk that we are already making together, encouraging one another; and that it will bring us to a continual conversion of the heart, rendering us always more aware that – as Chiara always said to us – the more we love man the more we find God.”

In the afternoon, Maria Voce spent two hours with a group of eighty leaders of the youth section of the Buddhist movement, responding to their questions with direct language, clear and strong. It was clear in the course of the dialogue how fruitful the encounter and the collaboration between the young people of the two movements has been in these years.

by Roberto Catalano

Stories from life/2: “It was like attending the Hoza meetings.”

Only six months after I arrived in Italy, I enrolled in some courses in philosophy. It was a quite daring choice – considering my knowledge of Italian. When I moved from the study of philosophy to theology, my Italian had not improved much. Communicating and studying were a problem and this made me feel isolated.

During my third year in Italy – while still facing this problem – I went to Rocca di Papa and met Enzo Fondi and Natalia Dellapiccola. They were among Chiara’s first companions and were responsible for the Interfaith Dialogue Center of the Focolare Movement. Speaking with them and other members of the Center I felt at ease. I shared my concerns regarding my studies and my difficulty with the language. While doing so – in spite of my many grammatical errors – I realized I had been able to communicate how I really felt inside. This deeply heartened me.

That was when I met Donato Falmi - the director of the publishing house Città Nuova [Living City]. Donato had studied philosophy and theology, and had lived four years in Japan. He was the one who was really able to help me.

My Italian improved as we met weekly - even though Donato always spoke more than I. The  more we met, the more confident I became in expressing my thoughts in Italian. Donato not only  helped me with my grammar, but he really understood what I felt and thought. Every time we met I came home happy. Even my wife took notice of this. With Donato the negative thoughts I had  also disappeared.

Our weekly meetings were for me like attending a Risshō Kōsei-kai meeting called “Hoza”.  This is a meeting for our members where we try to reflect on our daily lives in the light of Buddha’s teachings from the Sūtra of Lotus. Of course, Donato did not explain the Buddhist doctrine to me. He spoke and lived as a Christian. I felt he loved me, though, as he had learned to do in Chiara’s  Movement and this enlightened and heartened me.

Taken from the presentation of the book “Incontrarsi nell’Amore. Una lettura cristiana di Nikkyo Niwano” [Love makes us meet. A Christian reading of Nikkyo Niwano] by Cinto Busquet, Rome December 2009