Presentation of Loppiano

Concetta Bonfanti:

Good afternoon to everyone.

We are very happy to be here and to bring you the greetings of all the 900 inhabitants of the little town of Loppiano , from more than 70 nations.
Some of you may have already visited Loppiano…. We would like to give you, very briefly, the deepest reality that we live every day: we would like to bring you to Loppiano, into our focolares and families, into the various schools… we will do so also through a brief video, but above all, we would like to immerse ourselves in that particular “atmosphere” of the Mariapolis, this permanent Mariapolis.
How did Loppiano start?
I will briefly mention Chiara’s initial inspiration.
During the 1950s, the members of the Movement would meet in the Dolomite mountains every summer to spend a different kind of vacation together. More and more people came, and although it was a period of rest and recreation, they were all committed to living only one law: mutual love. It was the admission ticket, so to speak, to the Mariapolis (as we eventually called it).
The people who came were of all ages and social backgrounds, of various nations and languages. Thus that community appeared like the formation of a temporary city. The fruits of this “city of Mary ” became so abundant and evident that we wanted it to become a permanent reality.

A few years later, in the summer of 1962, Chiara went to Switzerland . Looking down over the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln, the incarnation of St. Benedict’s ideal, she had the idea and hope that also our communitarian spirituality, centered on unity, could one day express its specific characteristics in all the elements of a modern little town: houses, schools, shops, workplaces, businesses. People of all vocations living together.
A town where the law of all the inhabitants – as it was in the Mariapolis gatherings in the Dolomites – would be Jesus’ commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
That idea was concretized in 1964 at Loppiano, a region near Florence , on a vast piece of land put at our disposal by Eletto Folonari, a focolarino who left for heaven that same year. Afterwards, similar little towns rose up in other parts of the world.

Throughout these years, Chiara has given various names to Loppiano in view of its many different aspects. In particular, we can define it as the little town of the Gospel: because one comes here to be re-evangelized and consequently to re-evangelize.
The primary task of Loppiano is to form its members, to form new men and women in living the culture of giving in every aspect of life. In fact, we practice, as in a training ground, living out every word of the Gospel and we also share our experiences in this regard.
In this sense, everything is school.

Loppiano also bears witness to the Gospel: to what the world would be like if everyone lived the Gospel.
It is also a city of dialogue: in fact, it proves that, through the dialogues that the post-conciliar Church opened, it is possible to throw bridges out towards brothers and sisters of various Churches, towards the faithful of other religions, towards non-believers of good-will.
All the inhabitants are involved in this training so as to prepare themselves, once they return to their countries, to bring about an evangelical revolution and to build everywhere the civilization of love.
The characteristic of Loppiano is therefore that of being a city of life.
Now we will see a ten-minute video, which was prepared in 2004 on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the little town: they are flashes which range from Chiara’s initial inspiration to Loppiano today.

Franz Kiessling:

I would like to briefly present the schools of formation that have begun in Loppiano through the years.
Currently there are twelve schools and depending on the possibilities of the participants, the courses range from three months to two years.
The common denomination among them all is that they take in every aspect of life, as Concetta and the video already mentioned. There are studies, work, living together, naturally in different forms, according to the calling of each participant.

The largest schools are those of the focolarine and the focolarini, who give themselves completely to God and who are committed to always keeping alive in their respective women’s and men’s focolares, the presence of Jesus in their midst.
There are two other schools for those who want to know more about this vocation.
Then there is the Loreto school in which families from around the world come to be formed in the life of unity and to be able then, once their return to the nations, to help many other families.
For years now there is also the Claritas school for men religious and more recently, the Emmaus school for women religious. In the light of the charism of unity, they discover and rediscover in the communion of the charisms of their founders, the wealth and beauty of the various religious families.
Then there are the schools for the men and women volunteers, that is, lay people committed to living Christianity in the most varied environments (often in desperate environments) which they seek to renew through the Gospel.
For the young people there are the two Gen schools. The Gen are the second generation of the Focolare Movement who live the Ideal of unity. Together with other young people, they want to contribute to building a united world.
Finally, I must mention the school for priests and seminarians, many of whom are present here today.
All together we are – as we heard at the end of the video – a living portion of the people of God where each one, with his or her characteristics, culture and calling, is a gift for the others and in turn is enriched by them: an experience of Church-communion, of Church-family: brothers and sisters because of the presence of Jesus in our midst.