President of Focolare Movement to speak in St Anne’s

Friday May 18th 2012

Dr Maria Voce.Dr Maria Voce, President of the International Focolare Movement, will be speaking in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, on Thursday June 14.

Dr Voce, from Coscenza, Italy, is in Ireland to speak at the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.

The Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev John Mann, said her visit to Belfast for this Service of Prayerful Reflection would be ‘a wonderful chance for many people to hear a prophetic voice addressing the subject of what we understand by Communion.’

Dr Voce will speak on the subject ‘Building Communion through a Culture of Trust.’ Dean Mann said: “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.”

The Focolare Movement was founded in Italy during World War Two. With its focus on the two–sided coin of Jesus’s prayer for unity and his cry for abandonment on the cross, the Movement’s spirituality soon spread beyond Italy 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 the death of its founder, Chiara Lubich, in 2008. She has made dialogue and building relationships of trust a key priority of her Presidency.

During her visit to St Anne’s, Dr Voce will speak in Italian and her words will be translated. There will be a brief liturgy by the Cathedral and the Focolare.

The service begins at 5pm and is expected to last 45 minutes. All are welcome.

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