Reaching out to Asia

   When Gio’ and Cengia left Rome on February 15, 1966, they were going to bring the Focolare spirituality not only to the Philippines, but also to the Asian continent. And in fact, even before reaching our shores, they had already visited 4 other countries.
   As soon as they had settled down in Manila, they started traveling again to other Asian countries. “In 1967 we made a trip to Japan,” Giò says, “and for us it was really like reaching the end of the world. We had our first encounter in Nagoya, where a Japanese priest had organized a meeting. From there we proceeded to Korea. Cristina Soon Young was then a young girl. She immediately wanted to be a focolarina. The same thing also happened in other places we visited.”
   It was certainly God at work, preparing the people even before they had come in contact with the Focolare. Stephen Lo, for instance, was born in the Chinese province of Guandong, and had migrated to Hong Kong as a young boy. “In 1968 I was 25 years old,” Stephen shares, “when I met Marilen Holzhauser, one of the first focolarinas, who had come from the Philippines to visit some people in Hong Kong. Until then I had not really deepened my Christian faith, or understood what the incarnation of Christ really meant. I thought it was enough to belong to some Catholic association and carry out some work of mercy.” For Stephen, that simple family meeting with one of the first companions of Chiara Lubich, was the first strong encounter with a life imbued with evangelical radicalness. He later became the first Chinese focolarino.

   The task to follow up the development of Focolare in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong from Manila had been entrusted to Marilen. She went back to Korea in 1968. Christina remembers clearly: “The meeting with Marilen was an enchantment, a perfume of paradise. I still remember the words of Marilen in a moment of suffering where I was learning to love Jesus Forsaken in a special way; she told me that I was fortunate because in Him one finds unity.”
   As the communities of the Movement in the Far East multiplied, the number of “specialists in unity” appeared inadequate to follow them all: the situation did not allow for the opening of new Focolare centers. In October 1969, returning to Italy for the meeting of the focolarinos responsible for the Movement, Marilen explained to Chiara and the others she met about the developments in Asia: she spoke warmly of the new friends, of committed groups, of the thirst of many people for Christianity. The thought of all those persons moved her and uncontrollable tears fell from her face. Chiara had everyone leave the room to talk alone with Marilen. We do not know what they said to one another, but we can guess the effect of those tears. In the following years, three Focolare centers were then opened in Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. Marilen would not go back to Asia, but will move to Africa where she continued to spread the ideal of unity in many nations of that continent until 1985 when she was diagnosed with a rare disease. She would pass away on March 21, 1986, leaving behind her a trail of love and light.

   Mariapolises were held for the first time in Korea in 1968, in Hong Kong in 1969, in Vietnam in 1974, and in Thailand in 1976. Australia was also added to the map, when in 1967 Rita Muccio, a focolarina working at the Italian cultural institute in New York, was asked to transfer to Melbourne. She informed Chiara, thinking that because there was no Focolare Center there, she had to refuse. But instead the answer was: “Why not? It could be the opportunity to start in Australia.” Rita was soon joined by Maddalena Cariolato and the fire of love started to spread.
   The people striving to live the ideal of unity needed support as the Focolare spirituality requires them to journey to God together. Focolare Centers were thus established in Korea (1969), Hong Kong (1970), Macau (1982), Japan (1976), Taiwan (1979), India (1980), Thailand (1981) Pakistan (1979), Singapore (1991), and the latest in Medang, Indonesia in 2003.
   This implied frequent changes for the focolarinos because of job possibilities, visas, and language difficulties. Very often, some of them, as in the case of Joseph (Rey) Hillenbrand, a German focolarino, were asked to just replace another focolarino who needed a short vacation. Rey went from Manila to Hong Kong, supposedly for three months. However, he found a job and remained there for more than 30 years!
Dionisio Cossar, instead, after some years in Manila, went to open the men Focolare Center in Korea, and then in Japan, learning first Korean and then Japanese! After 32 years in Asia he would go back to Rome in 2000, and now, together with Gio’, represents all Asian countries at the Focolare Central Coordinating Council.
   Cengia, after 26 years in the Philippines, returned to Italy in 1991. He was experiencing serious health problems. But one thing was never missing: the virtue of loving, of total self-giving. Charity had become a “habit” for him. “Love was second nature to him,” his physician said. He left for heaven on December 10, 1996, after long years of sufferings. Announcing his departure, Chiara said: “His smiling face will always be etched in my mind. He was a giant of personal and concrete charity who incarnated our ideal in an exceptional way…” In fact, countless people around Asia came to know and live the spirituality of unity because of Cengia’s personal love.

   For many years the Philippines, also because of Mariapolis Peace in Tagaytay, would continue, and still continues, to offer support and formation to the Focolare communities in Asia. Now other countries too like Pakistan, Thailand and Korea, are starting their own little towns. At the same time, after Manila (1966) and Tagaytay (1977), Focolare Centers were also set up in Cebu (1979), Davao (1987), San Fernando La Union (1997), Baguio (2001), Iloilo (2001).
   “I saw the movement grow in the Philippines and then the whole of Asia,” says Silvio Daneo, who transferred from Manila to Hong Kong, then to India, and later to Thailand. “But I don’t feel we have done anything extraordinary. We depend so much on the reality of Jesus among us, for he is the one who works conversions and it is impossible to think of someone of us being important. We have only collaborated with him, putting ourselves at his disposal, just like instruments in his hands.”