Welcome - Benvenuto - Wilkommen - Bienvenue - Welkom - Velkommen!
Last update: january 2nd,
2003
Motto for this week: Love even your enemy
in the present moment
Welcome to the alternative Focolare
website. This is the place on the web where you find independent information
about the Focolare Organization. Now we provide you with all the valuable
information and opinions that you cannot get from official pages. Note:
This is not the official Focolare website. The information on our
website reflects the personal views and opinions of the webmasters.
We thank everybody for the many encouraging
reactions to this website. If you know of any other critical website or
if you like to help us, please let us know.
le terrain pour construire la 21ème Mariapolis a été
acheté en France, à Bruyères le
Châtel au sud de Paris. un Groupe d'habitants ( NRNT! group ) milite
contre cette
installation et reçoit un important écho dans la population
et parmi les élus
News of the week.
A group of people in France have succesfully objected to a Focolare center coming to their town. Now the focolare is trying to find another place to build a enter in France. In Holland the focolare recieved a huge donation that enables them to start a center near the town of Heusden ('s-Hertogenbosch). They will however need even more money because the buildings are not good enough t live in. Soon they will start building dwellings on the premises of a beautiful old monastery.
Recently we recieved many e-mails, both from people who encourage us and also from people that are very angry with this website. Now it is possible to write your opinion in the guestbook, but we als like to put some more questions on this site. We like to hear a reaction from the official Focolare movement, but also from people who are members or ex-members of this organisation. The official Focolare leadership is especially invited to clarify their point of view. All reactions will be published.
Questions:
1. Why is there no democratic leaderhip in the focolare movement?
2. Why does the Focolare organisation keep all their financial dealings as secretly as possible?
3. Why do many Focolare people have expensive cars and beautiful houses?
4. Is it true that Focolare recrutes from people in vulnarable situations like young children and people who are having a difficult period in life?
Legal actions
In a recent verdict
the Dutch High Court has prevented a focolarino to recieve a tax-reduction.
The Court ruled that a member af the Focolare is bound to give all his
belongings and money to the Movement. This makes it impossible for him
to use the same money claiming it is a free gift and recieve a tax-deduction.
In our opinion this
case proves once again that money is a most important issue for the Focolare
people. Fortunately there are some officials yet who can see clearly what
is right and what is just too much. For those of you who want to know every
detail we put in the link:
Focolare-verdict
Further news:
In our last count
it turned out the international Focolare website has 800 web-pages now.
They are overwhelming the net as well as the real world, with more drive
than any international commercial company. It seems that those who run
the organization these days have gone a long way from the humble beginning
without a clear goal, like Chiara at the start of the movement, some 60
years ago.
Question of the week by Lionello from Florence, Italy:
| Could you tell me the difference between the focolare and opus dei? |
Answer: Opus Dei only wants to take charge of the Catholic Church while the people of the Focolare would also like to take charge of the rest of the world. As Chiara always reminded her followers of the Scripture: Blessed are the meek, for they shell inherit the earth. Focolare is working to put people in responsible positions within the Catholic Church like Cardinal Vik but also in the Italian political arena, in the economic field, at the United Nations through the cover of New Humanity.
News of week from Bill in Arkansas, USA:
Great news for people that gave money to the Focolare: A laywer in Arkansas is preparing legal action in order to retrieve some of the money that has been given away on the grounds that it was not used according to promisses by the Focolare. She is willing to assist other people in other countries, just send an e-mail to the adress below.
Friends from America informed us about a meeting they scheduled for next month. The topic will be how to recover from living for many years within a sect. It seems that many people have difficulties to adjust to a normal life because they forgot how to deal with their emotions and how to take responsibility for their own life. For information about the time and the place, please mail the adress below.
Visit the Focolare network Guestbook
Answers
to questionsHelpFocolare,
a sect?Financial
questions
A recommended book about Focolare, just click on the image
For nine years, Urquhart belonged to Focolare,
whose 80,000 core members live in 1,500
dioceses around the world. He left
in 1976 and has since devoted himself to exposing what he now calls the
"sinister characteristics" of the three aforementioned groups. Urquhart
summarizes their common features this way: "the personality cult of the
leader; a hidden but rigid hierarchy; a highly efficient internal communications
system; secret teachings revealed in stages; a vast recruitment operation
using sect-like techniques; indoctrination of members; and boundless ambitions
for influence in church and society." Of greatest concern to Urquhart is
another goal of these groups--"ego-destruction, causing depression and
mental breakdown on an alarming scale."
A must read book for every catholic
!, July 28, 2000
Reviewer: A reader from New York, NY,
USA
As Urquhart I was member of the Focolare Movement, for 11 years. The horror experiences and extreme manipulation of the focolarini and the thirst for power in Chiara is a really dangerous "carisma" inside the church, they are millions, there have money, they are all over the world ( in the poor village of brasil and africa and inside the congress of the United Nations, Italy, Brasil, Europe Union..., they want the world to be one... but under they control... The Focolare movement is probably the most dangerous structure inside our contemporary world.. as Chiara said "one day, the church (the Catholic church) will wake up and everything around and inside will be focolarini"