City Project is a path that, once embarked on, can only end in a united world’. It was with these words that Chiara Lubich (1920 – 2008), founder of the Focolare Movement, introduced and defined the City Project. At the end of the worldwide Familyfest event in 2005, she had, in fact, indicated, ‘After the family, the next step will be the city. And after the city will come the people and after the people, a united world’. The path she and her first companions set out on in Trent during the Second World War was that of rediscovering, whilst the falling bombs were destroying houses and people’s plans for the future, that there is an ideal that does not die or pass away.  That Ideal is God, who was announced in the Gospel. With this rediscovery, they chose to focus on the poor, of whom there were many, through whom they could ‘contribute towards solving the social problems in Trent’. From then to the present time, the ‘city’ has been a very important issue for Chiara and for the Movement. The holidays which they took together in the 1950’s in the Dolomites were given the name ‘ Mariapolis’, city of Mary, somewhere where people could live together according to a single law – reciprocal love. Today there are hundreds of Mariapolis’ held all around the world. There are even permanent Mariapolis’, the 34 ‘little towns’ of the Movement spread across the world, little cities that are open to anyone who wants to experience the Gospel lived in a community that is both civil and religious. Chiara was awarded 19 honorary citizenships in her lifetime, an expression of the privileged role assigned to the city by the Movement. In some of these cities genuine projects of ‘citizenship’, aimed at universal fraternity, have arisen as a result of this recognition: ‘Trento Ardente’, ‘Roma Amor’, ‘Praga d’Oro’, ‘Genova la Lanterna’, ‘Fontem Regale’.

The name given in 1956 to the Movement’s magazine, Città Nuova (New City) – which today has 37 editions in 22 languages – and to the publishing houses, anticipated the importance of the city in building a united world in the field of the media and culture,.

The rediscovery of the words of the Gospel, in the light of a collective spirituality, lived and passed on by the members of the Movement, has given rise to a way of life for both individuals and communities that is open to all, both laity and religious, a way to realize one’s own personal design and to building together a ‘civil society based on love’. In 2006 with this view in mind and with her gaze already turned towards City Project, Chiara said: ‘Through this, holiness will penetrate into society.’ (cf Rm, 7)

Today the Focolare Movement embraces more than two million people, spread throughout 182 nations, belonging to diverse cultures, ethnic groups, religions and traditions.

The Movement, thanks to the strength of its spirituality, is in dialogue with today’s world, a 360 degree dialogue, within the Catholic Church, with the various Christian denominations, with other religions and with people of other convictions. Its latest and most open expression is the dialogue with contemporary culture (from politics to economics, from sport to the media and from ecology to medicine).

Serving the City Project is the NGO, New Humanity, the expression of the Focolare Movement’s social and cultural commitment on an international level. Founded in 1987, New Humanity enjoys General Consultative Status with the Economic and Cultural Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC). Its headquarters are in Rome with two satellite offices in New York and Geneva.

Through New Humanity, individual and collective actions of the members of the Focolare Movement, seek to contribute to revitalizing the fabric of society by promoting initiatives and projects on local, regional and international levels as well as through conferences, training initiatives, seminars and publications.

In this section you will find some of the most frequently asked questions about the City Project with the corresponding answers.

Close All | Open All

Humanity today is called to respond to the challenge of globalisation, the challenge of different cultures, ethnic groups, religions and generations encountering but also clashing with one another, the economic challenges and those of social justice.

Seventy per cent of the population lives in cities. Cities, great and small, neighbourhoods and villages play a central role: they are scenes of the contrast between unrest and dialogue,  places where poverty and wealth increases, a place where identity and reciprocity meet.

There are many indications that facing up to these realities within the confines of the city represents an opportunity: in a defined space, we can tackle challenges from close up, together. And they can be tackled by sharing needs and resources, working with civil as well as religious authorities, with the contribution of all those who love their city and who want to be active citizens, committed to making them better and more welcoming places to live, thus transforming them into models of real fraternity.

City Project is a ‘journey’ that opens up a far-reaching dialogue between civil society and its institutions through the most varied social, cultural and political initiatives. Its objective is to help each one of us to discover our own unique contribution to the life of the community and to appreciate how, together, we can meet the needs of its inhabitants, helping to make the city a more beautiful and better place to live, involving the most diverse sectors of our society, opening it up to the world and giving it the spirit of universal fraternity.

City Project will come to life wherever people take up the challenge of putting love at the service of their own cities in order to make them places where fraternity is a living reality. It is a project set in motion, in the first instance, by people from the community of the Focolare Movement, founded by Chiara Lubich. More than just an event, City Project is a ‘work in progress’, made up of initiatives, achievements, ideas and creativity, and according to the characteristics of each community; a commitment to serve universal fraternity, beginning with the great and small issues that confront us each day.

United cities for a united world

The City Project is about rediscovering and valuing the role in today’s society of our cities, both great and small, metropolises and villages, and of their inhabitants. In the light of the challenges brought by globalisation, the city which symbolises both a place of encounter and a place of conflict, can be the testing ground for our willingness and capacity to build universal fraternity. Anyone who wants to actively participate in the project can do so by initiating a dialogue both within civil society and between civil society and its institutions.

The project

The context

At the origins of City Project

Who we are

FAq

In this section there are documents, press releases, news about special events. This section is invaluable to journalists and those in the media: here you will find all the information necessary for accreditation, to enable you to participate in events and to obtain material for producing articles and reports. Take a look at the next section media gallery.

What does living and working in the city mean in the age of the global village? Here is a series of contributions from scolars of various disciplines concerning the relationship between the city and fraternity in its many facets: from economics to sport, from politics to justice through to the communications media, and much more besides, all seen from the point of view of universal fraternity. Thought-provoking ideas, both great and small, to help individuals and communities to be aware of the heritage in which we are all immersed.

Here is a map where you can find City Project events near your city.